All of that was during the Soviet and post-Soviet 90s piss-poor days.

Whatever your living sources were probably aren't reliable or relevant anymore.

And despite these drawbacks, that doesn't mean the Russian/Soviet military was terrible. I obviously can't tell you about the experiences and the training, but anyone with knowledge of this can tell you for sure that Russia was and still is one of the top producers/innovators of military hardware. We all know how well loved the T-34/85 and T-72s, and other Russian tanks, planes, etc. are in various countries. Russians in WW2 mastered military deception, Maskirovka, : concealing troops and tanks in forests, baiting Germans to send supplies and spies, etc. to an imaginary German guerilla group (a semi notable instance, can't remember what it's called htough), to even Polite people showing up according to some Western sources.

And besides they did win WW2 (with a lot of help and some luck) but nonetheless lendlease and the winter can only get you so far imo.