Russia refuses a high-quality professional army. This conclusion can be drawn from a number of statements by representatives of the highest generals.
The head of the main organizational and mobilization department of the General Staff, General Vasily Smirnov, proposed at the hearings in the Federation Council to raise the upper level of the draft age from the current 27 to 30, to reduce the number of universities that provide deferrals from the army, to call on students after the second year. He would like to recruit recruits almost all year round, postponing the end of the spring draft from July 15 to August 31 (starting April 1, autumn draft - from October 1 to December 31), and oblige recruits to appear at military registration and enlistment offices without summons on pain of criminal prosecution.
Chief of the General Staff Nikolai Makarov soon corrected his subordinate. The Ministry of Defense is discussing the extension of the draft age, but not so radical (28? 29?). The ministry does not intend to amend laws to reduce the number of student deferrals and the number of universities with a military department. Makarov does not know the topic deeply or is cunning: the government can reduce the list of civil universities and academies whose graduates do not serve in the army without legislative changes. However, the draft law of the Ministry of Defense has been prepared and is in the government. The general, who wished to remain incognito, told Nezavisimaya Gazeta that the military's proposals had been approved in the Kremlin.
The arguments given by the generals are not new. There is a shortage of supplies in the army, there are too many deferrals from conscription, the number of draft evaders is growing, and the approaching demographic crisis will completely drain the army. To some extent, the Ministry of Defense wants to compensate for the very recent reduction in service life to one year (since 2008) by extending the draft age and terms of conscription.
The realization of the generals' intentions will mean that the manning of the Russian army is returning to the Soviet models of the 1980s. Until Mikhail Gorbachev's decree in May 1989 abolished recruitment for full-time students, almost universal conscription after the summer session was the norm. However, even in the days of the USSR, young people over 27 years old were not taken into the army.
This return is apparently caused by the failure of the army's contracting program. In February, General Makarov said bluntly: “We are not switching to a contract basis. Moreover, we are increasing the draft, and decreasing the contractual part”.
In 2003, the federal target program "Transition to the recruitment of a number of formations and military units" for 2004-2007 by military personnel undergoing military service under a contract was adopted. It stipulated that the number of contract soldiers and sergeants in permanent readiness units would increase from 22,100 in 2003 to 147,000 in 2008, and their total number would rise from 80,000 to 400,000. readiness numbered 100,000 contract soldiers, their total number in the army did not exceed half of the target - 200,000. The program failed. And it's not just about money: funding for the program increased from the initial 79 billion to 100 billion, of which 84 billion were spent. It turns out that the generals could not fulfill (or sabotaged) the orders of the country's top political leadership in peacetime. Who can guarantee that general disobedience will not be repeated in an emergency?
The Ministry of Defense was unable to organize and make professional service in the army attractive and sees a way out in plugging the resulting hole with an increase in the number of conscripts. It is clear that the quality of these soldiers, drafted for a year, will be lower than the quality of contract soldiers.
The rejection of the transition to a professional army promises many sad consequences for the future of Russia. The appeal of 27-29-year-old university graduates, who have become in-demand professionals, can cause significant damage to the economy and put an end to the country's modernization. Many promising professionals would prefer a one-year break in their careers to travel abroad. It will be curious, for example, to look at the work of the draft board in the Skolkovo innovation city (however, if it has its own militia, why not create its own army?).
