Democracies are better at war because they don't need to coup-proof their armies. In authoritarian regimes, army is always a threat. Secret police, which often

Democracies are better at war because they don't need to coup-proof their armies. In authoritarian regimes, army is always a threat. Secret police, which often is a controlling force in the regime, doesn't trust the army, neutralises talented generals and doesn't give officers on the ground authority to act autonomously. Sky-high levels of corruption and outright theft are also crippling the military capability. There's an excellent Russian historian and blogger Kamil Galeev, whom I've known long before he started a twitter account, and his threads on Russia's internal affairs are 100% legit. (Source: I'm born in Moscow, lived in Russia most of my adult life and have been somewhat active as a political activist, as have two previous generations of my family). His threads are very instructive if you want to understand what's actually going on: https://twitter.com/kamilkazani/status/1498377757536968711 https://twitter.com/kamilkazani/status/1498377757536968711