This is not in keeping with tradition.
Soviet/Russian mortars of the era World War Two and the Cold War noted as a low-technology weapon, big bore, cast-iron, firing a mortar bomb also cast-iron. Easy and cheap to manufacture.
Require a lot of maintenance when not in use or in the aftermath of use but effective. You can proliferate the battlefield with cheap and dirty mortars of the old Soviet/Russian variety.
BUT NOT ANYMORE!
Thanks to the tip from the outstanding Internet web site isegoria.net the original story courtesy Jane's and the article by Dmitry Fediushko. MoD = MNinistry of Defense.
"Army 2018: Russian MoD receives new 2B25 82 mm silenced mortars"
"The Russian armed forces are receiving the new 2B25 82 mm silenced mortars"
“'The Ministry of Defence [MoD] is acquiring new towed and man-portable mortars for the land troops. In particular, the special forces are slated for receiving several dozen 2B25 silenced mortars,' . . . 'The 2B25’s noise level does not exceed that of a Kalashnikov AKMB assault rifle fitted with the PBS-1 silencer. The mortar produces almost no muzzle flash or smoke.'”
SILENCE IS GOLDEN!
As of this exact moment the 2B25 the use thereof will be confined to the special purpose units of the Russian military? Spetsnaz! The 2B25 also firing a pre-fragmented round?
From the writings of the Soviet era defector Suvorov his observations on the advantages of the big-bore smooth-bore, cast-iron mortar firing a cast-iron mortar bomb:
"Soviet commanders value the mortar so highly because of its reliability and its almost primitive simplicity, because it only takes a few minutes to teach a soldier how to use it, and because it needs almost no maintenance - - its barrel is not even rifled! . . . The pressure inside a mortar barrel when it fires is relatively low and therefore a mortar . . . can fire cast-iron rather than steel bombs. This adds two further advantages - - firstly, simplicity and cheapness of production, secondly the fact that when a cast iron bomb bursts it shatters into very small small splinter, which for a dense pattern."
coolbert.