Why should I think differently of the Russian military? Ever read about the "dedovshchina" ("grandfathering") of recruits in the Russian Army, the ubiquity of torture and and other brutish treatment of recruits by their seniors to "break them in"? No? I suggest you do.

Mark Galeotti, Putin's Wars: From Chechnya to Ukraine (2022)

(Titled as a history of the wars it's far more a history of the Russian Armed Forces since 2000. An awful read.)