There was a (not really propaganda) photo op shot of a US naval captain of a big ass ship shooting a rifle with a backwards scope earlier this year.
I think the reason tends to be that the people involved in prop and photo ops actually have no clue about the particulars and just want it to look cool. It's equivalent to "why is X in movies always so unrealistic?" for various values of X (e.g. hacking, law & courts, guns, etc)
(By people involved I mean the people taking the pictures, editing, publishing, etc. Though in the US captain one, I guess also the guy in the picture too)
or another https://stihi.ru/pics/2024/06/14/4714.jpg (and if it reminds you something with 4-limbed symbol from 80+ years ago - it isn't an accident, it is the nature of the current regime in Russia)
While it sounds like a pun, there is no "trigger discipline" in Russia (I myself an ROTC officer). In USSR/Russia the "never point your barrel at anybody or anything" discipline has been taught instead.
There is a little more to Russian rules. They don't allow carry with a round chambered. They find it very dangerous that so many american guns are carried at the ready. With no round chambered, the trigger is far less of a worry.
Absolutely. It is so fundamental, at the instinct level almost, that it didn't even came to my mind to mention it. Until absolutely necessary, you never chamber your weapon - "what if the trigger gets accidentally pulled!" :)
Even military guards on duty are by the military regulations explicitly prohibited from chambering their weapon until necessary:
209. Часовому запрещается: ..., досылать без необходимости патрон в патронник, ...
and only when the guarded security perimeter is about to be breached and the guard has already issued 2 verbal warnings, only then the guard chambers the round and makes the first warning shot toward the sky:
211. ...
Если нарушитель после предупреждения "Стой, стрелять буду" продолжает движение, часовой досылает патрон в патронник и производит предупредительный выстрел вверх.
