Modernization of the Russian Army

Putin’s state-controlled media has spent the last 14 years telling the world how formidable the Russian army has become since his 2008 reforms. Under Putin, a new structure—with 160 smaller, more nimble, self-sustaining brigades—means that the military can be more quickly deployed, and in more effective combat configurations. The number of professional soldiers was reduced to a more focused one million men. On paper and on TV, it had become a hardened, highly trained, and superbly equipped fighting force, ready to meet any need of the Rodina.

Military experts around the world were fascinated to see how it would fare in actual fighting conditions. Ukraine was looking more and more like being the New Russian Army’s first combat deployment since Crimea.