From RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol 1, No. 94, Part I, 13 August 1997

The implementation of Yeltsin's July decrees on downsizing the Russian military will create the opportunity for senior officials to embezzle huge sums of money by writing off equipment and privatizing property, according to military analyst Pavel Felgengauer. Writing in "Segodnya" on 12 August, Felgengauer also warns that failure to pay wage arrears to officers and servicemen could provoke "mass disobedience" this fall. Felgengauer suggests that the movement created by State Duma Defense Committee Chairman Lev Rokhlin to support the armed forces is intended as a "nationwide parallel system of control" over troops that will assume command over the military if the General Staff loses control in a crisis. In an article published in "Segodnya" on 22 July, Felgengauer argued that the proposals outlined in Yeltsin's decree were drafted by a small group of influential generals to protect their own personal interests.

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Johnson's Russia List

#1125

14 August 1997

djohnson@cdi.org