Russia's tasks in the Far East have changed
This is the last article in the series about the problem of the disputed islands of the Kuril ridge. In previous articles, I talked about two players in this region, China and Japan, whose actions largely determine whether the issue of the “northern territories” will be raised again, or the situation will stabilize and the possibility of a diplomatic solution will appear. Today I will touch directly on our country - Russia.
In the press, including on the pages of "Military Review", materials about the state of military units, fortifications and fleet in the Far East. We have repeatedly talked about the problem of the small number of the local population and the outflow of young people from the eastern regions. This is all true. What our previous authorities did is really a huge betrayal, a huge damage to the state's defense.
But today we will talk about the strategic tasks that Russia is solving today. About why, even in such a state that has not yet been fully restored, the defense of this region is able to fulfill the immediate task and provide an opportunity to give a decent response to any aggressor with the forces of the Russian army. It's about exactly how strategy can keep tactics from making foolish moves.
The results of the great betrayal
I understand that the reader expects clear formulations and conclusions from me, and not stories and fables, but I will start with stories, which an old hunter-fisherman told me at a hut in the Siberian taiga. It seems to me that it is very similar to the story that we have recently experienced.
Once in the life of every bear, an event happens, the nature of which still no one can explain. In the spring, after hibernation, she brings out the cubs born in winter. Small lumps all summer wander after mom, feed on her milk, grow, taste adult food. So much so that after the next hibernation, the mother bear brings out already strong cubs, almost adolescents.
But it also happens that after the second hibernation, the cubs wake up as small as they lay in the den. Why this happens, even the elderly do not know. And again, all summer long the cubs follow their mother, drink, eat, grow up, but do not grow. Only from somewhere does their tail appear. And seeing that the cubs do not at all look like bears, the bear does not let them sleep for the third hibernation. Kicks it out. And these bear cubs wander through the forest all winter, angry and hungry.
From bears they only have a child's face and huge adult paws. The regrown tail made the bodies a little like badgers. And most importantly, they believe - if they eat a lot, they will someday grow into big and strong bears. Will grow up and return to their mother. And for this frantic appetite, for not being afraid to take away prey even from bears and packs of wolves, for the fact that they can kill even an elk alone, they nicknamed these small, by northern standards, a meter long, up to 60 cm high and 20 kg weight - taiga gluttons ...
I saw a wolverine once in my life, and even then through my binoculars, when she waddled funny at the edge of the forest on her business. Clumsy, with huge paws and a kind of "gait" - amble. By the way, the hunter also told me about this feature. It turns out that she learned how to walk because of her paws. So it jumps now, somehow sideways.
And taiga people always have a sign when they see another person: walking like a wolverine - he had a long journey! I tried to go like this. True, the speed increases significantly, although you look silly from the outside. No wonder that 50-80 kilometers a day is not the limit for this kid. Even in the snow in winter.
Does this story remind you of the recent history of Russia? We were also born in a pack of "bears". And in the same way, we did not become bears today. We were betrayed by those who should have been ahead. We were robbed by those who were supposed to increase our wealth. We were deceived by those who for many years kept repeating about friendship and love for us, about the desire to make our life a paradise ... We did not grow into bears. But we want to be bears ...
Great betrayal affected everyone and everything. It especially affected the service people. Those who deceived us absolutely did not want us to grow up and become the owners of the forest again. A strong Russian army, strong special services, a strong state - we were not supposed to do all this. We had to become what everyone who came to us could not achieve during the millennium of the existence of Rus. We were to become dumb cattle, slaves who would work for glass beads for the great Americans and Europeans.
I will not tell you how much, what and where was destroyed, thrown, plundered and left in the new states. Each of the readers still has these facts before their eyes or in their memory. Break not build. They broke it quickly and with understanding. Broke what is difficult to restore. We broke something without which we turned not even into a regional power, but into a third world country.
And they achieved their goal. The humiliation that we experienced in the 90s will probably never be forgotten. As well as a hundred bush chicken dishes. Like the emergence of a lot of "cool electronics". All their Panasonic, Sonic, Phillips, who were in every family, sparkled with all the colors of their own color music and worked until scattering, in the literal sense of the word, for a couple of months.
We need a lot
If you open any media today, it turns out that we urgently need something. We urgently need to build a high-quality infrastructure, we need to raise the wages of state employees, we need to increase the pay for servicemen and security officials. We need to increase pensions. We need to build hospitals, schools, kindergartens ... In short, we need, we need, we need ...
