#7
Yezhenedelny Zhurnal
No. 23
June 18, 2002
HIDE-AND-SEEK IN THE MANNER OF GENERALS
The Defense Ministry will have to account for defense spending after all
Author: Alexander Golts
[from WPS Monitoring Agency, www.wps.ru/e_index.html]

THE MILITARY'S WISH TO CONCEAL ALL INFORMATION ABOUT HOW IT SPENDS ITS MONEY SEEMS TO BE ANNOYING THE KREMLIN AND THE DUMA. THE CHIEF OF THE GENERAL STAFF RECENTLY FAILED TO TURN UP WHEN THE DUMA ASKED HIM TO REPORT ON THE SITUATION IN THE ARMED FORCES; BUT HE WILL HAVE TO ANSWER TO THE PRESIDENT.

On June 13, Chief of the General Staff Anatoly Kvashnin failed to attend the "Cabinet hour" at the Duma, even though a week earlier 230 deputies had voted in favor of an immediate report from the nation's top military officer on the situation in the Armed Forces. Instead of Kvashnin, the Duma received a memorandum signed by Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov, saying the chief of the General Staff was too busy to spend any time on the Duma. The deputies had no choice but to complain to the president that the Defense Ministry was apparently ignoring the Parliament.

In fact, Kvashnin has substantial reasons to avoid meeting with the deputies. He was invited to address the Duma after his sensational statement on May 30, at a conference on crime in the Armed Forces. Kvashnin said that the Russian Armed Forces are bogged down in embezzlement and corruption. He also said that the situation in the military was "beyond critical", and the decline in combat readiness "could become irreversible." Kvashnin said the cause of the problems lies in the state's inability to ensure "a guaranteed living wage for officers". According to Kvashnin, "unless we can at least double their salaries, we shall simply the officers".

Given that General Kvashnin has been personally responsible for the level of combat readiness and the situation within the Armed Forces over the past five years, his latest statements are very strange, to put it mildly. So the Duma members were expressing their concern by resolving to clarify why communiques about the success of reforms had been suddenly replaced by hysterical complaints in the style of former Defense Minister Rodionov, who was dismissed five years ago for his wailing.

Actually, in his typical style, Kvashnin has taken the Defense Ministry's recent guidelines to the point of absurdity. It seems that the president, thanks to whose efforts defense spending has been almost tripled over the past two years, is demanding explanations of why the spending increase has not resulted in some real improvements. The Defense Ministry cannot admit that the plan which is described as a military reform is not actually a reform at all. Thus, Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov, who had previously declared his pride in Russian officers, suddenly said during an inspection tour of Voronezh in April that the 20th Army stationed there "had simply bogged down in embezzlement". Three weeks later, speaking to senior officers, Ivanov accused Russian generals of having "an insufficient level of professional skills, lacking initiative and goals."

In this manner, Ivanov and Kvashnin have been deliberately humiliating their subordinates in order to convince the president that the money is being wasted due to embezzlement and incompetence among the officers. However, the defense minister has been rather skillful in stressing each time that the matter concerns "individual faults", and it is hard to find flaws in his speeches. Kvashnin is quite a different matter - he is not very good at nuances.

The whole problem is whether the president will believe such explanations. Undoubtedly, there is a tremendous level of corruption in the Russian Armed Forces. However, the point is that this has been a direct effect of the policy the Defense Ministry has been carrying out; its hopes are still tied to the concept of a large army. But in market economy conditions, such an army is doomed to be poor. In order for it to function at all, officers are forced to break the law almost on an daily basis.

Moreover, the Defense Ministry has been creating almost perfect conditions for ubiquitous embezzlement. Even though a fifth of state spending goes to the military, the public has no opportunity to monitor defense spending. Even Duma deputies, apart from Defense Committee members, do not know the purposes for which the Defense Ministry appropriates money. Meanwhile, the defense minister and chief of the General Staff continue making great efforts to classify all information related to the Armed Forces as secret.

Their attitude toward public supervision is also evident in their unwillingness to provide even the slightest explanation for their statements and actions. But apparently they will soon have to provide explanations: if not to the Duma, for which they care not at all, then to the supreme commander-in-chief. Speaking at a recent Security Council meeting, President Putin once again confirmed the need for a transition from conscription to contract service, and directly demanded that state funding should be spent more efficiently. It is much harder to hide from the president than from the Duma.

(Translated by Andrei Ryabochkin)

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