The Reform of the Russian Army Issues & Obstacles
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Putin: Russia's Choice, Second Edition
Putin The second edition of this extremely well-received political biography of Vladimir Putin builds on the strengths of the previous edition to provide the most detailed and nuanced account of the man, his politics and his pro- found influence on Russian politics, foreign policy and society. New to this edition: Analysis of Putin’s second term as President. More biographical information in the light of recent research. Detailed discussion of changes to the policy process and the elites around Putin. Developments in state–society relations including the conflicts with oli- garchs such as Khodorkovsky. Review of changes affecting the party system and electoral legislation, including the development of federalism in Russia. Details on economic performance under Putin, including more discus- sion of the energy sector and pipeline politics. Russia’s relationship with Nato after the ‘big-bang’ enlargement, EU– Russian relations after enlargement and Russia’s relations with other post- Soviet states. The conclusion brings us up to date with debates over the question of democracy in Russia today, and the nature of Putin’s leadership and his place in the world. Putin: Russia’s choice is essential reading for all scholars and students of Russian politics. Richard Sakwa is Professor of Politics at the University of Kent, UK. Putin Russia’s choice Second edition Richard Sakwa First edition published 2004 Second edition, 2008 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016 This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2007. -
Russia and Asia: the Emerging Security Agenda
Russia and Asia The Emerging Security Agenda Stockholm International Peace Research Institute SIPRI is an independent international institute for research into problems of peace and conflict, especially those of arms control and disarmament. It was established in 1966 to commemorate Sweden’s 150 years of unbroken peace. The Institute is financed mainly by the Swedish Parliament. The staff and the Governing Board are international. The Institute also has an Advisory Committee as an international consultative body. The Governing Board is not responsible for the views expressed in the publications of the Institute. Governing Board Professor Daniel Tarschys, Chairman (Sweden) Dr Oscar Arias Sánchez (Costa Rica) Dr Willem F. van Eekelen (Netherlands) Sir Marrack Goulding (United Kingdom) Dr Catherine Kelleher (United States) Dr Lothar Rühl (Germany) Professor Ronald G. Sutherland (Canada) Dr Abdullah Toukan (Jordan) The Director Director Dr Adam Daniel Rotfeld (Poland) Stockholm International Peace Research Institute Signalistg. 9, S-1769 70 Solna, Sweden Cable: SIPRI Telephone: 46 8/655 97 00 Telefax: 46 8/655 97 33 E-mail: [email protected] Internet URL: http://www.sipri.se Russia and Asia The Emerging Security Agenda Edited by Gennady Chufrin OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 1999 OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in Oxford New York Athens -
Russia Yello Rdy 4 Py
The Kremlin wants to tackle long-festering problems, and painful reform can’t be avoided much longer. Russia’s Military Retrenchment AP photo/Murad Sezer Agent of change. Russian President Vladimir Putin launched the cut-and- reshape campaign to revitalize Russia’s forces. In this June photo, the By Stewart M. Powell Kremlin leader reviews Russian peacekeeping troops at Pristina airport in Kosovo. USSIA’S military, tapped by the scope and magnitude of which of valuable equipment for sale to President Vladimir Putin for can be glimpsed in a random sam- criminal gangs. a thorough revitalization, is pling of problems: Now, the Kremlin, for the first under pressure to clean up Fighter pilots get 14 hours of time since collapse of the Soviet R its own act. flying time per year. Union a decade ago, seems serious Even staunch advocates of in- Murder claims 500 troops per about tackling problems besetting creased support for Russia’s soldiers, year—18 times the number in US the force. Fueled by humiliating set- sailors, and airmen are turning their armed forces. backs in Chechnya and the disas- guns on the waste and mismanage- Ground station fires knock out trous loss last summer of the subma- ment that have weakened the force ground military communications rine Kursk with all hands, Putin’s in recent years. They say that spend- systems and communications with planned revitalization aims to in- ing more on the military as presently satellites. crease the resources and prestige of constituted will only feed its pen- Commanders sometimes seize the armed forces. -
Chechen War: Motivator for Military Reform?
