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  • Russian Defence Ministry Ups Scale of Combat Training - Expert

    RUSSIAN DEFENCE MINISTRY UPS SCALE OF COMBAT TRAINING - EXPERT

    Strana.Ru web site, Moscow
    28 Dec 04



    The Russian Defence Ministry has increased the scale of international
    and domestic combat training over 2004 against the backdrop of various
    scandals, major administrative reshuffles in the ministry amidst growing
    social and economic tension in the Armed Forces, argues a Russian
    expert. Nikita Petrov recalls that President Vladimir Putin has
    assessed the work of the military department in 2004 as "satisfactory"
    and tries to present his view of what went on behind the stage. The
    following is the excerpt of an article entitled "Defence Ministry:
    Year of Scandals and Exercises" carried by Russian Strana.Ru web site
    on 28 December; subheadings have been inserted editorially:

    Scandals

    The year 2004 began for the Defence Ministry with a scandal (the
    Auditing Chamber accused the Defence Ministry of systematic financial
    violations and nonspecific expenditure of funds - it was a matter of
    almost R14bn) and is ending with a scandal, precedents for which in
    the Russian Armed Forces don't come to mind. The latest scandal was
    about personnel: the head of RF Armed Forces Main Combat Training
    Directorate, Col-Gen Aleksandr Skorodumov, submitted his
    resignation. The Russian Armed Forces' main "warrior" departed,
    slamming the door loudly and clearly spoiling slightly the pre-holiday
    mood of Defence Minister Sergey Ivanov and his closest entourage.

    The general openly accused the department heads of the disintegration
    of the Armed Forces and of such unpleasant things as, for example, the
    procedure for appointments to high command positions "through good
    connections".

    Commander-in-chief of the Ground Troops and Deputy Defence Minister
    Army Gen Nikolay Kormiltsev departed with approximately the very same
    words one and a half months before this (President and Supreme
    Commander Putin appointed a new Commander-in-chief of the Ground
    Troops on 5 November. The choice fell on Col-Gen Aleksey Maslov, who
    previously held the posts of the chief of staff and first deputy
    commander of the North Caucasus Military District. Reports appeared
    alleging that until recently Hero of Russia, Commander-in-chief of the
    Air Force Army Gen Vladimir Mikhaylov was also planning to leave his
    command.

    But of course, the scandal of the year in the Defence Ministry was the
    removal of Army Gen Anatoliy Kvashnin from the post of chief of the RF
    Armed Forces General Staff, which happened this summer. It ended the
    many months of conflict between Ivanov and his former first deputy,
    who had his own views, which he didn't hide, on ways of organizational
    development and on further prospects of the Russian Armed Forces.

    The head of the Russian military department achieved Kvashnin's
    removal under the pretext of an urgent General Staff reform -
    observers began speaking about a possible purge within the walls of
    the "main military brain". Kvashnin's first deputy, Yuriy Baluyevskiy,
    who for the most part had worked on RF Armed Forces international
    cooperation, was appointed in his place.

    Strictly speaking, the "purge" (as, by the way, also the General Staff
    reform in the strictest terms) ended with this. Now observers are
    saying that Ivanov simply got rid of Kvashnin, who was inconvenient
    for him, and put in his place Baluyevskiy, who goes along with
    everything (the scandalous nature of this decision also lies in the
    fact that Baluyevskiy's last command position in the troops was as a
    company commander).

    The year also proved rich in scandals for Commander-in-chief of the
    Navy Fleet Adm Vladimir Kuroyedov. In particular, the Admiral
    "expertly" set up RF President Putin during ballistic missile launches
    from a submerged condition, which were executed in February during the
    joint strategic command and staff drill of Leningrad, Moscow and
    Volga-Ural Military Districts and Northern Fleet. The main objective
    of these manoeuvres, which were called Bezopasnost-2004, was to check
    combat readiness of the navy's forces and its naval strategic nuclear
    component.

    Up to 10 surface ships and support vessels participated in the
    exercise on the part of the fleet. They included the heavy
    aircraft-carrying cruiser Admiral Flota Sovetskogo Soyuza Kuznetsov,
    heavy nuclear powered guided missile cruiser Petr Velikiy, six
    strategic missile submarines and multipurpose nuclear submarines, ASW
    aircraft, ship-based helicopters and fighter aviation of the Northern
    Fleet Air Force, and around 5,000 servicemen.

