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  • Inside Russia's Military

    INSIDE RUSSIA'S MILITARY
    By Tim Whewell

    BBC NEWS
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/program mes/newsnight/7947082.stm
    2009/03/17 10:22:25 GMT

    Drive into the sprawling base of the Russian Army's 76th Airborne
    Division in the north-western town of Pskov, and you are greeted by
    a large mural with the unit's motto "Honour, Glory, Professionalism".

    The first two words reflect age-old concepts in the armed forces;
    the third, a very new one.

    That is why I have come, because the elite 76th Airborne (which
    first fought in Germany in 1944, and later in Afghanistan, Armenia,
    Chechnya and most recently last year in Georgia) is the template for
    radical plans to streamline the world's fourth largest army and turn
    it into a leaner, meaner fighting force.

    If you have not heard much about the reform, that is not surprising.

    It is so wide-reaching, and so controversial that the Kremlin is not
    keen to advertise it.

    Even Russian journalists are rarely allowed onto army bases these days,
    and for their western colleagues it is more difficult still.

    But Newsnight's been allowed to film in two units that the Ministry
    of defence is particularly proud of.

    The 76th, Russia's Paras, and the Air Force elite Pilot Training and
    Aircraft Testing centre in Lipetsk, south of Moscow.

    Reputation

    The division now based in Pskov dates back to 1939.

    INSIDE RUSSIA Watch Tim Whewell's films on Newsnight this week at
    2230GMT, BBC Two and online

    International military might (Tuesday 17 March 2009)

    Military reform controversy (Wednesday 18 March 2009)

    Russia's middle classes (Thursday 19 March 2009)

    Its most tragic, yet proudest, moment in recent times, came in 2000,
    when a whole company of 86 men were wiped out in a battle with
    Chechen guerrillas.

    Back in 2002 the authorities announced it would be one of the first
    units in the army to stop taking conscripts, and become completely
    professional.

    Its ranks would be filled by "kontraktniki", a new term for soldiers
    who have signed contracts to serve for a set number of years.

    In the past, the Russian Army's hardly had the kind of reputation
    that would encourage recruits.

    More than one thousand soldiers a year die in accidents, by suicide,
    or as a result of the institutionalised physical abuse of young
    conscripts known as "dedovshchina".

    Professional

    But army minders in Pskov were keen to show me how attractive a career
    option the military can now be.

    The word "barracks", they told me proudly, has been abolished.

    Instead, soldiers live in "hostels", just two to a room, and free to
    bring in their own televisions, computers and other possessions.

    Except during wartimes or special exercises, they are free to go out
    into the town or do whatever else they like after their duty ends in
    the evening.

    There is no McDonald's or any other commercial outlet on the base
    such as you might find in a British or American garrison.

    And it is hard to imagine western squaddies singing at the tops of
    their voices as they march to and from every meal.

    But at least soldiers no longer have to wait for an order to sit,
    another to start eating, and a third to get up again.

    And the cooking is now done not by conscripts, but by an outside firm
    of professional caterers, the first to be employed in any unit.

    The aim, says my army guide, Colonel Alexander Cherednik, is simple:
    "We now think a soldier should do his own job. The less time they
    spend on unnecessary tasks, the more they have for training."

    New hardware

    In the units I visit, training does appear to be intensifying.

    Officers and men of the 76th Airborne now perform a minimum of six
    parachute jumps a year.

    Back in the 1990s, when the armed forces were plagued by a shortage
    of fuel, some did only one or two.

    At the Lipetsk air centre, I am told Russia's "top guns" are flying
    up to 170 hours a year, almost twice as many as they could a few
    years ago.

    In both places, they have new hardware to show off.

    In Pskov, they have taken delivery of the latest model of airborne
    combat vehicle, the BMD-4, now being equipped with Glonass, the
    Russian satellite navigation system.

    In Lipetsk, they now have two of the first completely new model of
    plane to arrive there in 15 years, the Su-34 fighter bomber, with
    better avionics than its predecessors, the Su-27, Su-25, and Su-24.

    Staggering cuts

    But the reform is not just about re-armament.

    It is about structural reorganisation, the most far-reaching in at
    least 50 years.

    And that is what is so controversial.

    Instead of the existing cumbersome four tiers of control, from
    military district at the top to regiment at the bottom, there will
    be just three, military districts, tactical commands, and brigades.

    Many existing units will be reformed or amalgamated.

    The civilian defence minister, Anatoly Serdyukov, is also demanding
    drastic cuts in Russia's disproportionately large officer corps. Now
    there is an officer to every two and a half men.

    After the reform there should be just one to every 15, more similar
    to western armies.

    But that means losing a staggering 200,000 jobs.

    Elite unit

    Not surprisingly, there is massive political opposition by an old
    guard who believe the reforms will only serve to weaken Russia.

    Under pressure, the deadline for completing the cuts has been put back
    from 2012 to 2016, and army chiefs have been forced to promise that
    they will be achieved by natural wastage, not compulsory redundancies.

    Meanwhile, there is uncertainty about whether Russia can now achieve
    the full professionalisation that was one of the unstated aims of
    the reforms.

    Even in an elite unit like Pskov, the experiment has not fully
    succeeded, more than six years after it began.

    Only about 80% of the men are "kontraktniki", the remainder are
    still conscripts.

    Wages and conditions still are not good enough to attract more,
    and as Russia's hit by economic crisis, it may be hard to find the
    resources to improve them.

    This may be the most determined of Russia's many recent attempts at
    military reform, but its success is still far from certain.
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