INSIDE RUSSIA’S MILITARY
By Tim Whewell
BBC NEWS
mes/newsnight/7947082.stm
2009/03/17 10:22:25 GMT
Drive into the sprawling base of the Russian Army’s 76th Airborne
Division in the north-western town of Pskov, and you are greeted by
a large mural with the unit’s motto "Honour, Glory, Professionalism".
The first two words reflect age-old concepts in the armed forces;
the third, a very new one.
That is why I have come, because the elite 76th Airborne (which
first fought in Germany in 1944, and later in Afghanistan, Armenia,
Chechnya and most recently last year in Georgia) is the template for
radical plans to streamline the world’s fourth largest army and turn
it into a leaner, meaner fighting force.
If you have not heard much about the reform, that is not surprising.
It is so wide-reaching, and so controversial that the Kremlin is not
keen to advertise it.
Even Russian journalists are rarely allowed onto army bases these days,
and for their western colleagues it is more difficult still.
But Newsnight’s been allowed to film in two units that the Ministry
of defence is particularly proud of.
The 76th, Russia’s Paras, and the Air Force elite Pilot Training and
Aircraft Testing centre in Lipetsk, south of Moscow.
Reputation
The division now based in Pskov dates back to 1939.
INSIDE RUSSIA Watch Tim Whewell’s films on Newsnight this week at
2230GMT, BBC Two and online
International military might (Tuesday 17 March 2009)
Military reform controversy (Wednesday 18 March 2009)
Russia’s middle classes (Thursday 19 March 2009)
Its most tragic, yet proudest, moment in recent times, came in 2000,
when a whole company of 86 men were wiped out in a battle with
Chechen guerrillas.
Back in 2002 the authorities announced it would be one of the first
units in the army to stop taking conscripts, and become completely
professional.
Its ranks would be filled by "kontraktniki", a new term for soldiers
who have signed contracts to serve for a set number of years.
In the past, the Russian Army’s hardly had the kind of reputation
that would encourage recruits.
More than one thousand soldiers a year die in accidents, by suicide,
or as a result of the institutionalised physical abuse of young
conscripts known as "dedovshchina".
Professional
But army minders in Pskov were keen to show me how attractive a career
option the military can now be.
The word "barracks", they told me proudly, has been abolished.
Instead, soldiers live in "hostels", just two to a room, and free to
bring in their own televisions, computers and other possessions.
Except during wartimes or special exercises, they are free to go out
into the town or do whatever else they like after their duty ends in
the evening.
There is no McDonald’s or any other commercial outlet on the base
such as you might find in a British or American garrison.
And it is hard to imagine western squaddies singing at the tops of
their voices as they march to and from every meal.
But at least soldiers no longer have to wait for an order to sit,
another to start eating, and a third to get up again.
And the cooking is now done not by conscripts, but by an outside firm
of professional caterers, the first to be employed in any unit.
The aim, says my army guide, Colonel Alexander Cherednik, is simple:
"We now think a soldier should do his own job. The less time they
spend on unnecessary tasks, the more they have for training."
New hardware
In the units I visit, training does appear to be intensifying.
Officers and men of the 76th Airborne now perform a minimum of six
parachute jumps a year.
Back in the 1990s, when the armed forces were plagued by a shortage
of fuel, some did only one or two.
At the Lipetsk air centre, I am told Russia’s "top guns" are flying
up to 170 hours a year, almost twice as many as they could a few
years ago.
In both places, they have new hardware to show off.
In Pskov, they have taken delivery of the latest model of airborne
combat vehicle, the BMD-4, now being equipped with Glonass, the
Russian satellite navigation system.
In Lipetsk, they now have two of the first completely new model of
plane to arrive there in 15 years, the Su-34 fighter bomber, with
better avionics than its predecessors, the Su-27, Su-25, and Su-24.
Staggering cuts
But the reform is not just about re-armament.
It is about structural reorganisation, the most far-reaching in at
least 50 years.
And that is what is so controversial.
Instead of the existing cumbersome four tiers of control, from
military district at the top to regiment at the bottom, there will
be just three, military districts, tactical commands, and brigades.
Many existing units will be reformed or amalgamated.
The civilian defence minister, Anatoly Serdyukov, is also demanding
drastic cuts in Russia’s disproportionately large officer corps. Now
there is an officer to every two and a half men.
After the reform there should be just one to every 15, more similar
to western armies.
But that means losing a staggering 200,000 jobs.
Elite unit
Not surprisingly, there is massive political opposition by an old
guard who believe the reforms will only serve to weaken Russia.
Under pressure, the deadline for completing the cuts has been put back
from 2012 to 2016, and army chiefs have been forced to promise that
they will be achieved by natural wastage, not compulsory redundancies.
Meanwhile, there is uncertainty about whether Russia can now achieve
the full professionalisation that was one of the unstated aims of
the reforms.
Even in an elite unit like Pskov, the experiment has not fully
succeeded, more than six years after it began.
Only about 80% of the men are "kontraktniki", the remainder are
still conscripts.
Wages and conditions still are not good enough to attract more,
and as Russia’s hit by economic crisis, it may be hard to find the
resources to improve them.
This may be the most determined of Russia’s many recent attempts at
military reform, but its success is still far from certain.