#12
Defense Minister Ivanov Says Russian Military Spending on Arms Insufficient
ITAR-TASS

Moscow, 26 November: Russian Defence Minister Sergey Ivanov has expressed concern over the quality of and prospects for provision of new arms for the army and navy.

ITAR-TASS correspondent Aleksandr Konovalov reports that, speaking at the armed forces conference, Ivanov said the current level of army funding was insufficient. "The current allocations suffice only to purchase single items of armaments," Ivanov said. He recalled that the federal arms programme envisages large-scale purchase of military equipment only after 2010, and until then is aimed mainly at supporting the Russian defence industry and scientific research and design testing. He stressed the necessity of "preserving the current armaments system, above all in permanent readiness units in order to maintain the country's defence capability at the required level".

Ivanov noted that at present the armed forces have 408 permanent readiness units, including 10 divisions, seven brigades and 13 regiments, in which 126,000 soldiers and sergeants and 40,000 officers and warrant officers serve. "These units will be first to convert to contract service, and housing and increased pay for contract service personnel will definitely be provided," Ivanov stressed.

He noted that comprehensive measures, including an increase in service personnel's pay, had not resulted in any radical improvement of their social status. "In the area of social welfare for service personnel and members of their families, there has been no radical improvement. The prestige of military service has not increased substantially," he said. He expressed the fear that inflationary processes could cancel out the recent pay increase. According to him, service personnel received 23,000 flats in 2002. However, about 168,000 service personnel need their housing conditions improved, while 94,000 have no flat at all.

Ivanov believes that "positive changes in the world have made large-scale wars involving Russia improbable". However, the international situation remains complex and "features dynamic movement, instability, increases in tension and the emergence of crisis situations". "The threat of new local military conflicts of varying degrees of intensity remains," Ivanov stressed.

He thinks that Russia's strategic nuclear forces maintain guaranteed restraint from nuclear aggression against it at a sufficient level. However, he expressed concern at the state of general purpose forces. "Only individual units of general purpose forces are capable of carrying out tasks set for them in full," he noted.

The minister believes that radical Islam in the North Caucasus and the activity of radical Islamic groups present a special danger for Russia. He said that with active support and funding from Islamic circles in the former Soviet Union and outside of it, fighters go to the North Caucasus from various states in order to participate directly in military action against the federal forces.

The minister also said that the fighters are continuing to receive arms and ammunition from outside. "We have not managed to fully block the channels through which fighters operating in the North Caucasus receive arms, ammunition and other materials," Ivanov said. In his opinion, the task needs to be solved by the Defence Ministry, the Interior Ministry and Federal Security Service jointly "clarifying the tactics for actions in the counterterrorist operation".

BACK TO THE TOP    #233 CONTENTS    NEXT ARTICLE