The results of the autumn conscription campaign are just being summed up, and from the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation there are alarming reports that some regions have not fulfilled the conscription plan. And it is already clear that for the first time in recent years, the Armed Forces are experiencing a shortage of soldiers and sergeants on call. At the same time, the stratum of contract soldiers continues to decline.
Speaking recently at a closed session of the State Duma, Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov admitted that "the needs of the military organization of the state in young replenishment are not fully met." This means that there is a shortage of personnel in the army and navy. Its quantitative parameters are classified as a classified category. But even a rough estimate shows that it is at least 20%.
According to official data, there are now less than 500 thousand conscript soldiers and sergeants, 181 thousand officers and about 120 thousand contract soldiers serving in the troops, while the regular strength of the army is equal to one million servicemen. Of course, the shortage of troops affects their combat readiness. But the measures taken to solve the problem, frankly, can hardly be called adequate.
The editorial office from a number of garrisons receives information about a significant reduction in the stratum of contract soldiers in military units and subunits. For example, Major General Yury Sosedov, Chairman of the Council of Veterans of the 76th Pskov Airborne Division (VDD), told NG that the layer of contract soldiers in this illustrious unit in 2010 fell from 20% to 12%. The reason for the outflow is the low pay of professionals. It is about 11 thousand rubles, while the average salary in the Pskov region is about 18 thousand rubles. According to the general, the leadership of the Ministry of Defense, in order to save the military budget, deliberately reduces the layer of professionals in the troops. An interlocutor of "NG" said that recently the command of the special forces brigade, which is stationed near Pskov, received an instruction from the military department not to renew contracts for professional soldiers. Instead, they will be conscripted soldiers and sergeants from training units (after three months of accelerated training courses). “What the spetsnaz brigades are doing is out of the question. It is they who continue to carry out not training, but combat missions in the hot spots of the North Caucasus. You cannot bring up a good spetsnaz fighter even in a year, especially in three months. I don’t want to croak, but it means that in a combat situation the probability of human losses will increase,”says the veteran of the Airborne Forces.
Major-General Yuri Netkachev, who for a long time served in various command positions in the Caucasus, told NG about the facts of reductions in the stratum of contract servicemen in some combat-ready units and formations of the Southern Military District. He is also concerned about the possibility of casualties on the part of personnel if they carry out combat missions in the North Caucasus. And the other day the Internet newspaper "Kursiv Ivanovo" published an article "Unnecessary puppies of the Russian army." It sets out a letter to President Dmitry Medvedev of servicemen under the contract of a military unit stationed in the city of Kineshma. The appeal to the Supreme Commander says: "Since the fall of 2010, the command of the unit began to persuade us to resign" on our own ", otherwise they will be fired due to non-compliance with the conditions of contact with the further impossibility of reinstatement in military service." The letter notes that "at present, the threats of the command have begun to be implemented in practice and those who do not agree to voluntary dismissal have begun to join the ranks of the city's unemployed and homeless people."As representatives of the Kineshma administration told NG, there is the only military unit - the brigade of radiation, chemical and biological protection of the Western Military District. It, like the special forces, must at any time be ready to eliminate man-made and natural disasters caused, among other things, by the use of biological and chemical weapons by terrorists. That is why the brigade was staffed with professionals as a matter of priority in 2003-2007. Now, for some reason, professionals are no longer needed.
“Since the number of contract soldiers in the army is decreasing, there is no need to make a tragedy,” says Igor Korotchenko, a member of the Public Council under the Ministry of Defense. - The military budget is not rubber. Even with those small salaries, professionals still do not have enough money for them. There are other priorities. Therefore, the Ministry of Defense has decided to recruit contract servicemen only for specific, highly deficient positions necessary for the operation of sophisticated equipment and determining the combat capability of military units."
Major General Yuri Sosedov, who at one time commanded the 76th Airborne Division, has a different opinion. He believes that the current leadership of the Ministry of Defense treats professional soldiers and officers in the army as if they were cattle. Military reform, the general believes, has reached an impasse. Young people do not want to join the army either by conscription or by contract, because the country lacks a clear program for the patriotic education of young people. “There are no not only material, but also moral incentives for serving in the army. Such an army is doomed to defeat even before the battle begins,”the veteran believes. He, like the contract soldiers from Kineshma, on behalf of the veterans of the Airborne Forces sent a corresponding appeal to the Supreme Commander-in-Chief. There are no replies to such appeals yet.
