First, a couple of quotes.
In fact, over the past two years, we have heard something like this more than once. We heard from the Chief of the General Staff Nikolai Makarov and the Commander of the Airborne Troops Vladimir Shamanov - in fact, the only military leaders who risked openly supporting the "Serdyukov" reforms. Reforms, which are based on the elimination of incomplete units and formations (which constituted 84 percent of all units and formations), which required additional staffing and mobilization of reservists to participate in hostilities. Reforms that require the release of economic officers.
The rest of the military leaders prefer to keep quiet. Firstly, because everything that happens in the Armed Forces is deeply contrary to their inner conviction about how army development should be conducted. Secondly, because it is still unknown how the matter will end, and it is better to stay away from dubious reforms.
And now, in public, under the cameras, the truth about the former state of the Armed Forces was told to the President, who honored the ostentatious maneuvers in Mulino with his presence, the main people in the current army - the commanders of brigades and squadrons. Of course, I'm not so naive as to suggest that Colonels Timofeev and Ryazantsev (probably not the worst commanders in the Armed Forces) themselves came up with such phrases: … And it became obvious that modern wars are being replaced by wars of functionally selective impact with the use of weapons developed on the basis of advanced technologies. But no one stood in front of the military officers with a pistol pointed to his forehead. And we can assume that they said (at least in part) about what they really think. In the end, they need to explain to themselves and to those around them why they fired two-thirds (415 out of 611 in the case of Colonel Ryazantsev) of their former colleagues.
The fact remains. Despite all the "landing" scandals with the Minister of Defense, the President, who is also the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, considered it necessary to support all the decisive and extremely painful changes taking place in the Armed Forces. Dmitry Anatolyevich said many more things in Mulino that any liberal military analyst would gladly subscribe to, including and (scary to say) the author of these lines.
“Anyone who cannot produce modern equipment will not supply it. I appeal to all directors of our defense enterprises. Either they will do normal equipment, or they will have to break contracts with such structures."
“We, of course, will return in the near future to the issue of providing for contractors. At the same time, we must understand that the question of manning the Armed Forces ultimately depends on how we solve the problem with contract soldiers, because they will bear a significant part of the official duties within the existing staff organization of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation … more I repeat once again, without modern, well-paid, socially motivated contractors in the army, in the Armed Forces, of course, nothing will happen."
Thus, the state, represented by Medvedev, at least understands that the Russian military-industrial complex is not capable of producing the necessary military products. I suspect that some time will pass, and Russian bosses will realize that the domestic military industry, in principle, will not be able to produce the necessary weapons until it is reformed. Moreover, these reforms will be directly opposite to the nonsense that Vladimir Putin and Sergei Ivanov did, who restored in the form of "united corporations" a parody of the Soviet military-industrial ministries.
Even more remarkable is the fact that the Commander-in-Chief clearly states that a new Russian army cannot be created without contract soldiers. I suspect that in a couple of years, the Kremlin chiefs will be forced to understand: there are no other ways, except for the creation of a contract Armed Forces.
And, most importantly, the president assured: contrary to rumors, from January 1, 2012, the salary of military personnel will be increased threefold. A lieutenant of the Russian army will receive 50,000 rubles, which is no less than the salary of an American lieutenant.
The problem is different. Simultaneously with extremely reasonable things, Dmitry Anatolyevich said a lot of nonsense. For example, the need to have military bases abroad. I suspect that an attempt to create a system of military strongholds abroad will require exactly as much money as is necessary both for the maintenance of contract soldiers and for the effective production of weapons. I also suspect that the main line of opponents of the "Serdyukov" reforms is an attempt to take money from the government. Spray them on the senseless maintenance of military bases abroad, the production of unnecessary weapons.
Strictly speaking, this is the main problem of the military reform. Or the reformers will have enough mental strength and will to resist the screams about the unfortunate officers dismissed due to complete inability to serve. Or they will fall for calls to "restore the might of a great superpower." Obviously, there is no money for the maintenance of a semblance of the Soviet army.
