The Russian government promptly responded to the order issued by President Dmitry Medvedev to find and punish those responsible for disrupting the implementation of the state defense order in 2010. As a result of punitive sanctions, five officials have lost their high positions; another 11 received severe reprimands. But according to the government, this is not the end of the search for responsible persons - over the next few months, the list of those who will be punished may expand. Nevertheless, today's package dismissal of military officials and general directors looks for the most part not as a punishment, but as another attempt to "hush up" the scandalous story of a failed state defense order.
The search for those responsible for disrupting the implementation of the state defense order in 2010 began in mid-March 2011, when Russian President Dmitry Medvedev promised to carefully investigate what had happened. As the president said, “part of the tasks set for the state defense order, unfortunately, was failed. In the shortest possible time, I will conduct a debriefing with a precise definition of responsible persons, both from industry and from government structures. How the presidential investigation actually took place was not reported in public sources.
On May 10, 2011, a working meeting was held on the future development of the military-industrial complex. At the meeting, the central topic again was the failure to fulfill last year's state defense order and the search for those responsible for this. “It is unacceptable when important decisions are made, and it should be said at the highest level, funds are allocated, but products are not supplied,” the president said and once again quoted an excerpt from his message to the Federal Assembly, which was announced in 2009.
In that message, Dmitry Medvedev solemnly guaranteed that in 2010 the troops would receive as rearmament “more than 30 sea- and land-based ballistic missiles, five modern Iskander-type missile systems, about 300 armored vehicles, 30 helicopters, 28 aircraft, 3 nuclear submarines, 1 corvette-class combat ship, as well as 11 space vehicles. 2010 passed and as it turned out, the state defense order was implemented by 70%. The military did not wait for the promised project 20380 corvette-type ship, 3 submarines of the 955 Borey and 885 Yasen type, 6 Yak-130 training aircraft, 76 BMP-3 and 5 spacecraft …
The President ended his speech with the following phrase: “As you perfectly understand, when I spoke, I didn’t come up with it myself - everything was agreed with practically everyone sitting here. Not done why? I am waiting for an informed answer with suggestions. You must understand that at the time of these already more than half of those present at this meeting would be engaged in active hard, physical labor in clean air: it is necessary to be responsible for the obligations taken under our responsibility, we just look completely unacceptable in this sense. " After just a week, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov provided Medvedev with a report "on disciplinary measures for disrupting the implementation of the state defense order."
Thanks to the active and prompt actions of the government, General Director of Izhmash V. Grodetsky and his colleague from the Research Institute of Electromechanics A. Khokhlovich lost their positions. In addition, the head of the department for the development of the organization of orders for aircraft and weapons, Colonel I. Krylov, deputy. Head of the Main Directorate of the Russian Armed Forces for Research and Development, Major General N. Vaganov and Deputy. Vice-Admiral N. Borisov, Commander-in-Chief of the Navy for Armaments. The general director of NPO Mashinostroyenia A. Leonov and the general designer and general director of Information Satellite Systems N. Testoedov were severely reprimanded.
Disciplinary and administrative sanctions were also applied to eight more heads of defense industry enterprises. In addition, similar sanctions await the general director of the shipbuilding enterprise "Sevmash", Severodvinsk N. Kalistratova, deputy. Head of Roscosmos A. Shilov and heads of subsidiaries included in the United Aircraft Corporation. It should be noted that earlier claims were made against Nikolai Kalistratov only for the project of modernization and maintenance of the aircraft carrier "Admiral Gorshkov" under the terms of the contract with India.
According to the data published by the Kremlin press service, the announced measures "are quite enough both to raise personal responsibility and performance discipline, and to prevent repeated cases of violation of the terms, transfer of products to the customer."
In the show trial of public flogging, it was not without overlaps. In particular, a Kremlin press release states that Major General II Vaganov, Deputy Chief of the Main Directorate of the Armed Forces, was dismissed from his post. Obviously, a typographical error crept in here, since before this position was really Major General Vaganov, but his name and fatherland was Nikolai Ivanovich (N. I.), and not the mysterious I. I. It is curious that Major General Nikolai Vaganov was fired, according to Medvedev's order back in October last year, that is, long before it became clear that the execution of the state defense order had failed.
According to an incomprehensible logic, the deputy was also included in the number of those dismissed. Vice-Admiral N. Borisov, Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy for Armaments. Borisov was dismissed from his post on April 19, 2011, and the official reason for his resignation is indicated his incompetence and unprofessionalism during negotiations on the acquisition of French helicopter carriers of the Mistral class - the vice admiral put his signature under a protocol that was not beneficial for Russia with the French side about the configuration and cost of ships, he had no right to do this.
According to the newspaper "Vedomosti", V. Grodetsky was dismissed from the post of director of "Izhmash" in March 2011. The reason for this was the accusation of the collapse of a powerful enterprise. However, according to the official version, Grodetsky was sent on a long vacation, and M. Kuzyuk was appointed his deputy for the vacation period. Currently, the interim head of Izhmash, together with his team of employees and the expert group of Russian Technologies, is looking for real opportunities to bring the company out of the economic crisis.
