In the first years of Vladimir Putin's term as Russian president, the Russian army was weakened, and now it is a powerful military force that the rest of the world fears, writes The New York Times.

He used to fight to maintain submarines in the Arctic and to overcome the insurgency in Chechnya. Senior officers used to live in moldy apartments full of rats. And instead of socks, poorly equipped soldiers often wrapped their legs in rags as did their predecessors, the Soviets and the Empire's soldiers.

Two decades later, the Russian army presented a completely different fighting force. Under Vladimir Putin, it has been transformed into a modern, sophisticated army capable of deploying quickly and with deadly effects in conventional conflicts, military analysts say. It has precision guided weapons, a newly regulated command structure and well-fed and professional soldiers. All this with the support of the nuclear weapons they have in their arsenal, reports The New York Times.

The modernized military has emerged as a key weapon in Putin's foreign policy: the occupation of Crimea, the intervention in Syria, the maintenance of peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and the support of a Russian-friendly leader in Kazakhstan. He is now in the midst of his most ambitious and notorious operation to date: using threats and potential force to bring Ukraine back into Moscow's sphere of influence.

"The mobility of the army, its readiness and its equipment are what allow Russia to put pressure on Ukraine and the West," said a Russian security analyst.

"Nuclear weapons are not enough," he added.

That's Putin's biggest role - to use the military to bring Russia back to the center of the global stage, which it lost at the end of the Cold War. Putin has been using this doctrine since 2018, when he used his annual State of the Nation speech to discover a new nuclear weapon that can fly 20 times faster than sound.

T-72B3 tanks on the border with Ukraine have a new thermal optical system for night combat, as well as guided missiles with twice the range of other tanks, according to military experts
Caliber cruise missiles deployed on ships and submarines in the Black Sea and Iskander-M missiles deployed along the border can hit targets almost anywhere in Ukraine, they said.

In the last decade, the Russian Air Force has procured more than 1.000 new aircraft, according to an article by Alexei Krivoruchko, Deputy Defense Minister for 2020. This includes the country's most advanced fighter, the SU-35C, and a squadron of these units has been deployed in Belarus ahead of joint military exercises next month.

The new capabilities were evident in Russia's 2015 intervention in Syria. Not only were they effective, but some of the US military found themselves unprepared.

Russia has used the war in Syria, experts say, as a laboratory to improve tactics and weapons and gain combat experience for most of its forces.

More responsibilities are delegated to lower-level officers, a degree of autonomy that is at odds with the structure of civilian government in the Putin era. Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said last month that all ground commanders, 92 percent of air force pilots and 62 percent of the navy had combat experience.

For all its achievements in recent years, the Russian military has retained the critical weakness of its Soviet predecessor: the civilian side of the country's economy, with almost no high-tech production and corporate investment in research and development. Military spending accounts for a much higher percentage of gross domestic product than in most European countries
When the Ukrainian military shot down Russian reconnaissance drones, for example, it discovered electronics and engines purchased from drone companies in Western Europe, according to a report released by Conflict Armament Research, a UK-based weapons monitoring company.

Analysts say Russia has several new weapons systems that have been created entirely from scratch. Much of their modernization consists of renovated older equipment.

Russia's electronic warfare devices, which can be used to intercept or intercept enemy communications and shoot down drones from the ground, are now believed to be far better than the US military, analysts say.

The Kremlin's rhetoric increasingly portrays Russia as locked in an existential conflict with the West. The investment in the army was accompanied by the militarization of Russian society under Putin, the strengthening of the concept of a homeland surrounded by enemies, and the possibility of impending war.

All these events, analysts say, make it harder for the West to stop Putin if he decides to invade Ukraine.