WARNING! The views expressed in FMSO publications and reports are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official policy or position of the Department of the Army, Department of Defense, or the U.S. Government. Information Warfare in the Second (1999-Present) Chechen War: Motivator for Military Reform? by Timothy L. Thomas, Foreign Military Studies Office, Fort Leavenworth, KS., 2002. This article was previously published in Russian Military Reform 1992-2002 Published by Frank Cass Publishers, 2003 Chapter 11, Page 209-233 During the past ten years, the Russian military has attentively studied the subject of information war (IW). The main catalyst for this interest was the successful use of IW by coalition forces during Operation Desert Storm. Russian military theorists watched coalition planes bomb Iraqi targets in real time with precision and understood that warfare had entered a new phase, one dominated by information-based equipment and resources. Two further motivators were the poor use of IW by the Russian armed forces during the first Russian-Chechen war (1994-1996), which contributed to the loss of Russian morale, and the successful use of IW by NATO during the conflict over Kosovo. The success of the coalition forces in both Desert Storm and Kosovo indicated that military reform would be bankrupt if the technical aspect of reform did not include information-based technologies. These technologies must be imbedded into new military equipment, from sensors and radars to jet fighters and cruise missiles. However, Russia was also concerned about the impact of information technologies on the brain and consequently morale. -
Background Information on Chechnya
Background Information on Chechnya A study by Alexander Iskandarian This study was commissioned by UNHCR. The views expressed in this study by the author, Director of the Moscow-based Centre for Studies on the Caucasus, do not necessarily represent those of UNHCR. Moscow, December 2000 1. Background information on Chechnya Under Article 65 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, the Republic of Chechnya is mentioned as one of the 89 subjects of the Federation. Chechnya officially calls itself the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. It is situated in the east of the Northern Caucasus, with an area of around 15,100 square kilometres (borders with the Republic of Ingushetia have not been delimited; in the USSR, both republics were part of the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Republic). According to the Russian State Committee on Statistics, as of January 1993, Chechnya had a population of around 1,100,000. There are no reliable data concerning the current population of Chechnya. Chechens are the largest autochthonous nation of the Northern Caucasus. By the last Soviet census of 1989, there were 958,309 Chechens in the USSR, 899,000 of them in the SSR of Russia, including 734,500 in Checheno-Ingushetia and 58,000 in adjacent Dagestan where Chechens live in a compact community.1 The largest Chechen diaspora outside Russia used to be those in Kazakhstan (49,500 people) and Jordan (around 5,000). One can expect the diaspora to have changed dramatically as a result of mass migrations. Chechnya has always had a very high population growth rate, a high birth rate and one of the lowest percentages of city dwellers in Russia. -
Putin's War in Chechnya
Putin’s War in Chechnya: Who steers the course? PONARS Policy Memo 345 Pavel K. Baev International Peace Research Institute, Oslo November 2004 Each time a proposition is raised to resolve the Chechen conflict through negotiation, the Russian authorities respond with a double-riposte: We do not negotiate with terrorists, and there is nobody in Chechnya with whom to negotiate. The hostage tragedy in Beslan on September 1-3, 2004 revealed the real meaning of this rhetoric: no one in Moscow was ready to take responsibility for handling the crisis. The immediate response to the emergency and the following political measures (including the presidential initiative to abandon regional elections) were clearly inadequate. This malfunctioning decisionmaking mechanism raises serious questions about its integrity, the chain of command, and the flow of information. The authorities show little if any interest in addressing these questions and concentrate their efforts on maintaining the façade of impeccably organized executive power. This paper attempts to examine the evolution of the decisionmaking system on Chechnya, while admitting that the answers provided here are not informed by any insight and are derived from speculative secondary sources, scarce official information, and observable cadre rotation. Style is substance Putin’s secretive style of managing state affairs has remained remarkably consistent since his arrival in the Kremlin on New Year’s Eve 2000. His style reflects a general mistrust of public politics and the lack of previous leadership experience of any kind. Departing from the traditions of Yeltsin’s court, Putin has sharply reduced media access to his administration and exterminated leaks altogether. -
The Use of Russian Airpower in the Second Chechen War
