re: Is Russia military the most underperforming military?

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I suppose that if your thread/point is that the Russians value human life less than we do

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His point is that the Russian military underperforms. And I can’t argue.

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What was the last decisive American victory?

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Iraq.

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My favorite example of Russian military incompetence comes from the 1904 Russo-Japanese war, when the Russian Navy fired on British fishing trawlers in the English Channel, thinking they were Japanese torpedo boats.

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It didn't stop there. This is probably my favorite military campaign of all time from a comedic standpoint.

Three days after leaving port, they had already damaged several of their own coal ships by ramming them. Then, as mentioned, after being warned that Japanese torpedo boats might somehow be operating near Britain, they encountered a group of illuminated English fishing trawlers in the North Sea and opened fire. They sank one, damaged several others, killed two fishermen, wounded several more, and also managed to shoot their own cruiser. The nonexistent Japanese torpedo fleet escaped without casualties.

They then sailed away without helping the survivors and nearly brought the world’s dominant naval power into the war against them before they had even reached the Atlantic.

They managed to hook a telegraph cable at Tangier and, rather than take the time to free it, cut it, disconnecting the city from Europe. They continued to ram their own support ships while coaling. Because the fleet had nowhere to refuel, coal was stacked in cabins, passageways, gun decks, and toilets, making the ships slower, dirtier, top-heavy, and destroying the lungs of the crew. At one point, they missed the whole-arse continent of Africa and had to send a destroyer looking for a lighthouse so they could figure out where they were.

During gunnery practice, the admiral’s flagship recorded only one hit: the bridge of the ship towing the target.

At one point, a long-anticipated mail ship appeared carrying what the sailors hoped was mail from home. It contained the letters they themselves had previously mailed.

When they finally reached Madagascar, they learned that Port Arthur had already fallen and the fleet they were supposed to rescue had been destroyed. At this point, the mission had no purpose, so naturally Russia ordered them to continue and wait for reinforcements consisting largely of obsolete ships their own admiral had already rejected as unsuitable.

After seven months of incompetence, the exhausted, fouled, slow-moving fleet finally approached the Tsushima Strait, hoping to slip through undetected. Then one of its hospital ships inexplicably sailed in with its lights blazing, effectively announcing the fleet’s position to the Japanese like a floating porch light. The Japanese Navy, rested, faster, better trained, and already combat-experienced, followed the illuminated invitation and destroyed or captured almost the entire force, performing the maritime equivalent of taking a confused elderly driver’s keys away.

I would invite everyone to read up on this mission. It’s both tragic and one of the funniest things you’ll ever read.

It probably doesn't help that with every regime change you imprison or execute all the senior military leadership

Russia is good at playing defense, offense not so much

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I’ll never understand why Japan attacked the U.S. instead of simply hitting Russia from the other side when their “ally” Germany started Operation Barbarossa. They could have carved up Russia and met in Central Asia, giving both of them plenty of oil and a shared border.

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Japan originally had its eye on the resources of Siberia and had a simmering border conflict with Russia in Manchuria starting in 1932. It boiled over into a shooting war in 1939 and Japan got its arse kicked. After that Japan turned its attention to the islands of the Pacific.

The Russian commander? Georgi Zhukov. Stalin's purge largely spared commanders in the Far East. Out of sight, our of mind.

Russia was also a major backer of China in its war with Japan. This was before Mao was a factor. Russia supported the Chinese nationalists with materiel and advisors. Fun fact: The inspiration for the Flying Tigers came from Soviet "volunteers" already flying in the Chinese air force

ETA to directly address your question, Russia had a spy in Tokyo, Richard Sorge, masquerading as a German newspaper reporter. He was close to many Japanese military and civilian leaders. Sorge was able to alert his handlers that Japan had no intention of opening a second front against Russia based on its disastrous 1939 experience. Stalin was skeptical at first at first but eventually believed him and shifted reserves from. Siberia, enabling the winter counteroffensive of 1941-42