Russians are a puzzle. They and their nation are arguably the only peer, or anything close, that our nation has had since the end of WW2. Culturally, we're not that far apart - ballet, literature, Olympics competition. Some ancestral common ground as well with the Nordic component (probably much larger than any of the other shared ancestries). I don't mention that from any sort of Aryan pride, just that it's a different dynamic than with say, Iran where there is very little common ancestry unless you go back 50,000 years.
Some Russian hardware is rough but some is very effective. The AK47 is far better than our weapons, best I can gather, at least for the purpose of dependable function. We used (still maybe, I forget?) their lift rockets to get into space. Crude but effective. Probably uses less energy than the shuttle, not sure though.
Having said that, they can be pretty thick headed. Some kid was recently beaten by police so bad his genitals had to be amputated. I read of the same thing in a Russian military hazing incident.
And all that usable hardware sitting in a field for years. Those helicopters look like death traps at this point, but what do I know? Spare parts?
