Anatoly Serdyukov postpones a direct conversation with officers about mutual respect and decency
The leadership of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation excluded from their plans the third All-Army meeting of officers of the army and navy, scheduled for November 19 this year. This was reported by one news agency. "The official paper on the cancellation or postponement of this event has not yet been received by our department, but in the plan for November it really does not exist," a representative of the military department confirmed to NVO. - Agree, in today's situation it would be strange to discuss the formation of corporate ethics of command personnel. They did not dissuade us that the meeting "hung" because of the violent reaction in society to the scandal that happened in the Seltsy training center between Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov and the head of the Ryazan Higher Command School of the Airborne Forces, Colonel Andrei Krasov, about which we wrote in detail in the past issue of the newspaper (No. 40 from 22–28.10.2010). Throat grasping and profanity in the communication between the minister and the head of the university have already turned the announced topic of the upcoming forum into an outright mockery. But if it only boiled down to this ugly skirmish.
Recall that in January 2010, news agencies reported on the completed preparation of proposals for the All-Army Conference, which, in accordance with Order No. 866 of the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation, was scheduled to take place in November. Its topic was determined after the military department, at the direction of State Secretary - Deputy Defense Minister Nikolai Pankov, studied the experience of forming officer ethics, accumulated in the Strategic Missile Forces, the Space Forces and in one of the main directorates of the General Staff. Before the meeting, it was decided to launch a broad discussion in military units and ships on the development of a kind of code of honor for a Russian officer. In close connection with this issue, it was also planned to discuss the attitude of society and government bodies at all levels to the officer corps, the problems of social and legal protection of this category of servicemen. Indeed, the opinion has long spread among the army that the adoption of a code of honor should strengthen the moral core of the officers and at the same time raise their social status. As they say, tough exactingness towards oneself cannot but arouse the respect and support of others.
The Minister of Defense, signing the order to hold the All-Army Conference, of course, was fully familiar with the ideological concept and plan of preparation for the forum. But he hardly took all this seriously. The environment in which he now has to work was and remains for him, apparently, he is too far from interests and problems, which worries the absolute majority of people in uniform. It probably could not have been otherwise. A civilian specialist, professionally sharpened for solving purely financial problems and having accumulated relevant experience, finding himself among the military (and in his position above them), continues to put the economy at the forefront. And he does not want or cannot see real people behind the numbers, their destinies, concerns. His credo is to reduce the number, disband a military unit or institution, redistribute funds, and put up the released property for sale. To make the army compact and efficient … What is the use of "abstractions" like an officer's honor in such cases? For a man who wore epaulettes for a year and a half, this is probably an incomprehensible concept.
Although the minister still had to think about such things in recent days. When the case in Seltsy literally blew up the Runet blogosphere, and then public organizations of veterans of the Armed Forces made appeals to the president, calling for the resignation of Anatoly Serdyukov. They ask the head of state "to immediately stop the insane and voluntaristic reforms carried out by a group of amateurs, alien to military affairs, who can only destroy, dismember, sell and destroy what is left of the Armed Forces."
It became obvious that dissatisfaction in society with not fully thought out and verified measures to "give a new promising appearance to the army and navy" had already reached a critical point. Such a complex, but undoubtedly necessary reform of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation begins to lose its attractiveness, is perceived by the army people as a kind of profanation. So in the State Duma, a commission was created to check the scandalous case in Seltsy, which served as a detonator of sharp criticism against the head of the military department. And an NVO source in the Kremlin confirmed that President Dmitry Medvedev is also aware of the events and "is very concerned about the emerging situation."
The situation around the RF Armed Forces forced the Ministry of Defense to take vigorous actions to protect the reform initiatives. Moreover, objectively, a lot has been done there that is really useful for the army and navy. Finally, four Joint Strategic Commands have been created. The intensity of combat training among the troops has noticeably increased. Almost all military units have become permanent readiness units. But for some reason, the Ministry of Defense decided to defend their achievements with some strange fire-fighting methods.
Organized an emergency meeting of Anatoly Serdyukov with veterans of the Armed Forces, retired military commanders and leaders of the RF Defense Ministry and the former USSR, who are part of the so-called paradise group - the Service of General Inspectors. And they promised them that soon a body would be created in the Ministry of Defense to work with veterans. Presumably, the calculation was made on the unconditional readiness of the participants in the meeting, who, by the way, receive, in addition to pensions, also a budget salary, to help reduce the critical attitude in the entire veteran movement.
And as for the cancellation of the All-Army Conference, it is clear that fostering respect for people in uniform for themselves, as well as society for them, is impossible if the pay of officers is less than the average for the country, and the solution of their housing issue is being postponed all the time. It was not enough for this and many other problems to be talked about in full voice at the November forum. It's not worth the risk.
