#10 - RW 268
Novoe Vremya
No. 31
August 2003
THE REFORMS: AS THE GENERALS SEE THEM, AND AS THEY OUGHT TO BE
Boris Nemtsov: Internal discontent destabilizes the Armed Forces
Author: Vladimir Voronov
Source: Novoe Vremya, No. 31, August 2003, pp. 9-11
[from WPS Monitoring Agency, www.wps.ru/e_index.html]

RUSSIA IS SUPPOSED TO HAVE TWO ARMIES IN ONE NOWADAYS - AN ARMY OF CONSCRIPTS AND ANOTHER OF PROFESSIONAL SERVICEMEN. BORIS NEMTSOV, LEADER OF THE UNION OF RIGHT FORCES FACTION IN THE DUMA, DOES NOT VIEW THE PROGRESS TO DATE AS REAL REFORMS.

An interview with Union of Right Forces leader Boris Nemtsov

One would think that all debates over the military reforms should be over by now. The government adopted the plan of transition to contract service ("mostly") by 2007. Russia is supposed to have two armies in one nowadays - an army of conscripts and another of professional servicemen. Boris Nemtsov, leader of the Union of Right Forces faction in the Duma, does not view the progress to date as real reforms.

Question: Debates and speculations over the military reforms have raged for so long that no one really remembers what it's all about any more.

Boris Nemtsov: For millions of young men around the country, for their parents, and for the president, it is absolutely clear that the Russian Armed Forces are in deep crisis. Moreover, the crisis is gradually worsening. Here are but a few examples: 20,000 victims of cruelty in the barracks every year, a whole battalion wiped out by crimes in the barracks in 2002 alone, military hardware that is not repaired for decades, no acquisition of weapons, even light weapons, the Chechen campaign a dismal failure despite assurances of Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov who claims that there are only about 1,300 guerrillas in Chechnya facing a powerful United Federal Group 80,000 strong.

Shall we continue? One hundred families of officers lack housing; the low social status of the military; 140 officers resigning from the Army and Navy every day. With Ivanov running the Armed Forces, the number of generals has gone up by 40% from 1,000 to 1,400! Even Chief of the General Staff Anatoly Kvashnin has said that the army is not even in a critical condition anymore, it is in a condition that is even worse than that.

In short, emergency measures have to be taken to improve the combat readiness of the Armed Forces and to preserve the army as an institution. Everyone agrees with that. This is a point on which we have nationwide consensus.

Question: The reforms are supposedly underway, but you go on condemning the stand taken by the top brass. Why?

Boris Nemtsov: The generals' position is as follows, "In fact, everything is fine. We are doing a great job as generals, we have combat experience. Just give us more money, say, ten times as much as we are given these days. And relax, we'll do everything..."

This is what the generals are saying: give us funds, we will buy high-precision weapons systems, and everything will be great.

These high-precision weapons systems - who will operate them? The soldiers - 15% of whom are barely literate and 25% of whom have a record of drug use? The officers - who are resigning from the Armed Forces en masse?

Question: And what do you think we shall do?

Boris Nemtsov: We are convinced that Russia will never have a combat ready, compact, and modern army without transition to contract service. This is what really counts, even though there is more to the military reforms than this transition. The military reforms are something much more profound, expensive, and lengthy.

At first, however, we should change the system of recruitment. It will boost the status of the military and its social security. Afterwards, we should get down to improving combat training, armament programs, and so on.

I think that our generals understand, deep inside, that an army of professionals serving by contract would need different generals. They know all too well that commanding an army of professional is absolutely different from commanding kids drafted by force. In my view, it is this awareness of their own uselessness in the future Armed Forces that is the major obstacle.

Question: So the generals aren't reformable, right? But is it possible to reorganize the army in general?

Boris Nemtsov: We don't have a choice, you know. It is either a professional army or no army at all. Among other things, an army of conscripts depends on the demographic situation. Russia is an industrial country with a low birth rate of about 1.2 children per family. It means that millions of families have a single child, or no children at all.

The fourth wave of demographic consequences of World War II is coming up. It will cut the conscription contingent by 50% in 2005.

Question: If things are so gloomy, what do advocates of conscription rely on?

Boris Nemtsov: On abolition of deferments. They have already prepared a draft law on abolishing draft deferments for students, advanced students, and young men with families - and expect to have it adopted by the next Duma. Essentially, men will be driven into the Armed Forces by force. What will it lead to? Large-scale desertion. Thousands are already deserting. Thousands! These young men are supposed to be viewed as deserters. Not in Russia, however, where public opinion is entirely on their side.

