By BARRY RENFREW

Associated Press Writer

Friday, May 23, 1997

MOSCOW (AP) -- President Boris Yeltsin named a new defense minister today and said he was determined to press ahead with sharp military cuts and other reforms to ensure Russia has effective defenses.

Gen. Igor Sergeyev was made defense minister and Gen. Anatoly Kvashnin was named acting chief of the general staff, the government said. Sergeyev was commander of strategic missile forces, the country's main nuclear force.

Yeltsin unceremoniously dismissed Igor Rodionov from the defense post on Thursday and savagely rebuked the high command for failing to cut troops numbers in the 1.7-million army, which is ill equipped, poorly funded and demoralized.

The president met with Sergeyev and Kvashnin at the Kremlin today and stressed that reforms had to be carried out. Yeltsin said Russia needs a smaller, more affordable force that would still provide effective defense.

``During the talks they discussed the key directions of military reform, the main goal of which is the creation of a reliable defense,'' the Kremlin said in a statement.

Kvashnin, who was military commander in the northern Caucasus region, will head the general staff, which oversees the military. Yeltsin dismissed Gen. Viktor Samsonov from the post when he fired Rodionov.

The Russian armed forces are in chaos, with officers and soldiers going months without pay and proper rations. The military has received few new weapons in recent years and its combat ability has all but collapsed.

At the same time, several top generals have been dismissed and arrested for embezzling millions of dollars and other crimes.

Yeltsin, who is trying to get stalled political and economic reforms going again, said today the country needed forces that were both effective and in line with what the government can afford.

The defense shakeup comes amid a major debate over the military, which was humiliated when it failed to defeat a small guerrilla army during a 22-month war in the breakaway Chechnya region.

Reformers want a smaller, professional and modernized military. But such a force would be more expensive because of its need for advanced equipment and skilled personnel.

Many generals argue that since Russia does not have the funds for a Western-style military, a traditional army with huge numbers of soldiers is the only option. Some critics say the generals want a larger military because manpower cuts would also mean far fewer generals.

Rodionov, 60, who became defense minister last July, had proposed swiftly cutting 300,000 servicemen and slashing the army's combat divisions from 78 to 12. But he moved slowly in implementing the cuts, apparently caught between Yeltsin and generals who opposed cuts.

Rodionov had ruled out swift reforms -- especially the idea of making the military an all-volunteer force by the year 2000. Yeltsin promised during last summer's presidential election to end Russia's unpopular conscription.

The military is starved of funds because of a government funding crisis and Russia's six-year recession. The government has sharply cut spending because of drastic shortfalls in tax and other revenue.

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Johnson's Russia List

23 May 1997

djohnson@cdi.org