DRAGGING THE RUSSIAN ARMY INTO THE 21ST CENTURy

InterPress Services

July 24, 1997

MOSCOW, Jul. 24 (IPS) -- It's a testimony to the parlous state of Russia 's military that officials can say that "only" a third of those called up in the 1997 spring draft have serious drug, drink, health or emotional problems, or a criminal record.

Officials insist that they are satisfied with this year's spring draft. More than 214,000 people responded and 85 percent of the armed forces' non-commissioned officers and enlisted men's posts are currently staffed.

This satisfaction hides deeper problems. One-third of the conscripts arrived at induction centers underweight, some with criminal records or substance-abuse problems. Draft-dodging remains a serious problem, with more than 31,000 conscripts not responding to the call-up.

There is also a growing body of conscientious objectors, with 5,000 in St. Petersburg alone. Although Article 59 of the new constitution guarantees the right to perform alternative service, the State Duma (parliament) has not yet passed the necessary legislation.

St. Petersburg Gov. Vladimir Yakovlev is proposing to set up an experimental battalion for youths who refuse to perform military service.

They would serve for three or four years instead of the two years required for military service. They would live at home and work on city improvement projects or in hospitals.

There is, in any case, a growing body of opinion within the military that Russia can no longer depend on the call-up and support is increasing for the establishment of a professional army.

At present, contract soldiers earn more than three times the amount paid to conscripts and by autumn the defense ministry is planning to submit to the government a program for changing to a contract system of recruitment.

The armed forces currently have 240,000 contract servicemen, over a third of them women, mostly wives of commissioned and warrant officers.

The move to a professional army, however, is only part of much more profound change under way. After five years of debate Russia has finally embarked on full-scale and long-term military reform, with a presidential decree issued on July 16.

Under the proposed far-reaching changes, the strategic missile forces, military space forces and space defense forces are to be combined into a single entity -- the Missile Strategic Forces. The air defense force is to be merged with the air force.

There are also to be changes also in ground forces including the abolition of the post of their commander-in-chief.

Overall, the cuts will affect 500,000 servicemen. The optimum size of a reformed professional army sought by Russia is 900,000 men, or about 0.6 percent of the country's population.

"The image of Russia's armed forces should be determined by a political situation in the world," says Russian defense council secretary Yuri Baturin.

The Government has been instructed to draw up and submit proposals for the target-specific financing of the reforms including measures for the social protection of the servicemen to be discharged from military service, including the provision of housing.

Some proceeds will be obtained from the privatization of organizations to be withdrawn from the Armed Forces such as the construction troops, and of immovable property, as well as from the sale of surplus military equipment and payment for services provided on a contractual basis.

More than 100 organizations of the military construction complex are to be privatized in line with another presidential decree signed on July 8.

According to Colonel-General Alexander Kosovan, deputy defense minister responsible for the construction and billeting of troops, enterprises of the military-construction complex which are taken out of the army will be transformed into joint-stock companies.

The federal government will retain control of 51 percent or 25.5 percent of the shares in these new companies.

The government, which originally pledged around $18.9 billion to the nation's armed forces (since cut to around $15.1 billion) has failed to pay up all of even this reduced amount. It has undertaken to repay the balance to the armed forces by Sept. 1, though the extent of the debt is disputed.

Initially, the government said that it still owes the armed forces a balance of 4,600 billion rubles ($836 million) but then increased it to 5,300 billion rubles ($964 million). General Georgy Oleinik, the chief financier of the Defense Ministry, says the armed forces need to be paid 8,100 billion rubles ($1.47 billion) to meet the shortfall.

At present there is little control over the disposal of money within the defense ministry. Usually unit commanders decide whether to spend money on children's playgrounds, a pool or on salaries for contract soldiers.

Sociological research conducted by the Defense Ministry shows that 61 percent of servicemen are permanently short of money, and 29 percent live below the poverty line.

Most officers do not believe that the situation will improve, or that army service can give them any benefits, and so plan to leave it when their contracts expire.

Military experts say that the monthly remuneration in the army is not consistent with the complexity and hazards of modern military service. Platoon commanders (lieutenants) get 620,000 rubles ($112) a month; company commanders (captains), 870,000 rubles ($158); and battalion commanders (lieutenant-colonels), 11.3 million rubles ($206).

Their salaries have not been indexed since April 1995, although the minimum civilian wage has increased by a statistical 4.07 times since then. Salaries, which are not paid for months at a time, are virtually the only source of subsistence for officers' families.

Unlike civilians, servicemen may not seek a second job, and their wives can seldom find employment in the areas where their husbands' units are deployed. In addition, 100,000 officers' families have no housing of their own.

The military admit that only 10 percent of the army personnel are fitted out with all requisite clothes. The Defense Ministry has not ordered uniforms for two years. Neither do the enterprises provide the army with underwear and linen.

Only 48 percent of servicemen are issued winter caps and barely nine percent have top-boots. Over 11 percent are without ordinary boots.

Only the use of the emergency stocks has saved the soldiers from both cold and hunger. But the allowance of 5,000 rubles (about 90 cents) a day are not enough to feed an 18-year-old boy.

Last year's plans provided for daily rations up of 10,550 rubles ($1.90), but eventually the figure was halved.

The Russian government initially planned to spend 104,320 billion rubles ($18.9 billion) on defense in 1997, but it is estimated that this will be enough to satisfy only 61 percent of the minimum demands of its existing forces.

What was allocated, never mind what will actually been paid, will only suffice for barely 10 months. Allocations on the purchase of foods will lasted only nine months.

Yet worse is to come. The army has been warned that its forces will get only 83,180 billion rubles ($15.1 billion) of its 104,320 billion ruble allocation this year.

A movement in support of the army has been set up in Moscow by Lieutenant-General Lev Rokhlin, a veteran of the Chechen war and now chairman of the parliament's defense committee.

Other military retirees protesting against army cuts include former defense minister Igor Rodionov, who was dismissed by the President last spring for dragging his feet on army reform.

However, the reformers believe that restructuring the armed forces and putting them on a professional basis will help to end demoralization and economic crises which have plagued the armed forces for the past several years.

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Johnson's Russia List

#1086

26 July 1997

djohnson@cdi.org (info@cdi.org)