That is why we suggest the following. The army should be entirely made up of contract personnel. Contract personnel should earn decent wages, something above the national average wage. Between 6,500 and 7,000 rubles a month should be paid nowadays, and between 15,000 and 20,000 to servicemen in conflict areas. But our gallant military began with 3,000 a month in the Pskov division, where the experiment is being run, despite our calls for it to offer men decent wages, despite our assurances that no one would want to sign up for that sort of money. The army should be competitive in the labor market. After all, the men who chose to serve in the Army and Navy should be confident that they will be able to save enough, that the nation will not forget them whenever they are wounded somewhere in Chechnya or Tajikistan.

In order to change the composition of the Armed Forces, we suggest offering places at the best universities as a reward. After three years of contract service a man may choose any university where he will study free of charge. We also suggest permitting our compatriots from the CIS to sign up. This suggestion of ours was accepted - but how? One may serve in the army, but he will not be granted citizenship. That's absurd! Who will join the Armed Forces with incentives like that? Moreover, when citizens of other countries serve in our army, they are only mercenaries.

In short, we suggested a plan permitting men to earn decent money during service in the Armed Forces, to study, to improve their skills, and to handle the problem of apartments.

What do the generals suggest? The same madness, retaining cruelty in the barracks and a lack of housing for officers. And this plan, the one leading to degradation of the Armed Forces, is adopted!

Neither Kvashnin, nor Ivanov, nor the supreme commander-in-chief himself can say for sure what is going to happen with the Armed Forces after 2007, will they be divided into two parts the way they are divided now.

For starters, the Pskov experiment was ruined. The generals cannot staff a single division with contract personnel! Who will be held responsible for it?

Question: But reorganization is an expensive undertaking that demands colossal funds...

Boris Nemtsov: Capacities of the state are limited. We cannot spend more than 3-3.5% of the GDP on national defense. And yet, $11 billion for the army is quite a decent sum for a country which is not exactly wealthy.

Question: Let us get back to contract service. Do you think it will make the Armed Forces professional? Take Israel, for example. Conscripts are drafted for three years there, but no one would call the Israeli army unprofessional.

Boris Nemtsov: Israel is a state at war, and there is always conscription in countries at war. No, Israel will not do as an example. Moreover, we do not mean that conscription should be abolished altogether. We suggest conscription for a period of six months. It is not even an idea of Nemtsov or General Vorobiov, it is an idea of experts of the General Staff who studied the matter on our request.

Question: What can a soldier be taught in six months?

Boris Nemtsov: Either we teach him in six months, or he is unteachable. Besides, this reserve should serve as another source for the army of contract personnel. With six months of service by conscription behind him, a young man will be able to decide whether or not he wants to continue military contract service.

There is more to the reforms, of course, but by doing all this we will have a professional, competent army by 2007, an army the people would not despise. This is when the problem of armaments is to be handled.

By the way, do you know why acquisition of conventional arms is a classified budget item? Because everything gets stolen. We pump considerable sums into the army, yet it cannot buy armored personnel carriers, tanks, or aircraft. Because the money is pilfered. Hence another task - making the budget (the part pertaining acquisition of conventional military hardware) transparent. Let the data on high- precision weapons systems remain classified, but reveal information on conventional weapons acquisitions! What is so secret about that, when we are selling these toys all over the world?

I assure you that the army will be different as soon as all this information is revealed.

Besides, we should settle the matter of troop strength. This is what I think. There are the nuclear deterrent forces, a powerful instrument of defense for the country. These forces should be retained at the level of reasonable sufficiency. Mobile rapid response units are needed for local conflicts. A compact Navy is also needed.

A compact and properly paid military is better than 1.2 million paupers.

Question: Does the president understand this? If he does - perhaps political will is lacking?

Boris Nemtsov: He is facing a dramatic choice. The president himself has emerged from this system and encounters its resistance. This is the dilemma: either he fights the system, and Russia does stand a chance with him; or he succumbs to the system. In that case, Russia wastes time and the opportunity it cannot really afford to waste.

Question: Is it possible that the authorities are deliberately keeping the army in such a condition, fearing that generals in a strong army will not restrict themselves to their professional duties?

Boris Nemtsov: Russia is not Latin America. Generals have not interfered in politics since the era of Suvorov and Kutuzov. That's the time-honored tradition of defending the ruler, the Fatherland; never trying to take over.

If we modernize the Armed Forces, the army will respect the authorities. These days, there is internal discontent that destabilizes the army.

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