A. Leonov, the head of NPO Mashinostroyenia, had already been reprimanded somewhat earlier for the technical delay in experimental design and research work. The former head of the UAC A. Fedorov, who was dismissed in early 2011 for disrupting the fulfillment of the contract for the supply of Il-76MF transporters to Jordan, was not among those who were punished for an inexplicable reason. According to the obvious logic of things, the former head of the KLA should simply be on the list of Deputy Prime Minister Ivanov.
Considering all this large-scale and universal punishment of the guilty, it looks more like a desperate attempt to "hush up" the unpleasant story with the failure of the state defense order, so that the president's disfavor and an unequivocal hint of "active hard, physical labor in the open air" bypassed other potential guilty parties. Indeed, in reality, people who had previously been punished for completely different offenses earlier lost their high positions for disrupting the state defense order, in other words, in fact, no one was punished under the conditions of the check. The severe reprimands handed down can hardly be mistaken for a harsh punishment, and the dismissal of those already dismissed - and even more so.
But what is strange in the course of the report, Mr. Ivanov, apparently, somehow forgot to mention that since March 20, 2006, it is he who has been the chairman of the Military-Industrial Commission created under the Russian government and it is his responsibility to oversee the defense-industrial complex. The commission itself, among other things, is responsible for the formation and control over the implementation of the state defense order. By and large, in the above list of guilty, which was announced by Ivanov, the first item should be his own name, because in the end the implementation of the state defense order failed directly under his sensitive and precise leadership.
Another surprising oddity is that the failed state defense order of 2010 was the reason for the manifestation of such a violent negative reaction from the president and the government, is that if you recall, the implementation of the state defense order of 2009, according to data provided by the Accounts Chamber of Russia, was only 50%, however no punitive sanctions took place then. Earlier, some representatives of the domestic defense-industrial complex expressed complaints that funds under contracts concluded within the framework of the state defense order are transferred with significant delays. In addition, the work contracts themselves are also concluded extremely late. This explains the regular failure to meet the deadlines for the delivery of weapons and military equipment. At the same time, as an excuse, a number of Russian officials, including Ivanov himself, explained that the late terms for concluding contracts and transferring funds are associated with the fact that defense enterprises overcharge prices for their products.
It should be noted that the procedure for conducting a state defense order itself is not public and open and has always been and remains associated with a very high level of corruption. At the same time, if we omit the huge corruption component, the growth in the cost of defense products is quite understandable. It is clear that this growth is precisely supported by the government itself and the Russian military department. The point is that in previous years, all defense industry enterprises in the first half of the year received an insignificant part of payment for the order, and most of the funds were transferred at the end of the year. At the same time, the money that was transferred at the beginning was very often not enough to fulfill the obligations under the concluded contracts, and companies were simply forced to apply for loans to banks.
In the near future, a new federal target program for the modernization of the decaying military-industrial complex will begin to operate in the country. Until 2020, it is planned to spend 3 trillion rubles for these purposes. 60% of the planned amount will be allocated from the state budget, and the remaining 40% - from the funds of the defense enterprises themselves. The main goal, according to Putin, is a significant rejuvenation of personnel, modernization and renovation of production and investment in development and research work.
During a press conference on February 24, 2011, while still the first deputy. Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation V. Popovkin spoke about the financing of the state armaments program for the period 2011-2020, for which it is planned to allocate 20 trillion rubles. This worked out scheme also reflects the annual stages of financing the state defense order. Until 2015, Russian defense enterprises must receive 700 billion rubles to implement the possibility of concluding contracts for the supply of military equipment and weapons after 2015. Due to insignificant financing, the deputy minister explained, companies will be able to obtain loans from banks for the implementation of future contracts. It is very clear that if an enterprise receives a loan from a bank, it must repay this loan after a while, and with interest. Of course, the interest is small, given the fact that strategic enterprises can use loans at preferential rates, but no one will lend money for a long time just like that. The need to subsequently repay debts with accrued interest to banks affects the final profits of enterprises, which, in turn, try to compensate for financial losses through a slight increase in prices for finished products. That is, the cost of weapons and military equipment to some extent depends on how things are on the credit market and the exchange rate. It should also be borne in mind that, in general, all contractors of the head enterprises of the military-industrial complex often require one hundred percent advance payment for their services.
On May 12, 2011, Prime Minister Putin solemnly promised to correct the current situation. He said that the Russian Ministry of Defense would get a real opportunity to make a 100 percent advance for the state defense order. The corresponding bill is currently being developed by the government. But, the document, having become the current law, will make it possible to make 100% prepayment only in cooperation with large enterprises confirming their legal capacity.
However, the Defense Ministry itself claims that a significant delay in the signing of contracts is associated with a long-term agreement on the cost and technical equipment of equipment - the military, as a rule, are trying to "knock out" lower prices. This is where the circle closes - enterprises cannot reduce prices because they take money on credit, the military does not sign contracts because they strive to achieve the maximum price reduction, and the Russian government cannot introduce 100% advance payments under contracts, due to the fact that that he fears the waste of significant funds without visible return.
