Washington Post

26 June 1997

[for personal use only]

EX-GENERAL WARNS THAT `EXTINCTION' IS DESTINY OF RUSSIA'S NUCLEAR FORCES

By David Hoffman

MOSCOW, June 25 -- A former Russian general who is a leading member of parliament has warned President Boris Yeltsin publicly that Russia's strategic nuclear forces are heading for "extinction" and has called on army officers to organize themselves against the Kremlin's plans to shrink the military.

The warning came in an extraordinarily bitter, open letter from Lev Rokhlin, who led Russian troops in the assault on Grozny, the capital of Chechnya, at the outset of the war there in December 1994, and later was elected to the lower house of parliament, the State Duma. Rokhlin is chairman of the Duma's defense committee and a member of the Our Home Is Russia faction, which was organized by senior members of Yeltsin's government for the 1995 parliamentary elections.

"The strategic nuclear forces are destined for extinction," Rokhlin said, echoing a similar warning made earlier this year by Defense Minister Igor Rodionov, who was later fired by Yeltsin. "At the present time, everything is being done to this end."

"There are no means to maintain" the nuclear forces, Rokhlin added. "There is no financing for the work to extend the life of the missiles that are on combat duty and have exhausted their guaranteed term of service. The necessary funds are not allocated to work out new types of weapons. . . ."

When Rodionov issued his warning earlier this year, it was dismissed here and in Washington as rhetoric to wangle more cash from the government. However, Western diplomatic sources said recently that they take the warnings seriously and believe the comments reflect a deterioration in the Russian nuclear forces, both in command-and-control systems and missile readiness.

Rokhlin is considered to be close to many high-ranking generals and has appeared often as a spokesman for the military. His letter, addressed to Yeltsin as well as to Russian officers, was especially blunt in laying blame for the Chechen war and the army's woes on Yeltsin personally and in calling on Russian officers to take matters into their own hands.

"You bear a personal responsibility for unleashing the war in Chechnya," Rokhlin wrote to Yeltsin. "And having made a decision to use the troops, you then surrendered the army. . . . Against mercenaries and mature men, you threw into the battle 18-year-olds, boys who had not held guns in their hands. . . . This adventure ended up in failure."

In language dripping with disdain, Rokhlin accused Yeltsin of failing to uphold the Russian constitution and surrounding himself with greedy cronies who export Russia's riches. "You fooled the nation and the military, failing to fulfill your preelection promises," he wrote, mentioning the plight of veterans, invalids, officers and others who have not been paid for months.

"You have destined the armed forces to significant destruction," Rokhlin added, offering a series of dire predictions -- that the country may break up, with Siberia and the Far East leaving the rest of Russia; that China or the United States will seek to exploit Russia's weaknesses; and that Western "special services" already are trying to undermine the Russian state.

Rokhlin's statements come at a time when the pressure on the military is growing. A newspaper recently reported that more than 10 soldiers and officers die every day from causes unrelated to combat, including suicides. There also has been a spate of mass killings by soldiers who went berserk.

Yeltsin recently ordered yet another attempt at military reform and appointed Igor Sergeyev, head of the strategic rocket forces, as defense minister. Sergeyev and other Kremlin reformers have suggested a radical downsizing of the military, both in doctrine and personnel. According to recent reports, the military, which has been in a state of free fall for several years, would be compressed into a triad of forces: a combined land-sea conventional force, nuclear deterrent forces and the air force.

But the plan could leave thousands of servicemen on the street, without promised housing or subsidies. The Interfax news agency recently quoted from an internal Defense Ministry survey that showed a large number of officers may quit the army when the five-year contracts they signed in 1992 expire later this year.

Rokhlin's letter seemed directed especially at these officers. "Get organized," he told them. "Demand fulfillment of your legal rights. Do not hope someone will do it for you. . . . Otherwise, the army will die."

The letter drew an angry response from the Defense Ministry, which said Rokhlin was "pushing the army toward havoc," while a deputy speaker of parliament, Alexander Shokhin, also a member of the Our Home Is Russia bloc, criticized the letter as a "call for disobedience."

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Johnson's Russia List

26 June 1997

djohnson@cdi.org