Thier problems always seemed to be poor build quality, and lack of spares and repairs.
Vehicles were dumped outside in the open and left without maintenance to fester with the snow piling up in winter etc - only a few were actually fired up and used for training or some obsolete vehicles were actually used instead of the actual unit kit for training, so if the baloon actually went up then the conscript crews would have little clue about thier t-72s as they had trained on say T-54.
I recall buying some "Baikal" brand 12 bore shotgun shells back in the 70's. Allegedly for export (or a cunning KGB plan to make Westerners complacent about USSR ammo quality ??
) - About half the cost of normal shells, but I only bought a few boxes. 2 or 3 misfires out of maybe 4 boxes, the brass started to rust/discolour after a couple of outings, and the fouling in the barrel was bad (no plastic shot cup).
Andy