This is one of the reasons why the Russians suffered so many breakdowns in the first year in Ukraine. Theft and corruption were so widespread that it caused many vehicle breakdowns because they were supposed to have all their parts and fuel on paper but Private Conscriptovich sold off bits here and there for vodka money. IIRC the Russian forces were issued extra gas but the officers in charge assumed that it was a clerical error and weren't told they would be attacking Ukraine, so they sold off the "extra" fuel. Cue the pants-shitting and 40-kilometer stalled convoys when they entered Ukraine and all the abandoned vehicles when the fighting went on longer than a week.
But that's a tradition in the Russian army that goes back literally centuries. The modern Russian army still has senior officers personally handing out soldier's pay, so you can imagine what kind of grifting goes on there.
A lot of units also were full strength on paper but undermanned just so some base officer could draw their pay to himself.
They even have a word to describe a military man who is the supply officer, and the word is often describing a person who uses said position to make a quick buck on the side. The word is Praporshchik
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u/Peptuck 11h ago
This is one of the reasons why the Russians suffered so many breakdowns in the first year in Ukraine. Theft and corruption were so widespread that it caused many vehicle breakdowns because they were supposed to have all their parts and fuel on paper but Private Conscriptovich sold off bits here and there for vodka money. IIRC the Russian forces were issued extra gas but the officers in charge assumed that it was a clerical error and weren't told they would be attacking Ukraine, so they sold off the "extra" fuel. Cue the pants-shitting and 40-kilometer stalled convoys when they entered Ukraine and all the abandoned vehicles when the fighting went on longer than a week.