Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
USA Today
May 6, 2008
Pg. 7
Experts call force 'a bad copy of the Soviet army'
By David Nowak and Vladimir Isachenkov, Associated Press
MOSCOW — For the first time in post-Soviet Russia, tanks and nuclear missile launchers are to rumble across Red Square on Friday in an exhibition of military might.
The message to the world, two days after Dmitry Medvedev succeeds Vladimir Putin as president, seems to be: Russia is returning to its status as a major military power.
The show of force is "a demonstration of our growing defense capabilities," Putin said in remarks broadcast on state television this week.
Putin insisted Russia is "not threatening anyone," but he added, "We are able to defend our people, our citizens, our state, our riches — of which there is quite a lot."
Still, for all the investment in Russia's military — an increase to an annual $40 billion during Putin's eight years in office — some experts say the country has a long way to go to restore its Soviet-era might.
"Our armed forces are merely a bad copy of the Soviet army," said retired general Vladimir Dvorkin, a former arms control expert with the Russian Defense Ministry.
The armed forces suffered in the early 1990s as the Russian economy collapsed and institutions fell apart. The military budget now accounts for about 4.6% of gross domestic product, roughly on a par with China and the United States, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
However, the army, the pension system, public health, secondary education and the road system have all eroded on Putin's watch, former government ministers Boris Nemtsov and Vladimir Milov wrote in a recent report titled "Putin: The Bottom Line."
The main cause, they charge, is "Russia's dive into an unprecedented mire of corruption" that flows throughout the government.
Russian generals don't let cash reach the grass roots where it's most needed, says security analyst Andrei Soldatov, and this "is leaving Russia's rapid-reaction armed forces in particularly bad shape."
The military's problems may be one reason why Medvedev repeatedly sounds the alarm about corruption, calling it "the gravest disease which has struck our society."
In other efforts to reclaim Russia's previous status as a great military power, Putin has resumed long-range bomber patrols, boasted of developing a strategic missile and threatened to deploy missiles closer to the heart of Europe.
Only a handful of combat jets and several dozen tanks have been added in recent years. Soviet submarines frequently need repair and rarely leave their bases.
A new nuclear submarine, the Yury Dolgoruky, cannot be deployed because the ballistic missile it was supposed to carry has failed tests.
When the vessel eventually sails, it will probably make only training cruises, according to a report by the Federation of American Scientists.
"Russia no longer maintains a continuous sea-based deterrent patrol posture like that of the United States, Britain and France, but instead has shifted to a new posture where it occasionally deploys a submarine for training purposes," the report said.
Military service is mandatory, but conditions are brutal and less than 10% of males end up in uniform, according to a 2007 study for the Swedish Research Institute of National Defense.
Russia's declining population has left it with a shrinking pool of draftees. According to population expert Murray Feshbach at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, men being inducted into the military are neither as healthy nor as educated as they were in the Soviet times.
Military communication also lags. Basics such as night-vision goggles, portable radios and satellite phones are scarce.
The bottom line is that "the Russian military forces are in a bad state, and the situation is getting worse," said Alexander Khramchikhin, chief analyst at the Institute of Military and Political Analysis.
May 6, 2008
Pg. 7
Experts call force 'a bad copy of the Soviet army'
By David Nowak and Vladimir Isachenkov, Associated Press
MOSCOW — For the first time in post-Soviet Russia, tanks and nuclear missile launchers are to rumble across Red Square on Friday in an exhibition of military might.
The message to the world, two days after Dmitry Medvedev succeeds Vladimir Putin as president, seems to be: Russia is returning to its status as a major military power.
The show of force is "a demonstration of our growing defense capabilities," Putin said in remarks broadcast on state television this week.
Putin insisted Russia is "not threatening anyone," but he added, "We are able to defend our people, our citizens, our state, our riches — of which there is quite a lot."
Still, for all the investment in Russia's military — an increase to an annual $40 billion during Putin's eight years in office — some experts say the country has a long way to go to restore its Soviet-era might.
"Our armed forces are merely a bad copy of the Soviet army," said retired general Vladimir Dvorkin, a former arms control expert with the Russian Defense Ministry.
The armed forces suffered in the early 1990s as the Russian economy collapsed and institutions fell apart. The military budget now accounts for about 4.6% of gross domestic product, roughly on a par with China and the United States, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
However, the army, the pension system, public health, secondary education and the road system have all eroded on Putin's watch, former government ministers Boris Nemtsov and Vladimir Milov wrote in a recent report titled "Putin: The Bottom Line."
The main cause, they charge, is "Russia's dive into an unprecedented mire of corruption" that flows throughout the government.
Russian generals don't let cash reach the grass roots where it's most needed, says security analyst Andrei Soldatov, and this "is leaving Russia's rapid-reaction armed forces in particularly bad shape."
The military's problems may be one reason why Medvedev repeatedly sounds the alarm about corruption, calling it "the gravest disease which has struck our society."
In other efforts to reclaim Russia's previous status as a great military power, Putin has resumed long-range bomber patrols, boasted of developing a strategic missile and threatened to deploy missiles closer to the heart of Europe.
Only a handful of combat jets and several dozen tanks have been added in recent years. Soviet submarines frequently need repair and rarely leave their bases.
A new nuclear submarine, the Yury Dolgoruky, cannot be deployed because the ballistic missile it was supposed to carry has failed tests.
When the vessel eventually sails, it will probably make only training cruises, according to a report by the Federation of American Scientists.
"Russia no longer maintains a continuous sea-based deterrent patrol posture like that of the United States, Britain and France, but instead has shifted to a new posture where it occasionally deploys a submarine for training purposes," the report said.
Military service is mandatory, but conditions are brutal and less than 10% of males end up in uniform, according to a 2007 study for the Swedish Research Institute of National Defense.
Russia's declining population has left it with a shrinking pool of draftees. According to population expert Murray Feshbach at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, men being inducted into the military are neither as healthy nor as educated as they were in the Soviet times.
Military communication also lags. Basics such as night-vision goggles, portable radios and satellite phones are scarce.
The bottom line is that "the Russian military forces are in a bad state, and the situation is getting worse," said Alexander Khramchikhin, chief analyst at the Institute of Military and Political Analysis.