    According to the scenario of the manoeuvres, the crew of the strategic
    missile submarine Novomoskovsk was to execute the firing of an RSM-54
    intercontinental ballistic missile (Skiff by NATO classification)
    against the Kura combat field on the Kamchatka Peninsula. Strictly
    speaking, the commander-in-chief of the Navy was at fault not only for
    the fact that it was his subordinates who were unable to launch the
    missile with a nuclear warhead at the necessary moment, but also for
    the fact that a specially invited RF President Putin with his entire
    retinue was awaiting this launch directly at sea. And Admiral
    Kuroyedov found nothing more suitable than to explain to the press and
    public that the President had been freezing in the cold wind awaiting
    specifically a "simulated launch".

    The commander-in-chief of the Navy thundered once more to the entire
    world, declaring that the heavy nuclear powered guided missile cruiser
    Petr Velikiy, the Northern Fleet flagship, could blow up at any moment
    because of her "terrible condition". The scandal turned out to be
    grandiose and also moved to the international level - the
    international public and particularly Scandinavian countries
    neighbouring on Murmansk Region, was very concerned with the condition
    of the nuclear powered cruiser and with the prospect of getting a
    "second Chernobyl".

    But despite all these "mistakes", Kuroyedov wasn't dismissed. (Passage
    omitted) Moreover, his contract was extended for a minimum of another
    year after he already had reached the maximum age of 60 for military
    service.

    The arrest and conviction in Qatar of two Russians accused of
    murdering Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, one of the leaders of the Chechen
    separatists, was yet another weighty scandal, and again at the
    international level. The foreign mass media wrote that these people
    were officers of the Russian General Staff Main Intelligence
    Directorate and were working in Qatar "by personal direction" of
    Defence Minister Ivanov. Strictly speaking, it also was scandalous
    that despite all of Russia's requests and persuasions, on 30 June a
    Qatar court sentenced the Russians to life imprisonment, which under
    local laws meant 25 years. At the end of the year, however, Russian
    diplomacy and special services achieved a clear success - the Russians
    returned to Russia after having been sentenced in Qatar literally a
    few days before.

    We also will note on this list repeated statements by senior Russian
    military leaders and by the defence minister himself about "the
    possibilities of Russia's delivery of preventive strikes" against
    terrorist bases "no matter where they might be" (and such bases also
    can be in the United States). Observers noted that such "words without
    actions" only do harm to Russia's image. And we will recall the
    constant statements by official Moscow about the presence of
    ultramodern models of arms in Russian Army and Navy arsenals for which
    there are no analogues in the world or defence against them. At the
    rates of the state's deliveries of new equipment to the troops - this
    year, for example, it is only four new tanks - such statements at the
    very least generate incomprehension both in Russia as well as in the
    West.

    Administrative reform

    Organizing the military department structure in accordance with
    demands of the administrative reform conducted this year in Russia's
    system of executive authority also affected the generals. Under the
    new structure, the head of the Defence Ministry was left with four
    deputies in place of the nine which existed before this. Today this is
    Chief of General Staff and First Deputy Defence Minister Col-Gen Yuriy
    Baluyevskiy, First Deputy Col-Gen Aleksandr Belousov, Chief of Armed
    Forces Armaments and Deputy Defence Minister Army Gen Aleksey
    Moskovskiy and Chief of Armed Forces Rear Services and Deputy Defence
    Minister Army Gen Vladimir Isakov.

    In the military department itself there appeared a central apparatus,
    the numerical strength of which was set at 10,000 persons; a defence
    minister's staff; as well as various services both within as well as
    under the ministry itself. Also included in the senior leadership of
    today's Defence Ministry are chiefs of the services which were created
    - Col-Gen Anatoliy Grebenyuk, chief of the troops billeting and
    construction service; Army Gen Nikolay Pankov, personnel and education
    service; Lyubov Kudelina, economics and finance service; and Andrey
    Chobotov, chief of the defence minister's staff.

    Additionally accruing to the Defence Ministry in 2004 were the former
    Federal Service of the Railway Troops, which in the military
    department became simply the Railway Troops, and the former Federal
    Service for Special Construction (now the Federal Agency for Special
    Construction under the Defence Ministry). The military department
    also received management and financial flows of federal services for
    the state defence order, for military-technical cooperation, and for
    technical and export control. Added to them as well was control over
    the Federal Agency for Atomic Energy within the context of the nuclear
    weapons complex.

