53 weeks for REME. I’m totally out of the loop. My course which was the longest at the time was nearly 14 months. Followed by a class 1
Course of 8 months 2-3 years after basic.
But then my trade has gone to be replaced by a generic Electronics trade I believe.
Just read your post again. If they’re receiving 1 weeks training then Putin is basically condemning those poor souls. They’re going into battle against an already battle proven and highly motivated adversary.
so, so sad and a waste.
I'm generalising out of necessity. Phase 3 specialist training may bring it up to something that you're familiar with mate.
The whole thing is becoming more bizarre as time goes on. If that were possible.
If you read about the German siege of Moscow. Stalin did exactly what Putin is doing
now. Except that in WW2, Russia only had a rifle for every several men. So, you all
advanced into the enemy and picked up a rifle when the man in front of you was shot
and/or killed. Behind each advancing Russian small unit, were NKVD troops (think MPs) with
squad served machine guns. If you turned and attempted to run away, the NKVD troops
were there to cut you down. And they did. To tens of thousands in different battles.
Those conscripts also only received a week's training if they were lucky and a uniform and
boots if they had something to trade. In many cases old bloody uniforms were stripped
from the dead and issued to new recruits.
I can see Putin resorting to the same tactics, because once these one week conscripts
face the first artillery / mortar prep and then infantry attack, they will run. No question.
Mothers of conscripts have been protesting for months in small groups here and there.
I suspect and Putin must be worried that their protests will grow and the phone clips of
mothers being beaten and arrested by Putin's riot police, will bring others out onto the
streets. If that keeps escalating. That may be one end game.
I travelled through various Eastern Bloc countries during the Cold War, but never Russia.
So, I just don't know the psyche enough to understand what pushes their buttons most.
I know, because of history, that your average Russian will defend The Motherland (Rodina)
to the death, which is maybe why Putin initially claimed that Ukraine attacked Russia.
I imagine that that fiction must have long unravelled by now. But how quickly that might
translate into general civil disobedience, I have no idea.
To echo more historical events. It was reported on CNN that Putin is now directing the war
himself, just the same as Stalin and Hitler did and as most dictators eventually tend to do.
So, the rift between Putin and his Generals must be a chasm. If it wasn't already.
This shows that Putin is content to rely only on his power base within the FSB / security
services to control the country. High stakes poker.