Putin signed a law in August creating a new required course in “Fundamentals of Security and Defense of the Motherland.”
In July, the defense ministry approved high school-age lessons on how to operate assault rifles, combat drones and hand grenades. They will be introduced across Russia next year.
Barbieri believes the drone lessons are in response to Ukraine’s extensive use of drones to disrupt and damage Russian locations.
At younger ages, children as young as seven are learning how to assemble machine guns.
Russia still away from that. The purpose is, I think, to make training quicker once they are technically adults. If they kinda know how to operate these things, that cuts down on training time. Actually sending actual children to the front will not come that soon, because It’s… a very unpopular and desperate move. There are less unpopular and desperate moves before that.
I’d agree it’s Putin settling Russia in for a long war so training a teenager shortens the time from (adult) conscription to hitting the front.