Four hours later, Sergei reported with his clean rifle and was promoted to Lieutenant.
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....2f45375afb.jpg

Where I am I was trained with the real ones, signed one upon arrival to the forces. Never heard of dummy personal weapons though. To my understanding the Russians are providing the weapons on day 1 and sending the troops to training with their personal weapons. If they only have two weeks of training they wouldn't have enough dummies nor time to practice with them. Reason is very smple: The Russian conscript system is used to push 120000 rather poorly trained (by western standards) conscripts through the system annually, now they are intendng to push 300k - 1M mobilized men through the system in mere weeks...
they've obviously opened the cold war era wartime stocks for this. Meaning old and obsolete everything that no one has taken care of, including the doctrine.

Dummy training rifles were issued upon request for additional volunteer PT training, you could keep them in barracks unlike real firearms. They were generically called blue guns even tho there was red options. There was steyr AUG, EF-88 and M4 commando

we kept the real ones at the barracks with us, although in locked racks while not in service to avoid Private Pyle moments. One had to know the exact location of ones personal issued weapon at all times.

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....32a2921d0.jpeg

Putin is now in full downfall mode: the New York Times reports that the Russian dictator is directing military operations personally and has rejected repeated requests from commanders to save Russian lives by withdrawing from Kherson to the left bank of the Dnipro River

I'd hate to be a Russian mobilized troop. Not many of them will return home alive.

Hearing stories from a few friends (one is married to a Chinese) and whispers coming from their families out there in messages that there's lots of military activity in and around Bejing, so......there could be some legs in this story?

There's stories of 6000 flights being suddenly cancelled in China too, plus rail journey suspensions.

The videos and tweets of the Russian Police and the Enlistment Commissars forcing men into trucks and buses is reminiscent of the rounding up of undesirables in the late 30s and early 40s around Europe.
History will judge these weak willed individuals as co-conspirators in the deaths of tens of thousands of their countrymen, there will be no defence of "I was just following orders," as the guards used at Belsen, Auschwitz and Treblinka.

Many of these men will be massacred before they get anywhere near the front line.
While I do not feel remorse for them, I feel like I am watching a deeply disturbing part of history in the making that I had hoped Europe had moved away from.
Will future generations look at the posts on these pages and wonder if we too have become desensitised to yet again death on an industrial scale?

I think we had all hoped that, but sadly it only needs one deranged and corrupt megalomanic to reverse all the progress made since WW2. Sadly, post-Soviet dogma persists, preventing Russia taking a proper place in the community of Nations. And the same applies to China, of course.

The start of the disintegration of the Russian Federation?

Kadyrov now has sizeable forces loyal only to him - as recently shown - and what has Putin left to suppress any uprisings or cecessions?

And in Chechnya, and elsewhere, memories run deep.

As recently stated Russia’s entire southern flank is now afire.

Bring popcorn….

Ramzan Kadyrov just refusing to launch the mobilization in Chechnya …

GeeRam, Flight Radar24 is showing normal flights over China at 21.37 Beijing time. A bit slow for a Saturday but not down by 6,000.

No further inferences

Probably the best motivational speaker I've heard.

This lot have been standing about to long… go get them boys and girls.

I have a theory about the mobilisation, but I hope I am wrong.

During WW2 Russia used to calculate German firepower and times that by the time to cross the ground then throw in that number of troops plus more, so no matter what was fired at them they could not kill them all. That probably is the fate they await, advance at all costs.

I have been keeping my powder dry on this after my initial post but I am also hearing lots of independent evidence that gives the rumour credibility - without being able to 100% confirm it.

Aviation content:

"A Russian SU-30 on fire after being hit by Ukrainian manpads. It crashed along with another Russian SU-25. 24.09.2022. Southern Ukraine."

https://www.reddit.com/r/CombatFoota...eb2x&context=3

Im still wondering why Belorussia is also so quiet..very odd given their previous election issues

Glad to hear you are OK, please be careful. :)

Bulgakov sacked
 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63021117
The blamegame is underway

Funny you should mention Belarus....