In 2023/13 I had the opportunity of observing and working with the marine forces of several nations, Russian Spetsnaz, the Royal Marines, Dutch Marines and Royal Danish Marines, and the French marine service. All had their different characters, but the Spetsnaz were like enthusiastic and doubtless courageous boys compared to thoroughly professional men in the Royal Marines and those of the Netherlands, Denmark, and France. Those men knew their job and went about it with a quiet confidence and complete competence. It was inspiring. The Spetsnaz were rather macho and upfront, they put on a display designed to impress, which ended with them breaking bottles on their own foreheads. It was hard not to be amused, we were impressed, but not quite in the way intended.

This attitude and training may lie behind their lack of success in real WAR in the Ukraine.