"shot back at them in a friendly manner" sounds funny

What? You never done bro shots? Dick Cheney used to be so good at this.

"I don't even have an assault rifle."

What unbearable and tragic idiocy is this? Are they as out of their minds as their Führer is?

It's a tradition in the Russian army:

Bushnell vaguely recalled a game called “cuckoo” in which officers turned off the lights, hid behind couches and chairs, and took potshots at one another when someone yelled “cuckoo.”

When the leaders treat the soldiers like their lives don't matter, it's only a matter of time before they start to believe the same thing themselves.

My god, what an abysmal society they create when they abuse and compel their best and brightest to flee their own nation.