Conflict Studies Research Centre B59 The Use Of Russian Airpower In The Second Chechen War Marcel de Haas Contents Introduction 3 Figure 1: Levels of Strategy in the Conflicts in Dagestan & Chechnya (1999-) 3 The Use Of Russian Airpower In Dagestan (August-September 1999) 4 Background & Course Of The Conflict 4 Russian Grand Strategy: Actors & Objectives 4 Russian Military Strategy: Command & Control Structure 5 Russian Operational Level: Organisation Of Airpower 5 Russian Tactical Level: Application Of Airpower 6 Failures 7 Successes 7 Chechen Insurgents: Strategy & Operations 7 Subconclusions 8 Russia 8 The Chechen Insurgents 9 The Second Chechen Conflict (October 1999-Present) 9 Background 9 Course Of The Second Chechen Conflict 9 Russian Grand Strategy: Actors & Objectives 11 Russian Military Strategy: Command & Control Structure 11 Russian Operational Level: Organisation Of Airpower 12 Russian Tactical Level: Application Of Airpower 13 Tasks & Lessons Learned 14 Failures, Problems & Losses 14 Successes 15 Chechen Strategy & Operations 15 Subconclusions 16 Russia 16 Chechen 19 Comparison Of the Use Of Airpower In Both Chechen Conflicts (1994-1996 & 1999-date) 19 Structural Problems 19 Improvements 19 1 The Use Of Russian Airpower In The Second Chechen War Conflict Studies Research Centre ISBN 1-904423-18-3 January 2003 B59 Marcel de Haas Characteristics 20 Russia 20 Chechen 21 Dominants Characteristics 21 Conclusions 22 2 B59 The Use Of Russian Airpower In The Second Chechen War The Use Of Russian Airpower In The Second Chechen War Marcel de Haas Introduction This paper describes part of the second Chechen conflict, which started in autumn 1999. The purpose of this document is not to provide a comprehensive study of this conflict. -
Vladimir Putin and Russia's Armed Forces: a Faustian Bargain?
Vladimir Putin and Russia's Armed Forces: A Faustian Bargain? Stephen Blank Professor Strategie Studies Institute U.S. Army War College forces, especially the General Staff. They forged this deal during wars, Vladimir international Putin crisis, came and intense to political power struggle withinlargely the armed forces.through a deal with Russia's armed NATO's 1999 Kosovo operation offered the General Staff the opportunity to win its campaign to redefine official Russian threat assessments and reverse defense policy by postulating the NATO threat. The General Staff avidly seized this op portunity and with the Duma began publicly attacking Russian defense policy in March 1999.1 Russia's 1997 security concept had proclaimed there was no threat of ag gression against Russia, that no state was Russia's enemy and that the armed forces' excessive size was a burden to Russia. It advocated specific military reforms, downsizing the armed forces, reducing costs, and relying mainly on nuclear weap ons—specifically the new Topol-M (SS-27) ICBM until the year 2007. It was expected then that Russia would recover from its domestic crisis and could then begin devoting resources to its conventional forces.2 This posture, associated with Defense Minister General Igor Sergeyev, immediately encountered the General Staff's unyielding opposition. General Anatoly Kvashnin, Chief of the General Staff, wanted to expand the General Staff's control over all Russian armed forces, argued for conventional as well as nuclear forces' modernization, and expressed a much more consistent hostility to NATO's enlargement.3 Kosovo gave Kvashnin and Putin their first opportunity. -
The Dual Structure and Mentality of Vladimir Putin´S Power Coalition: A
This report analyses the Russian authoritarian regime that emerged under Vladimir Putin and attempts to give a wider context to the so-called FSB-ization of the Russian government. The Dual Structure and Mentality of Joris van Bladel The first part of the report deals with Putin’s main achievements in domestic and foreign policy and examines the extent to which state policy has fulfilled the aspirations of the Russian public. The much-needed stability and Vladimir Putin’s Power Coalition security that Putin has brought to the country seem to outweigh the fact that the government has veered towards authoritarianism. The degree to which Russian society has truly been taken over by the FSB is critically examined, A legacy for Medvedev and this process of FSB-ization is explained in a wider social and historical context. DR. JORIS VAN BLADEL The second part aims to bring some insight into the current political dynamic by examining the power relations in the coalition and the mentalities typical of the major factions: the ‘siloviki’ and the liberal. In particular, the ‘siloviki’ are critically examined with regard to their history, their typical modes of thinking, and their rise to influence. The very notion of ‘siloviki’ is given a more precise explanation by showing why they have come to power, whom the term ‘siloviki’ should actually be applied to, what their mode of thinking is like, and how PowerCoalition Putin’s Vladimir of Mentality and Dual Structure The influential they are likely to be in the future. The study then focuses on the actual siloviki faction: its members, its role, and its influence. -
Russia's Military Reforms