    Speaking at the traditional November RF Armed Forces leadership
    conference, Ivanov declared that further optimization of the Armed
    Forces composition, structure and numerical strength was named in
    particular as one of the most important in determining missions for
    the concluding year of 2004. This task, which involved the conduct of
    table of organization measures, was fulfilled in practically all
    military command and control entities, branches, combat arms, military
    districts and fleets. According to the RF defence minister's data, the
    overall strength of the Armed Forces, counting the Railway Troops
    integrated into their makeup, will be 1,207,000 servicemen and 876,000
    civilian personnel as of 1 January 2005.

    The missions and priorities of entities of operational command and
    control of troops and of the client are being separated in the Defence
    Ministry for the first time beginning this year. The first entities
    concentrate efforts on planning and ensuring that the existing arms
    and military equipment inventory is kept in a combat-ready condition,
    and the unified entity for orders concentrates on planning and
    supporting developments and deliveries of new and modernized
    arms. Thus, the orders management system will be centralized and
    removed from the sphere of activity of command elements of branches
    and combat arms. This in turn should permit essentially realizing a
    unified military-technical and pricing policy, reducing the number of
    different types of arms and military equipment being developed,
    conducting unified bidding, and creating conditions for the transition
    to a unified system of technical support of the Armed Forces and other
    troops - in general, saving money for the country.

    One of the most important aspects of Defence Ministry work in 2004
    (and this is presented this way by the military department itself) was
    implementation of the federal targeted programme "Transition to
    Manning a Number of Formations and Military Units with Servicemen
    Performing Contract Military Service" for 2004-2007.

    One of the results of this activity is to be the creation of
    preconditions for reducing the term of conscripted military service to
    one year as of 2008. Ivanov believes this "will have a positive
    effect on the accumulation of militarily trained manpower mobilization
    resources in the Armed Forces reserve".

    Within the scope of implementing the federal targeted "contract"
    programme, the transition of the 42nd Motor-Rifle Division stationed
    on the territory of Chechnya to a contract method of manning will be
    completely finished already by the end of this year. This division
    will be the second formation after the 76th Airborne Division manned
    exclusively by contract servicemen (this year the airborne personnel
    were inspected repeatedly at all levels - it's believed that the
    experiment with a fully contract division "succeeded").

    As a result, the Defence Ministry is completely giving up the practice
    of sending servicemen performing conscripted service to
    Chechnya. Without doubt, this indeed will increase the effectiveness
    of operations of military units and subunits in the region and will
    permit reducing losses among personnel taking part in eliminating the
    illegal armed groups and task forces.

    Specialists are placed on guard, however, by the fact that R17bn
    (according to other data, R20.9bn) have been allocated for measures
    for the transition to contract manning for 2005. If annual
    expenditures per contract soldier are taken as R100,000, and this is
    only on the order of R8,000-9,000 per month, then it's possible to
    hire 170,000 soldiers. This is approximately a fourth of the present
    draft contingent, and not at all the planned 50 per cent, but for that
    money you can't even recruit a fourth of a fourth.

    Against this background, hopes for entry into force of the Law "On
    Alternative Civilian Service" as of 1 January 2005 weren't borne out -
    less than 500 persons will serve on an alternative basis in this
    draft. In any case, it's becoming more difficult to man the Armed
    Forces from year to year. In the opinion of the military, the stable
    trend towards a reduction in the proportion of citizens "really called
    up for military service" especially exacerbates the situation. Today
    military commissariats place only every ninth young lad of draft age
    in formation (10 years ago this proportion was three times
    higher). The rest either are exempted entirely from military service
    on legal grounds or have the right to a deferment. Therefore the
    Defence Ministry and power committees of both houses of Parliament
    supporting it are developing a strategy for reducing the number of
    grounds for deferment - today our country has 34 categories of
    citizens who legally are not called up for military service.

    Exercises

    Against this background, the scale of combat training clearly is
    growing in the Russian Armed Forces. The new wave of NATO enlargement
    which occurred this year - NATO was joined in particular by the former
    Soviet Baltic republics - was among the preconditions for this. Let's
    recall that Russia didn't agree that there was a need for this
    enlargement and considers it "erroneous". Nevertheless, the Defence
    Ministry is working actively with NATO, and specifically along the
    combat training line - the sides are training to operate together.

    The military department itself considers the following to be the most
    important events carried out in the army and navy in 2004. They
    include, for example, the conduct of a large number of large-scale
    naval exercises, including in coordination with naval forces of NATO
    member countries. Among them were those such as the Russian-Italian
    exercise in the Ionian Sea involving a detachment of Black Sea Fleet
    ships headed by the Guards guided missile cruiser Moskva, and the
    Russian-French exercise in the North Atlantic (on its completion, the
    nuclear submarine Vepr paid an unofficial call on the French Navy Base
    of Brest, which was the first call by a Russian nuclear submarine on a
    foreign port in history).

