On Wednesday, Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov, during the "government hour" in the State Duma, spoke about the situation in the implementation of the state defense order. As a result of the conversation, which took place without the presence of the press, the deputies were very disappointed. As it was established, the defense order after last year again, and this year, may be disrupted.
The State Duma deputies, who left the hall with a dejected look, said that Serdyukov admitted that the state defense order for this year is in fact currently seriously lagging behind the planned indicators. As it was established, the conversation was not only about 2010, when military officials received a harsh "thrashing" from the president for the failure of the defense order. As one of the deputies noted, the Minister of Defense said that in 2011 only 13% of the contracts of the total volume of the defense order that had been planned were fulfilled. For Russia, this is a complete breakdown.
Not only the representatives of the Duma opposition, who, in the person of the Russian Communist Party, again proposed to Serdyukov to resign, admit the whole "lamentable" situation with the fulfillment of the defense order. Igor Barinov, deputy chairman of the State Duma's defense committee and member of the United Russia party, explained that the reason for the failure to fulfill the state defense order mainly lies in the vague pricing system and the complete absence of competition among enterprises. The deputy also noted that enterprises engaged in the production of military equipment receive money from the state budget, while prices are taken from the ceiling, not remembering that one or another model of weapons in Russia is produced by only one or a couple of enterprises.
Anatoly Lokot, a State Duma deputy from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, claims that the defense minister also hastened to shift the blame for the failure of the defense order to the enterprises of the military-industrial complex. The deputy also said that Serdyukov accuses enterprises of inability to produce modern types of weapons and they cannot cope with the tasks of the Ministry of Defense. But the communist is still convinced that the reason for what is happening is mainly in the complete lack of professionalism of the leadership of the Ministry of Defense itself, as well as in the "inconsistency of actions" between the Military-Industrial Commission, headed by Sergei Ivanov, and the Ministry of Defense. Note that Mr. Ivanov himself previously argued that the placement of the state defense order, in general, should have been completed before the end of May 2011.
From the words of the members of parliament, it was also possible to learn that not everything is so smooth in the country with the system of state procurement of modern types of weapons. According to Lokot, Serdyukov said that there are problems with the S-400 and Bulava. Barinov also added that the Ministry of Defense has begun to purchase some of the latest sniper rifles, as well as Israeli drones. The deputy also noted that UAVs are very expensive, even if they are superior to Russian copies in some parameters, but they are capable of working only in the summer.
Also in his speech, Anatoly Serdyukov said that the Ministry's plans do not include the purchase of German Leopard tanks. Likewise, the purchase of Russian-made tanks. The minister explains the reason for the refusal by the fact that these combat vehicles do not meet the "requirements".
Also, the Minister of Defense, answering journalists' questions, calmly stated that Russian tankers would fight on what the Ministry of Defense had available.
Still, modern military equipment will hardly be needed by an army that cannot give a good education to its soldiers. Perhaps, on this basis, the Ministry of Defense did not object to granting deferrals from military service to those high school graduates who turned 18 at the beginning of the spring draft. On Wednesday, the deputies adopted the corresponding amendments to the law "On conscription and military service" in the first reading, and the 2nd and 3rd readings are expected to take place by the end of this week.
During the meeting, the head of the Russian State Duma Defense Committee, Viktor Zavarzin, explained that the deferral from the army would be valid until the start of the autumn conscription, which begins in Russia every year on October 1. Zavarzin also noted that this will enable school graduates to exercise their legal right to continue their studies, for example, to enter a higher educational institution. According to Zavarzin, the new law will delay conscription for more than 50,000 graduates. Meanwhile, according to the Ministry of Education and Science, in the period 2012-2019, the number of such "beneficiaries" will amount to about 700 thousand annually due to the fact that, starting in 1993, many children began to study at school with seven, not six.
Also in September, the State Duma plans to postpone the call for graduate students, as well as for graduates of technical schools, vocational schools and colleges. The head of the State Duma's Education Committee Grigory Balykhin said that post-graduate students still have a postponement from military service for the period of study. He also explained that there is some ambiguity in the current law when it speaks about graduate students who study in universities that have state accreditation in some specialties and areas of training. But in this case, we are talking about the accreditation of the university as a whole, without referring to the accreditation of graduate school. Balykhin also added that the problem with the recruitment of graduate students to the Russian army was most of all inflated directly by the draft commissions, which dare to interpret the law at their own discretion.
