I know of one good way to find out. It will cost you about $12 (at today's rate) to get 20 tries.

My old 30 eats it just fine, but with what the gun is worth now I am feeding it better these days.

 

Feeding will not be a problem, a Mini will feed them just fine.
What might be a problem, depending on the individual Mini, is whether the firing pin is long enough to reach the deeper seated primers on some (but not all ) brands of Russian steel case.

 

I think corn dog sai it best. Some members report no problems, others won’t use the stuff.

 

My M30 will fire about 3 rounds of steel case and then won't eject, don't know if it's the lacquer causing it but I saw where someone replaced all the springs on it so it would shoot steel, mine is an older version and the springs were getting tired, just got done replacing all with a combination of Wolff and Mcarbo, haven't had a chance to test but I'll update this when I get the chance, by the way, never had a problem with brass cased ammo.

 

Lacquer coating on Russian ammo was phased out some years back and replaced with a polymer coating.
If someone is using up some older ammo there's a possibility of lacquer cases being used.

Always good to scrub your chamber when cleaning no matter what ammo you use.
Get a $4 flux brush from a plumbing supply store or Home Depot and put a bend in the handle. First time you use it you'll have to cram it in to flatten the bristles, then it will be custom fit for your chamber.

I can't see where springs can help an ejection problem.
Could be your Mini is not getting enough gas to move the bolt back sufficiently.
Remove the gas block and check your gas bushing, you can always go one size larger for more gas.
How far is your brass ejecting ?

Also check your extractor for range of movement.

Extra power recoil springs are not needed and will just increase the battering your gas block receives when the op-rod slams forward.

Extra power hammer springs are also a bad thing. Some install them thinking it will improve ignition with steel case ammo, but your firing pin is limited as to how far it can go inside the bolt.
Smacking the back of the pin with a sledgehammer will not make a two-short pin protrude farther out the bolt face.

All a heavier hammer spring will do is increase the probability of the firing pin breaking.
The correct solution to a Mini that doesn't set off Russian ammo 100% is to replace the short factory pin with a longer one from firingpins.com.

 

Just ran 10 rounds of Wolf and ten rounds of Red Army through the rifle and only had one failure to fire. The Wolf round may have encountered the short pin...it has a mark on the primer but didn't fire. Feeding and ejecting went swimmingly. Very happy as my buddy is making me a heckuva deal on three ammo cans of both types! Hard to tell if the cases are poolymer coated or laquer coated. Any idea how long ago they switched? Boxes say bi-metal cases, but nothing about polymer on either box.

 

@DeckArtist, not sure about 7.62X39, but I just purchased some Monarch steel case 9mm and they are labeled lacquer coating. Brand new manufacture. They are functioning fine in my PT111. I have found it is good policy to clean the chamber well before switching back to brass. Brass to steel, no cleaning necessary.

I would add though that a locked breach, 9mm pistol doesn't produce as much heat in the chamber as a gas driven mini will. But even there, the gas system on the mini does not send propellant into the chamber area like an AR does.

If it fires....great, if it doesn't......sandog's recommendations are proven across many rifles here.

 

My tactical rifle does fire steel flawlessly but I reload brass cases only. My only complain has been the quality of the cheep steel ammo, bad accuracy and dependability. I want ammo that is dependable.

 

Carpy, not all steel case is inaccurate or undependable.
As I was telling Deck Artist above, the "Bears", Silver, Brown and Golden, are as dependable as brass case, Boxer primed stuff, and almost as accurate as my carefully concocted hand loads with Hornady bullets.
Tula has been the worst that I've tried, Wolf almost as bad.

 

Lacquer coating will be shinier than polymer. Lacquer coating is usually only a problem if you do continuous mag dumps.
And then switch over to brass case stuff without cleaning your chamber.
Otherwise, lacquer isn't going to give anyone problems.

Deck Artist, Red Army is easier to ignite than Wolf. Silver Bear and Golden Bear are the easiest for a Mini to set off reliably. I've never had Silver Bear fail to go off, which is more than I can say for Tula or Wolf.
It will be worth it to you, having a bunch of Wolf, to go ahead and order the firingpins.com pin.
We'll help you get it fitted, it just takes 20-30 minutes.

 

My Mini 30 will run all day on steel case tula or bear ammo... My guess is the guy I bought it from many years ago changed out the spring and firing pin to a stronger spring and slightly longer pin. It shoots brass and steel without a hiccup... Honestly I can't remember ever having the first fail to fire...

 

The Mini has a free floating pin, no FP spring, so I guess you mean he changed out to a heavier hammer spring.
Not needed at all if you also changed out the too short factory pin for a longer one.

The problem Minis have is reaching deep set Berdan primers, once sufficient firing pin protrusion gives you the "reach", denting and igniting them is no problem.
There is no spring on a Mini that needs to be replaced with a heavier one.