    In addition, the Russian-American Northern Eagle-2004 manoeuvres also
    stood out this year. The large ASW ships Severomorsk and Admiral
    Levchenko took part in them on the Russian side. Detachments of
    Russian combatant ships also took part in the NATO combat operation
    Active Endeavour, aimed at strengthening the regime of
    nonproliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their delivery
    vehicles. The heavy aircraft-carrying cruiser Admiral Flota Sovetskogo
    Soyuza Kuznetsov went out on combat patrol duty (before this our
    aircraft carrier had performed missions only of one combat patrol duty
    - in the winter of 1995-1996). Strategic missile submarines executed
    ten launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles during 2004. In
    the outgoing year RF Navy ships performed an overall total of more
    than 50 deployments, within the scope of which there were 27 calls on
    ports of 17 states.

    Intensive combat training - large-scale exercises - also was conducted
    this year in other branches and arms of the Armed Forces. For example,
    operational-tactical exercise Mobilnost-2004 was conducted. It
    rehearsed problems of the mobility of mixed forces and the
    redeployment of permanent readiness subunits and units from the
    European part of the country to the Far-Eastern region for performing
    missions of ensuring Russia's military security. A total of around 800
    servicemen with arms and combat equipment from the makeup of permanent
    readiness units were redeployed by air transport. Around 50 aircraft
    of Air Force Military-Transport Aviation and of the Transport Ministry
    and over 100 pieces of armoured and motor vehicles were in action in
    the exercise.

    The Defence Ministry considers the special tactical exercise
    Avariya-2004 to be another important event of this year. It was
    conducted jointly with the Federal Agency for Atomic Energy at one of
    the military department's facilities situated in Murmansk Oblast. The
    objective of the manoeuvres was the practical rehearsal of problems of
    organizing protection of nuclear weapons against attempts at
    unsanctioned access and of mopping up in the aftermath of an accident
    in case terrorist acts were committed. There were 2,000 servicemen and
    over 500 pieces of special equipment in action in the exercise. One
    feature of the exercise was the presence of 49 representatives from 17
    NATO member states as observers. At the end of the exercise Ivanov
    noted that despite statements being heard abroad from time to time
    about problems allegedly existing in Russia with the security of
    nuclear weapons, the NATO people were able to be convinced of the
    opposite with their own eyes.

    We also will note the August joint exercise Rubezh-2004 with permanent
    working bodies of the Collective Security Treaty Organization and with
    armed forces of the Collective Security Treaty Organization member
    states. One version of a possible exacerbation of the
    military-political situation in the Central Asiatic collective
    security region was made the basis of its concept. It envisaged
    coordinated actions of bandit force elements to conduct terrorist acts
    and destabilize the situation on the territory of region states. A
    total of over 1,000 servicemen, around 100 pieces of armoured
    equipment and over 30 aircraft and helicopters were in action in the
    joint exercise. We also will note that the 201st Motor-Rifle Division
    stationed in Tajikistan and covering Russia's southern borders was
    reorganized as a Russian military base this year.

    In 2004 there was a command and staff drill with command and control
    entities and alert duty forces of the Joint Air Defence System of CIS
    member states. This multilateral drill was conducted in accordance
    with the plan of joint activities for 2004. In addition to the Russian
    side, air defence command elements of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan,
    Uzbekistan and Ukraine and these states' air defence forces assigned
    to the joint system took part in the drill. The actions of drill
    participants were coordinated from the Russian Air Force Central
    Command Post.

    Finances

    But the most acute problem of today's Russian Armed Forces remains the
    socioeconomic situation of servicemen and their families. Based on
    results of the outgoing year, it can be said that it only has
    deteriorated. Ivanov cited the following data at the November RF Armed
    Forces leadership conference. As of today over 34 per cent of
    servicemen's families have income per family member below the
    subsistence level prevailing in the regions. Around 90,000 are not
    provided with permanent housing and approximately 45,500 are not
    provided with official housing (Chief of Defence Ministry Main
    Billeting and Maintenance Directorate Col-Gen Vlasov recently declared
    that the Armed Forces need on the order of 500,000 apartments for the
    country). "Naturally, we can't be reconciled with such a state of
    affairs, and specific steps are being taken to improve the situation,"
    declared the defence minister.

    The following evidently should be included among such steps. The
    federal law "On the Mortgage Savings System of Housing Support for
    Servicemen" was adopted this year. It places an entirely new mechanism
    in effect for providing servicemen with housing. Its chief merit is
    that it is called upon simultaneously to motivate a serviceman's
    presence in Armed Forces ranks.

