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#14 - RW 263
Vremya Novostei
June 23, 2003
STAGNATION AND PROFANATION
Yabloko lashes out at military reform plans
Author: Natalia Rozhkova
[from WPS Monitoring Agency, www.wps.ru/e_index.html]
THE YABLOKO PARTY HAS CRITICIZED BOTH THE GOVERNMENT'S MILITARY REFORM PLAN
AND THE ALTERNATIVE PROPOSED BY THE UNION OF RIGHT FORCES. YABLOKO LEADER
GRIGORY YAVLINSKY SAID: "IF WE SABOTAGE SERIOUS EFFORTS TO REFORM THE
RUSSIAN ARMY, IT WILL BE DIFFICULT TO TALK ABOUT A FUTURE FOR THE NATION AFTER
2010."
Last Friday, members of the Yabloko party criticized both the government's
military reform plan and the alternative proposed by the Union of Right Forces.
Alexei Arbatov, Deputy Chairman of the Party and deputy chairman of the Duma
defense committee, described the current military reforms as "stagnation
and profanation". He noted that according to the Defense Ministry plan,
carrying out the reform requires 130 billion rubles to transfer 30% of privates
and ensigns over four years to contract service. At the same time, Arbatov
stresses, only "20% of these means are allocated for increasing money
allowances - the rest are to be spent on the aims that should be pursued
regardless of the reform", such as purchasing equipment, combat training,
and providing accommodation for the military. All this is necessary for both
professional and regular army and these expenses should not be included into the
reform expenses, Arbatov says.
According to Arbatov, the idea of the Union of Right Forces for six-month
conscription is "useless and harmful". Arbatov stresses that in the
immediate future, most recruits will be those born in the late 1980s and early
1990s, when the birth rate substantially decreased in Russia. That is why in
order to recruit enough soldiers, the government would have to "cancel all
deferrals, and conscript drug addicts, criminals, the mentally retarded, and
women." The Yabloko thinks it is possible to combine conscription with
contractors only for one or two years while the reform is being carried out.
Yabloko members are convinced that the military reform can be carried out
with less spending and more efficiently that the Defense Ministry proposes.
Alexei Arbatov says that in order to transfer the present Russian army on a
contract basis it is necessary to increase the present defense budget by 5%; it
is to be increased by 25% if wages for the military are doubled. However,
Yabloko says the best option is to decrease the number of the Armed Forces from
1,200,000 people to 800,000 people - then, the military budget is to be
increased by only 15%.
Alexei Arbatov and Grigory Yavlinsky believe that this money would be enough
for dismissal pays, for housing for servicemen who resign, for transition of the
remaining units to the contract system, and for "doubling the monetary
allowance of all servicemen, from a soldier to a general". Yavlinsky is
convinced that all this can be done within two years.
Deputies believe that an important step toward reforming the army is
introduction of public oversight for appropriation of budget funds, for which it
is necessary to make the military budget transparent. A concrete step in this
direction is amending the law on budget secrecy, as Arbatov has said. He said:
"Let the military budget be described not by three figures but by 850 items
so that everyone could see these figures. At present, it is so secret that I
don't even have a right to say how many enlisted men there are in the Army
now."
The Yabloko leader finished the conference with a pessimistic forecast:
"In 2015, rearmament and reformation of the Chinese Army will finish. If we
sabotage serious efforts for reforming the Russian Army, it will be difficult to
talk about a future for the nation after 2010."
(Translated by Arina Yevtikhova and Kirill Frolov)
CDI Russia Weekly #263 ~ Contents
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