Opinion by Max Boot: All of the Russian military’s manifold deficiencies have been brutally exposed during its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.
The Economist ascribed these pathologies to the “inadequacy of despotic power.” It noted that “cheating, bribery, peculation pervade the whole tribe of officials,” that “there seems to be no conscience, and not much concealment, about it,” and that “regard for truth or integrity has no part in the Russian character.”A modern reader would bridle at the assumption that there was an immutable Russian “national character,” but the rest of the Economist’s analysis remains relevant.
The Ukrainian army, an outgrowth of the Red Army, was initially hobbled by many of the same difficulties as the Russians, but after 2014, the Ukrainian military and state reformed themselves along Western, democratic lines.
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