    Thus, the state will open savings accounts for officers and contract
    personnel beginning in 2005. The new system is intended for those who
    enter officer service after 1 January 2005 and for contract privates
    who have served at least three years - this is approximately 60,000
    persons. A savings account will be opened for each one into which
    money will be transferred annually. The bill's authors figure that
    after 20 years the accumulated amount should suffice to buy an
    apartment with an overall area of 54 square meters. And servicemen are
    motivated to accumulate, which means also to serve longer - developers
    of the law presume that after 30 years the money then will suffice for
    96 square meters. A serviceman will be able to receive the money only
    after 20 years of service, or after 10 years if he is discharged for a
    valid reason - for state of health, in connection with a reduction, or
    because of family circumstances.

    If an officer leaves the Armed Forces after having served less than 10
    years, his savings simply "burn up" and are returned to the state. By
    the way, if an officer doesn't wish to wait, then in just three years
    he receives the right to buy an apartment with the help of a mortgage,
    and the state will pay the interest on the credit. The defence
    minister asserted: "It's understandable that the results of the effect
    of the new system will tell only after a few years, but the increase
    in waiting lists for obtaining housing nevertheless will be halted,
    especially as in parallel with this servicemen will be provided as
    before with housing certificates and with official apartments which
    are being built".

    We also will note the strange "situation of the year" with pay and
    allowances. On 4 November military department head Ivanov signed an
    order according to which all generals, officers and warrant officers
    in the Defence Ministry central apparatus will receive increased pay
    (in addition to the pay, they will continue to receive an additional
    payment for rank, seniority and subsistence allowance). In the troops
    they already have begun calculating that "according to the new way" a
    major general will receive approximately R15,000 instead of the
    previous R12,000, a colonel will put R10,000 in his pocket instead of
    the previous R7,000-8,000, and a lieutenant around R6,000 instead of
    R3,000-4,000.

    As it turned out, though, the Armed Forces had misheard. According to
    the defence minister's order, it was a matter of increasing pay and
    allowances of servicemen only in the Defence Ministry central
    apparatus. Let's recall that this "circle of the chosen" numbers only
    on the order of 10,000 persons. Under the new conditions Ivanov
    himself (together with the other power ministers, we will note) will
    earn R92,880 per month (instead of the previous R17,950). Everyone
    who is lower will receive appreciably less than the minister, but
    these amounts, too, are impressive against the background of military
    officers' paltry incomes (R4,000 for a platoon commander).

    The Defence Ministry declared that it had been forced to undertake
    that increase: the "brain of the Army" - the General Staff - and other
    key structures of the military department are scattering because of
    the small pay rates. But experts believe that Ivanov thereby is
    creating "two armies - a staff army with good pay and a pauper,
    trench, army." We will note that criticism of actions taken by the
    military department heads forced them to declare that a draft
    regulatory legal instrument is being prepared envisaging a similar
    increase in pay and allowances for servicemen performing contract
    military service at the tactical level.

    The year 2004 also will go down in Russian Armed Forces history as a
    year of cancellation of practically all benefits for servicemen and
    their families. Compensation is envisaged in place of what was taken
    away, but one and one-half months before the innovations enter into
    force no one is explaining to them what the amount of such
    compensation will be.

    And so from 1 January 2005 servicemen will begin to travel on public
    transport on "their own hard-earned money". Servicemen now have the
    right to receive an interest-free loan of 12 pay rates once during
    service for acquiring essential property - as of 1 January 2005 the
    amount of and procedure for such payment will be determined by the
    government. Rations or compensation amounting to their cost are issued
    to the military today. As of January of next year rations will be
    envisaged only for those serving in the Far North, and compensation is
    envisaged for everyone "in an amount to be determined by the
    government." Servicemen's rights to free financial assistance to
    purchase housing (75 per cent of the cost of housing for those who
    have served from 10 to 25 years, or 100 per cent for those who have
    served over 25 years) and to priority entry into housing cooperatives
    have been cancelled. Restrictions on time periods for mandatory
    provision of housing to servicemen on arrival at the chosen place of
    residence after discharge are removed as of 1 January - previously
    this was legislatively prescribed to be done no later than within a
    three-month period. Free treatment in military medical establishments
    for servicemen's wives and children and the provision of places in
    kindergartens and schools for their children on a priority basis are
    being cancelled.

    All this of course hardly will increase the country's defence
    capability.
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