Clingendael Paper No. 5 Russia’s Military Reforms Russia’s army has been in decay since 1991. Moscow is currently making a comeback, by way of an assertive foreign security policy that is supported by modernized and Victory after Twenty Years of Failure? restructured armed forces. Since Russia is an important and influential security actor in and around Europe, and a nuclear competitor of the United States, it is worthwhile to analyse Russia’s regaining military power and to envisage its consequences for the West. This Clingendael Paper describes twenty years of Russian military restructuring and offers an outlook on the future stance of Moscow’s military power. Previous modernization plans were to a large extent in vain. Although the Russian–Georgian conflict of August 2008 resulted in a victory for Moscow, it also demonstrated the status of decay of the Russian Armed Forces. Realizing that these shortcomings Marcel de Haas prevented military power from being a useful tool in Russia’s security policy, soon after this conflict Russian President Medvedev announced huge military reforms. This restructuring, to be implemented by 2020, consists of rearming and reforming Clingendael Paper No. 5 the organization and the manpower of the Russian Armed Forces. Unlike earlier restructuring, the current modernization plans to bring about a watershed: from the traditional large-scale conflict-orientated mobilization army to fully filled, sophisticated, equipped and well-trained permanently combat-ready forces, ready for regional power projection. Will the military reforms be successful this time? What will Russia’s Armed Forces look like in 2020? If the restructuring of Moscow’s army is fruitful, does this have any consequences for the West and NATO in particular? Marcel de Haas is Research Associate on Russian defence policy at the Netherlands Institute of International Relations ‘Clingendael’ in The Hague. -
Political Situation in Russia 2.1
Chapter 2. POLITICAL SITUATION IN RUSSIA 2.1. Continuity of Power Political life in Russia throughout 2005 was determined by the struggle inside the political elite for the opportunity of receiving the plenitude of power in the country after Vladimir Putin steps down as President. In the first 5 years of his tenure as President active measures were taken to oust the „old” elite. Eventually, the President under pressure of his entourage at the federal level almost entirely got rid of the „Yeltsin’s team”. In the final analysis, the „new” elite proved to be configured by the principle of an „administrative two−party system”. The design of the political field is such that the fate of 2008 will be decided in the confrontation of the two „parties” – the „liberals” and „siloviki”. Another thing is that unlike in Western Europe or the US the activity of these parties is largely non−public. At the same time either party – is not just a clan of conspirers longing to make it to the throne – they offer their own way of the country’s development and their own project of Russia’s future. From this point of view, it is safe to say that each party has developed its own protoideology. Whereas the role of the electorate is performed by Vladimir Putin – it is he who will have to make the choice as to which of the two political forces will clinch the victory and take over the country on a „turn key” basis. By and large, this choice for the incumbent head of state is quite dramatic – for „liberals” and „siloviki” form his closest entourage, and it is still very difficult for him to make the choice in favor of one of the NGPs. -
A Russian Chronology: January – March 2009 Research & Assessment Branch ISBN 978-905962-65-5 April 2009 09/03 Dr Mark a Smith
Research & Assessment Branch 09/03 Defence Academy of the United Kingdom 09/03 Russian Domestic Policy: A Chronology January – March 2009 1 January 2009 One of the leaders of the Solidarity opposition movement, Boris Nemtsov, says he thinks that 2009 will be a year of social protest, due to the economic crisis: This will result in the end of Putinism. This is the deal between Putin and citizens. The deal was money in exchange for rights. Putin gave citizens money - pensions, salaries, work etc - and in exchange took away from citizens their rights - the right to independent information, the right to elect its authorities, the right to independent courts, the right to opposition activities. Co-chairman of the Right Cause party Leonid Gozman says "the transformation of the economic and social crisis into a political one, mass unrest and the situation getting out of control and sliding into the extralegal field cannot be ruled out" in the new year. He says it is preferable "that stability remains in the country in the next two to three years if only to bar from power people in comparison with whom Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin will look white and fluffy". 2 January 2009 Yabloko leader Sergey Mitrokhin says that in 2009 "we may witness mass unrest across the country, a further clamp-down in connection with this unrest and the country being brought to a dangerous point." 2 January 2009 Vesti TV reports that many of the largest iron and steel mills in Russia are putting production on hold, due to the global financial crisis.