Today every Russian is well aware that only a memory remains of the former glory of the Soviet Army. The priorities in military domination on a global scale have changed and quite significantly. If twenty years ago there were two real forces - the USSR and the United States, today China and the armed forces of Western European states are taking the first roles, and only the United States retains its leading positions. Russia, thanks to the foundation laid, continues to be in the leading three, but if China is already ahead of our Armed Forces in many respects, then soon Germany, France and Great Britain, which are rapidly developing their military potential, will leave Russia behind. The most offensive thing in this situation for the Russian military is the lack of a proper response to such an unattractive situation on the part of the government. Many middle-aged Russians remember very well how demanding the communist government of the USSR was to the armed forces of its state, but is there a chance for modern representatives of the Communist Party to regain the former power and international recognition of our troops. On February 3, under the chairmanship of G. Zyuganov, the leader of the Russian communists, a roundtable was held in the State Duma, the main topic of which was a discussion of the problems of military reform and the defense capability of the Russian Federation. Among its participants were State Duma deputies, military leaders, scientists, representatives of the military-industrial complex.
In his opening remarks, G. Zyuganov noted that today, amid the crisis, the current government does not have effective levers of governing the country. Taking this into account, the forthcoming reform of the Armed Forces can be regarded as a real crime. The main task that the round table should solve is to comprehend and determine the exact reasons for such a development of the situation, which will undoubtedly help to develop measures to stop such a robbery. The leader of the Russian communists recalled that over the course of its history capitalism has already experienced two dozen crises. Two of which led to bloody world wars.
Deputy of the Communist Party faction, deputy. Chairman of the State Duma Committee on State Building and Constitutional Legislation, leader of the All-Russian Movement in Support of the Armed Forces, Military Science and Defense Industry V. Ilyukhin called the planned reform the last. After it, our country will have no Armed Forces left, and they will have to be formed anew. But in this situation, one should not place all the responsibility for this on the Minister of Defense A. Serdyukov. He is only a submissive performer. The main culprit of all that is happening is the former president of the country, and now the prime minister, V. Putin. It was during his leadership that the concept of criminal reform was developed. The current president D. Medvedev only automatically legalized it. V. Ilyukhin stressed that today the government is working against its own state, and the parliament is actually removed from solving global security problems.
Colonel-General L. Ivashov, President of the Academy of International Problems, noted that the leading states of the world have significantly increased military spending today. The West has abruptly changed the balance of power on a global scale in its favor. The United States and its European allies have made a breakthrough in military technology. Already today they are testing and adopting the fifth generation combat systems, while our army is armed with systems that were created during the Soviet era and represent the third generation. In late summer 2007, the United States conducted a successful combat test of cyber weapons capable of remotely affecting enemy computer networks and thereby incapacitating them.
Russia has lost the opportunity to maintain its military parity, as well as create strike forces. The military-industrial complex today is not an integral system, but a set of enterprises, which are mostly focused on foreign markets. The Russian government elite is behaving extremely carelessly and, moreover, criminally. As an illustrative example, L. Ivashov cited the work of the Norilsk Nickel company, which ships all the cobalt metal it produces to the United States. Overseas military designers have been transferred to the technology of manufacturing a continuous chemical laser, which is now used in the development of a missile defense system. In 1993, almost the entire stock of prepared weapons-grade uranium was sold in the United States. On the instructions of V. Putin, the Americans are being transferred secret technologies for the production of completely new types of tactical nuclear weapons.
As for the so-called military reformation of A. Serdyukov, it cannot adequately respond to any of today's challenges to Russia's security. The planned elimination of armies and regiments is thoughtless, stupid and useless. As a result, no more than a million servicemen will remain in the Russian armed forces, but 800-900 thousand civilian specialists will be involved in their service.
Admiral of the Fleet V. Selivanov, in the early 90s the Chief of the Main Staff of the Navy, spoke about the difficult situation of the Russian naval forces. There are practically no warships. Today, the Black Sea and Baltic fleets, taken together, are smaller in number than the 5th operational squadron of the USSR Navy, which was in the Mediterranean Sea. In the Baltic and the Black Sea, one submarine remained at the disposal of the sailors.
The combat strength of the fleet is in such a state that it is impossible to carry out a single significant naval operation. Over the course of 17 years, only two ships of a purely Russian construction were transferred to the troops: the diesel submarine "St. Petersburg" and the corvette "Guarding". All the rest are ships laid down in Soviet times. Today Russia has completely lost the ability to create aircraft-carrying ships and nuclear submarines, since the main production facilities are located in Ukraine.
General of the Army P. Deinekin, Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force in 1991-1998, dwelled on the existing problems of aviation. He said that today our long-range bombers are patrolling the borders of possible enemies at best in pairs. Whereas in the days of the USSR, sorties were often carried out by whole divisions, and these are 40 machines. P. Deinekin pointed out that the forthcoming reform of the Armed Forces is unlikely to be carried out with care for the servicemen, as well as their family members.
Of course, the facts that people close to the army and its problems spoke about look terrifying. From all of the above, one conclusion can be drawn: with such an attitude towards the armed forces, there is no hope for a leading position, and, moreover, the words of one of the great commanders sound like never before in modern Russia: “A state that does not feed its army will feed the enemy's army."
