For many years now, the issues of reforming the Russian army have not left the agenda, not only in the Ministry of Defense itself, but also on various discussion platforms. At the same time, diametrically opposite opinions about the need to develop the Russian Armed Forces can often be heard at the same table.
For example, at a recent meeting of the Valdai International Discussion Club, formed in 2004, a very interesting opinion was expressed by Konstantin Makienko, a member of the expert council under the Defense Committee of the State Duma of the Russian Federation. This opinion is that the Russian army is already beginning to impress with the intensity of the exercises and is about to reach the level of the USSR in the eighties in terms of this indicator, but it turns out that the Armed Forces need to be urgently reduced by at least another 40%.
Makienko motivates this by the fact that today Russia does not have truly combat-ready military units, but is there only one nuclear shield, which at the very least gives us the opportunity to preserve our borders from foreign aggression. And if the fighting efficiency leaves much to be desired, then, they say, why finance such a large army … Among other things, the respected expert states that the army in modern conditions will have to be formed to the maximum from the young recruits called up in the North Caucasian republics, because it is the Caucasian guys that are distinguished by excellent pre-conscription preparation.
With all due respect to the expert Konstantin Makienko, his position looks too radical and unacceptable. Why?
First, it is difficult to imagine that the country's army, whose population is more than 143 million people, collapsed to the level of half a million servicemen and mainly consisted of people who represent exclusively the North Caucasus. Even if we take into account that the pre-conscription training of an average young resident of the republics of Ingushetia or Dagestan is higher than the training of an average 18-year-old Voronezh or Ryazan resident, this does not mean at all that it is necessary to subject only those who are better prepared to conscription. After all, the army, according to its purpose, is not a higher educational institution, where it is necessary to select people who have demonstrated the best training against the background of others. A call to the Armed Forces remains a call to teach a young man at least the basics of military wisdom in the time allotted for service in order to perform certain tasks.
Secondly, the threats to Russia, to be honest, are not diminishing in comparison with the times of the Soviet Union, so that the official authorities allow themselves to carry out a radical reduction of the army. Of course, reducing the number of military personnel can free up serious material resources, but at a time when the modernization of the army, in fact, is just beginning, it is strange to talk about the economic benefits of such, if one may say so, an enterprise. It is possible to reduce or increase the size of the army by several hundred thousand "bayonets" when all the necessary conditions have been created for its full-fledged functioning and the presence of a developed base for carrying out combat missions. So far, with all our desire, we cannot boast that all these problems have been resolved in our Armed Forces. And therefore, the reduction of what has already been reduced to a historical minimum, in modern conditions can directly affect the country's defense capability.
Is the following fact consistent with the words of Mr. Makienko or is it just an accident, but for the first time in 20 years, a call for military service was made from the Chechen Republic. Each conscript will serve on the territory of Chechnya in the 46th brigade and regiment named after Akhmad Kadyrov. At the same time, the appeal caused a truly unprecedented excitement from the local population. With 150 places allocated for service, more than one and a half thousand people arrived at the assembly point, wishing to become servicemen of the Russian army. According to the officers of the assembly point, they had to act according to a competitive method, selecting for the passage only the best of the best, both in health and in physical fitness.
Of course, the call of young fighters for military service within their native Republic can be called a very positive move on the part of the authorities. This solves several problems at once: it increases the size of the Russian army at a time when many employees of military commissariats talk about shortages, and in addition, removes the issue of interethnic tension, which has recently created serious difficulties in the ranks of the Armed Forces. The formation of units in the North Caucasus on a principle based on the appeal of local young people is a very productive thing.
However, at about the same time with the publication of information about the renewal of the Chechen conscription, news agencies published materials that look at least rather strange. The fact is that when the correspondents of Nezavisimaya Gazeta counted the number of those called up for military service during the Spring 2012 draft, it turned out that there are 31.5 thousand more recruits than indicated in the presidential decree … How is this possible? The same question was also addressed to representatives of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, one of whom, General Goremykin, said that the number was not exceeded, and the correspondents simply confused those who were called up with those who could still be called up … The general logic, of course, is strange, but we will not think that the "bust" with recruits is due to the fact that someone in the military registration and enlistment offices simply decided to call someone else on paper - just in case, as a result of which an extra 31.5 thousand fighters and surfaced. Of course we won't …
True, after calculating the total number of fighters in the Armed Forces, which, admittedly, is very, very difficult to do today (either due to the presence of military secrets, or due to the chaos in the accounting and reporting documents), it turned out that if the "spring overkill" was, then why is there still a shortage (about 800 thousand instead of 1 million). Is the very plan voiced by Konstantin Makienko at the meeting of the Valdai Club?
But a strange thing turns out: we all understand that a further reduction of the army at this stage is unacceptable, we are told the official level of the number of the Russian army. But suddenly the official number, which is announced by the Ministry of Defense (800 thousand military personnel), is just an empty shell. The whole problem is that today, perhaps, not a single person in our country will undertake, with an accuracy of at least a hundred people, to name the size of our army. And if this number is unknown to anyone, then, of course, we can talk about anything: at least about reductions, at least about doubling - the result can be expected for a long time.
In general, all reflections on changes in the size of the Armed Forces and the percentage of ethnic groups within the Armed Forces will look strange until the appeal becomes transparent, and the notorious military secret ceases to be another screen for solving the personal problems of people in generals' uniforms.
