THEY SAT DOWN TO WORK ON MILITARY DISTRICTS AGAIN
by Vladimir Mukhin
Source: Nezavisimoe Voennoe Obozrenie, No. 42, November 17-23, 2006, p. 5
Agency WPS
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
November 20, 2006 Monday
The first regional command will be in the southern direction
IN A FEW DAYS THE PRESIDENT WILL APPROVE LOCATION OF THE HEADQUARTERS
OF REGIONAL COMMAND SOUTH; Officials of the General Staff hope
that in a few days the President will approve location of regional
command South.
Officials of the General Staff hope that in a few days the President
will approve location of regional command South. According to available
information, this will evidently be Samara where the staff of the
Volga Military District was located in the past. Thus the Defense
Ministry transits to real fulfillment of plans for new military
administrative division of Russia.
Now the country is divided into six military districts. It is planned
to establish three united commands instead of them and to subordinate
all branches of the Armed Forces to them. They will be named West,
South and East.
According to Lieutenant General Yury Netkachev, former deputy commander
of the group of Russian forces in Transcaucasia, the Volga-Urals
Military District (probably not the entire district because its
eastern territories will be subordinated to command East) and the
North Caucasian Military District will be subordinated to territorial
military command South. Command South will also command foreign
groups and objects of the Armed Forces deployed in Central Asia and
Transcaucasia. The main attention will be focused on them because the
military bases in foreign countries have already become inter-branch
groups of forces including not only the Ground Forces units but also
units and formations of the Air Defense Forces and Air Force.
In Armenia this group already appeared. A similar group is being
established in Central Asia. Recently, Air Force Commander Vladimir
Mikhailov announced that an air base would be established in Tajikistan
on the military airfield Aini near Dushanbe in 2007, and this base
would be organizationally included in the 201st military base of
the Ground Forces. Observers do not rule out that the air base in
Kant (Kyrgyzstan) will also be subordinated to command of the 201st
military base and through it to command South to appear soon in Samara.
This is confirmed by the recent visit of Chief of the General Staff
Yury Baluevsky to Samara. According to the plan for buildup of the
Armed Forces between 2006 and 2010, approved by President Vladimir
Putin, it is the General Staff that is responsible for conduction of
an experiment for transition from the district principle of troops
command in the strategic directions to command of an inter-branch
regional group of forces.
This experiment was conducted in the Siberian and Far Eastern military
districts since July 2006.
Now it is known that the headquarters of the new regional command in
the East Siberian strategic direction will be in Ulan-Ude. Chief of
the General Staff Yury Baluevsky commanded the military staff command
exercise Baikal-2006 from there in July 2006. In Soviet times, Ulan-Ude
was already the headquarters of the East Siberian strategic direction
and has proven its capability.
The experiment for command of the troops in the East Siberian strategic
direction will be accomplished in 2007. According to officers of
the General Staff, already now there is a big probability that it
will be successful. The preconditions are already being prepared for
spreading the experiment to other regions of the country, of course,
first of all to the south from where the main military threat to the
country’s security comes according to the Security Council.