#16
Gazeta
July 18, 2002
"REFORMS HEADQUARTERS" ENLISTED
Herman Gref's new deputy doesn't plan to resign from the military
Author: Yekaterina Kats
[from WPS Monitoring Agency, www.wps.ru/e_index.html]

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND TRADE MINISTER HERMAN GREF NOW HAS A NEW DEPUTY IN CHARGE OF THE DEFENSE SECTOR. HE IS COLONEL GENERAL VLADISLAV PUTILIN, FORMER HEAD OF THE MAIN DIRECTORATE OF ORGANIZATION AND MOBILIZATION OF THE GENERAL STAFF AND FORMER DEPUTY CHIEF OF THE GENERAL STAFF.

A military man joins the team of civilians driving the economic reforms

Prime Minister Mikhail Kasianov signed the resolution concerning Putilin's appointment on July 16. The first reports that the general was about to be transferred to the Economic Development and Trade Ministry appeared a week ago, all sources referring to inside information from the Defense Ministry. Putilin was already relieved of his duties at the General Staff by then but did not resign from the army. He was assigned to Gref instead.

According to what information is available at this point, Putilin's duties at the Economic Development and Trade Ministry are already known. "He will be in charge of defense and security matters, and mobilizational capacities of the national economy," says a source from the ministry's PR department. "Nothing is going to change at the ministry with Putilin's appointment." Before Putilin, these functions were performed by Vyacheslav Mozgalev, who recently resigned.

The state is launching restructuring of the military-industrial complex. Mobilizational capacities at civilian enterprises will be reduced within its framework. Owners of plants and factories insist on it. They are forced to maintain - at their own expense - workshops for production of military items and warehouses with engines for hopelessly outmoded aircraft.

All equipment has to be inventoried first. Seven classified departments of the ministry under Putilin are going to do just that. An informed source says that a program of funding military research is being developed. Payback from the program is expected after 2005, the year when the start of rearmament is planned.

Holdings on the basis of existing enterprises of the military- industrial complex will be formed at the same time. This is how the Economic Development and Trade Ministry evaluates the objectives: holdings should be set up and all equipment should be concentrated there. All surplus capacities will have to be dismantled.

The government has been testing this model in the aviation industry for the last five years. Enterprises are closed down, swelling the ranks of the unemployed. Local and regional authorities bitterly object. They cannot find jobs for employees of enterprises of the military-industrial complex. All this impedes the reforms. A source at the Economic Development and Trade Ministry says that the state intends to alleviate social problems with money from the federal budget.

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