>>...Carrot shortage in the Russian army

>>...

>>...the RF army in its wisdom has canceled wound payments and benefits for soldiers hit in battle

I'm guessing that the wound payments were the 'carrot' that's now in shortage...?

I've read elsewhere that one of the ways RF soldiers 'work' the system is to get some kind of minor leg wound, get paid, be invalided out. Shades of Soviet Russia, where everyone had an angle to work around the system. Pretty clear that stopping the payments is going to make recruitment even more difficult, although one really has to wonder about the quality of troops in it for wound payments. I'd have to guess that this is one of the things locking the RF to a hierarchical military structure with no decision making at what we in the West would consider to be 'Sergeant' level. Gotta say, this is more reminiscent of the 30 years war than WWI (where RF strategy seems to be stuck).