The Russian armed forces will be restructured starting December 1.
Today, the Russian armed forces are being restructured completely during the first stage of a sweeping military reform, scheduled to be completed in 2012. From now on, all military units and elements are switching over from a four-stage control system to a three-stage system comprising military districts, tactical commands and brigades. All military units have been brought to full strength under war-time tables of organisation and must maintain full combat readiness. Today, Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov is expected to issue an order establishing a military-police force that will maintain law and order at military garrisons. The reform stipulates even more ambitious objectives, including plans to drastically reduce the officer corps by 2012 and to complete a rearmament programme by 2020. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin hosted a meeting at the Energomash production association on November 30, to discuss the modernisation of the Russian defence industry.
On November 30, top state officials prioritised two other military-reform aspects, namely, the development of the defence industry and the allocation of housing for officers being discharged from the armed forces.
Putin focused on space systems
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin chaired the second meeting on defence industry issues in the past 30 days. The first meeting, held in Kolomna on November 18, examined missile and artillery systems. Putin demanded "miracles for affordable prices" from industrialists.
The November 30 meeting was held at the Energomash research-and-production association in Khimki near Moscow. "State-of-the-art space-rocket technology is the main irreplaceable element of facilitating state defence and security and an effective nuclear deterrent. Moreover, the combat cohesion and mobility of our armed forces largely depend on data-control networks and space technology which is their essential element," Putin said.
Putin reiterated that rockets facilitated the success of manned missions, telecommunications and television. Despite all the country's problems, funding for the space-rocket sector remains a top priority.
To prove his point, Putin repeated that the government would spend 2 billion roubles on the development of the space-rocket sector, including the Angara launch-vehicle programme, throughout 2010. To this sum, he added another 250 million to finance construction of an apartment building for the employees of an enterprise manufacturing engines for liquid-propellant missiles and launch vehicles.
Analysts believe that mere funding will not save the Russian defence industry. Alexander Konovalov, President of the Institute for Strategic Assessments, claims that control and telecommunications systems should have been modernised in the first place. "What do we need new tanks for, when a military commander uses a mobile cellular telephone to request fire support when they come under attack? Why do we need a fifth-generation warplane which lacks missiles for hitting surface-to-air missiles without entering their engagement zone?" Konovalov asked.
Anatoly Tsyganok, the head of the Military Forecasts Center of the Political and Military Analysis Institute, said the space-rocket sector was hard pressed for equipment. "In Soviet times, we used to buy high-precision Golden Ratio machine-tools through intermediaries. The country had only a few such machines making it possible to manufacture parts with an accuracy of up to one micron. Most of them are no longer operational, while no one will sell us any new equipment," Tsyganok said.
Defence-industry enterprises face personnel shortages because skilled fitters and turners are still being conscripted into the army, Tsyganok says.
Betting on red
The Government is counting on the defence industry, Putin stressed at the Khimki meeting. "We can hope during the post-crisis period that the defence industry's powerful science-and-production potential will play an important role in modernising our entire economy," Putin said and added that the 2010 state defence budget would total 1.175 trillion roubles.
"This decision will make it possible to resume the long-overdue re-equipping of the defence industry, will greatly help affiliated enterprises, will facilitate the introduction of innovative technology and the production of advanced materials and components," Putin stressed.
The Russian armed forces were expected to receive at least 30 ballistic missiles and 11 space systems from the defence industry, he said. The prime minister told the meeting delegates, including top Defence Ministry officials and the managers of leading space-rocket enterprises, that Russian spacecraft were lagging behind foreign equivalents in terms of their quality.
"The situation must be rectified as soon as possible. The sector must drastically improve product quality and reliability and take all action to boost competitiveness on high-tech international markets," Putin concluded.
Housing problems persist
At the beginning of last week, Prime Minister Putin discussed the provision of housing to officers. The Defence and Regional Development ministers said all eligible tenants would receive new housing before the year is out. However, the housing problem remains so acute that, on November 30, President Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree sacking Vladimir Filippov, Head of the Defence Ministry's Accommodation and Facilities Provision Service.
"Filippov's resignation was predictable in the context of the Ministry's economic policy," a Defence Ministry source told the paper. He said 2 billion had been spent to cover the losses of a construction company and portrayed as almost a heroic feat.
Mansions were also recently bought in an elite gated community near St Petersburg.
The provision of housing to officers is now being actively discussed. In November, officers of the Airborne Force's headquarters wrote a letter to the president, telling him that they will be discharged under the reform but are unable to receive their documents due to the lack of housing.
The post of Head of Accommodation and Facilities Provision Service is no longer attractive, the paper's sources say, because this official becomes automatically responsible for all decisions being made against his will. For instance, Filippov's predecessor, Colonel General Viktor Vlasov, shot himself at his office in February 2008, after the defence minister ordered a financial check of the Service's activities.
There are two contenders for Filippov's post, according to the paper's sources. One of them is an anonymous construction-industry official from St Petersburg, while the second man - Yevgeny Nikitenko - works for the Service.
"Nikitenko's candidacy will, most likely, be approved because he knows the specifics of the Defence Ministry's work and it will be easier to blame him for future setbacks in the provision of housing to military personnel," the source said.
Friends and enemies
A new military doctrine is to be finalised on a par with the December restructuring of the armed forces, as promised by representatives of the General Staff and Security Council. Although the doctrine's text has not been published in full, Colonel General Leonid Ivashov, president of the Academy of Geopolitical Problems, who has read the doctrine, says the military leadership has written a technically correct but impracticable document because the required material base is lacking.
Alexansder Konovalov argues that the army lacks strategic planning and clear priorities. "We must sit down once and clarify our theoretical enemies and development priorities," he said.
The new military doctrine lists Russia's enemies and allies. The United States and NATO account for 80% of threats facing Russia, according to Ivashov. "The remaining 20% may be posed by states voicing territorial claims on Russia, including Japan," Ivashov said.
Moreover, the doctrine mentions dangers linked with the deployment of military formations near the Russian border and attempts to destabilise the political situation in neighbouring states. The Collective Security Treaty Organisation and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation are named as Russia's allies.
"Quite possibly, Latin American countries will also become allies. But this is only a declaration because Russia has been virtually left without allies," Tsgyanok said.
"If we recall the August 2008 conflict, then we can see that no one had supported us at the time. Civilisations, rather than states, will confront each other in the 21st century. Consequently, Russia finds it important to streamline relations with the Islamic world, including Iran and Pakistan, the Orient, including India and China, and with the West. However, none of the three objectives has been accomplished to date," Tsyganok said.
Lilia Novikova, Denis Telmanov and Anastasia Shmagun