Russia - threadbanned users in OP

That certainly wasn't the case not so long ago, at least in my I grant you limited experience. It's much more a new thing. The nazi thing is even more ridiculous as Mother Russia has her fair share of neo nazi and far right groups. Even Moscow's poster boys for nazis the Azoz had it's genesis in a bunch called Section 82, or something like that, a neo nazi group allied to the Moscow Spartak FC Ultras a Russian neo nazi group that masqueraded as football supporters. Far Right nationalists are not too hard to find in that neck of the woods.

The master race stuff in general when it comes to Russian, and something their autocrat promotes is IMHO more of an insecurity than anything. Their history is framed as being one of victims, attacked from outside 'foreign" forces and the plucky Russians defended their land and pushed them back. The fear of the outsider and the outsider's culture and deviat influence is strong. WW2 reinforced that and propaganda around that terrible event is and has been pushed heavily to the generations since. Well a fearful people are a more controllable people(I have had two Russians tell me Chernobyl was a CIA plot..). A technique used by autocrats even otherwise democratic governments the world over. QV the Reds under the bed paranoia in 1950's America.

Earlier in the thread somebody expanded more on this Russian arrogance thing and how they were all **** and my initial reaction was WTF? The more I thought on it the majority of Russians I've known have been women. All but one were perfectly pleasant people. When I think of the handful of Russian men I've met, yeah there was more of the arrogance thing alright. One guy was sound as a pound, another was fairly OK if mad as a march hare, the other two, were yeah arrogant. However, again I found that just below the surface it was a faux arrogance based on insecurity.

No war since WW2 has any country received modern western weapons for free.

There have been quite a few examples of "free modern weapons" from both the US and the USSR as it was. Pretty much every proxy war between the two superpowers had that going on. In the Korean war where do you think the North Koreans got their Migs? In the various proxy wars in South America the Soviets gave guns to their guys, the Americans gave guns to theirs. After the Russian invasion of Afghanistan the Afghanis got anti tank and anti aircraft missles from the Americans. The AK47 is the most common assault rifle on the planet for a reason. The Russians were shipping them out like Smarties to any group they saw as friends. Sometimes for hard currency, just as often for free. RPG7's are anothe very common weapon out there.

I'd reckon better than in places like Iraq and Afghanistan. Ukraine, outside of the cities is more like a "proper" army against army war. The Americans ability to apply force at a distance is unmatched. As are their logistics. Air superiority would be a given within days. Their comms would be secure. Their intel and battlefield oversight would be scarily high. The skies would be thick with drones blasting anything bigger than a shotgun. Their special forces would go in from day one and secure the infrastructure they wanted for themselves. Ukrainian AA and radar and comms would be targeted right off the bat. They've be blind and deaf within 24 hours. That's before the main thrust of tanks and boots would cross the border. Yes they would take casualities, no doubt about that, and like anyone would find it very difficult to hold the land long term, but I would be surprised if they wouldn't have secured Kyiv by now and what was left of Ukraine's forces would be down to foot soldiers.