#7
gazeta.ru
January 9, 2003
Defence chief briefs Putin on state of military
By Yelena Shiskhounova

A day after Russia’s Orthodox Christmas President Vladimir Putin summoned Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov to the Kremlin to be briefed on the catastrophic situation in Russia’s freezing provinces. The Justice Minister Yuri Chaika and the Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov followed the PM. Ivanov shared his views with Putin on the future of the Russian army, formed on the principle of contract-based recruitment.

According to the Defence Minister, as of January 1, 2003 the numerical strength of the Russian armed forces amounted to 1,162,000 military servicemen and 860,000 civilian personnel. The initial plans for restructuring the Russian army envisaged reducing the numerical strength of the armed forces to 1 million. Judging by Ivanov’s latest statements, that target remains unchanged. The cutbacks, along with an improvement of combat training still remain the key objectives of the military reforms.

Ivanov reported to President Putin that in 2002 ''we managed to raise the effectiveness of all sectors of the army, especially that of the Strategic Missile Troops and the Space Troops''. According to the Minister, on the basis of last year’s achievements more emphasis is to be put on combat training. That provision, Ivanov assured the head of state, will be included in the government’s target-oriented plan for transferring the army to a contractual basis.

The plan is to be drafted by the end of May 2003, in line with a decision that was endorsed last November at a special governmental session dedicated to military reform. The cabinet then reviewed two alternative drafts – one submitted by the General Staff of the Defence Ministry, and the other by the liberal Union of Rightist Forces (SPS). As a result the government endorsed a programme which was a peculiar hybrid of the generals’ conservative views and daring proposals from the liberals.

The SPS were particularly proud of the fact that they had been entrusted with a task together with the Defence and Finance Ministries to write a target-oriented programme, but at the same time in their public statements preferred not to mention that their radical deadlines for transferring the army to contracts were postponed.

So far, it remains unclear how long compulsory military service or special combat training will last in the new Russian army. Talking to journalists after his meeting with the president on Wednesday Ivanov preferred not to mention that. But then, together with Vladimir Putin they also spent some time discussing servicing army units in so-called ‘hot spots’.

The president wanted to know whether civilian personnel will accompany a contract unit if it is deployed in a hot spot. Ivanov told him that no such plans exist, after which Putin expressed concern that this situation might be harmful to the quality of services for soldiers and officers. The president stressed that the quality of services for servicemen in ''hot spots should be higher, not lower'' than outside such areas.

According to the defence minister, contracted soldiers would be provided with accommodation in reconstructed army barracks, with 3-4 people living in a room, as well as in newly built dormitories.

It is noteworthy, however, that initially the generals promised contracted soldiers private apartments, but having calculated the cost of the project and taking into consideration the current problem of homeless officers, took their words back. This led to heated protests among the servicemen who had enlisted to serve in the 76th Airborne Division, based near Pskov, where the military launched an experiment to transform the division into a force of purely professionals last September.

In his talk with the president on Wednesday Ivanov did not mention the project, but noted with satisfaction that in the past year his agency managed to curtail the growth in homeless officers and warrant officers on waiting lists. More than 30,000 apartments were built for them. The minister expressed hope that ''the situation will change radically thanks to a transfer to the system of accumulation'' in the building of housing. The new system will take effect in 2004.

Among other issues discussed by the head of state and the defence minister was the disastrous situation in the regions of Russia hit particularly hard by severe winter conditions. Ivanov assured the president that the army is providing ''all possible aid'' to areas suffering from unusually cold weather. Specifically, Ivanov said he had ordered the commanders of the Leningrad and Far Eastern military districts to urgently contact the administrations of those regions to provide them with support, primarily by allocating fuel and clearing snowdrifts. In particular, the minister mentioned the Leningrad, Novgorod and Sakhalin regions and the Republic of Karelia.

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