We need to re-equip the army even more. Probably, there is no person who would not have heard the question, for example, about "Armata". Why are our tankers still armed with T-72 and T-90? Where thousands of new tanks? Why do our pilots fly in cars of the 3-4th generation when there is already the 5th? And so on for any position.
By the way, oppositionists of all stripes make good use of this. I mean the famous "why are we doing this, it is better to distribute these funds to old women so that they heal like queens."
If we return to the analogy that I drew above, today we are the very wolverine that should always be eaten. But there is something permanently impossible. Not because the volume of the abdomen does not allow, but because food must still be earned, found, walked a couple of tens of kilometers, tracked down and caught. And this also requires strength, which means, again, food.
It is understandable that we want to once again become as powerful a power as the Soviet Union was. But another thing is also clear - we will not be able to do this in the near future. We do not have such human, economic and military resources. We are a huge but sparsely populated country located in difficult climatic and geographical regions. Hence the periodic statements of our foreign "partners" that it is necessary to divide Siberia, change the status of Lake Baikal, develop jointly the North and so on.
Russia in the Far East
Russia's strategy in the Far East has long been clearly formulated at the highest level. It is enough to read the military doctrine of Russia to understand this. We act today in much the same way as a wolverine. Its grounds are quite huge - 180-200 square kilometers per male. The male allows two or three females to live in his lands. And that's all. The rest have nothing to do there. Fights even with their own grown children in wolverines are fatal. Either you leave, or I eat you.
Let's look at the main idea of the doctrine.
The use of military force is possible only when the possibilities of using political, diplomatic, legal, economic, informational and other means of influence have been completely exhausted.
Yes, other predators also enter the territory of the wolverine. And then she shows teeth and claws. He does not fight, but drives out a bear or a pack of wolves. Moreover, it takes away their prey.
But if the wolves or the bear do not understand why they have to leave, then a serious fight begins, which often ends in serious injuries or even death of the aggressor. A little beast with a "cute face" simply does not know that there is such a feeling - fear. And weapons, the thickness of the skin, which is three times thicker than a bear's, teeth that can grind bones like a hyena, claws ten centimeters long, hair that does not get wet in water, endurance and speed - these outstanding qualities help to solve any problem.
Under the new conditions, the tasks of the army and navy in this region have changed. Today we need to defend our own territory, Kamchatka, the Kuriles, the Bering Strait and Vladivostok. There is enough strength for this. Of course, in memory of the USSR, we would like to periodically show our teeth in a southerly direction, but, alas, our power is not enough for this today.
But no one removed the task of striking force in the event of a nuclear war from the fleet. Surface ships and submarines must ensure the delivery of a nuclear strike against the enemy in a short time and from short distances. If we look at what has been happening in this regard in recent years, we can conclude that quite a lot of attention is paid to this particular side of Russia's defense.
Naturally, the question arises as to whether we are sliding into the situation that existed in this region at the beginning of the last century? When Japan was a truly "unsinkable battleship", and the Japanese navy perfectly took advantage of the availability of convenient bases and ports where it was possible to quickly replenish supplies of coal and ammunition, and in case of danger, hide under the protection of coastal batteries.
After all, the delivery of a nuclear strike is a problem not only of the target, but also of the target. The answer should be as far as possible by the means by which the attack is carried out. For example, the delivery of a nuclear strike on the territory of Japan will cause a response from other nuclear powers in connection with the death of citizens of these countries. And there…
The answer is again in our doctrine. I won't even decipher it. Everything is clear and understandable.
Massive use of weapons systems and military equipment, high-precision, hypersonic weapons, electronic warfare equipment, weapons based on new physical principles, comparable in efficiency to nuclear weapons, information control systems, as well as unmanned aerial vehicles and autonomous marine vehicles, guided robotic weapons and military equipment.
I think that these words also encode the tasks of the army and navy for the next period.
Conclusion
Today, when the situation in the world is changing rapidly, it is necessary to move away from the views of the last century. The world is different, the war is different, the confrontation is different, the tasks of the army are different.
As much as we would not like, in the coming decades we will not be able to take the place corresponding to the Soviet Union in the world hierarchy of countries. Russia's potential today is much less than the potential of the USSR. Less in many ways. In the future, we need to increase it. How? I have no answer. Perhaps by restoring the USSR in a new format, at least partially. This is the shortest-term option.
There is also a long-term one. The increase in the birth rate, the development of the economy, the creation of a state where not illiterate guest workers would strive, but the best scientists and engineers in the world, and so on. Is it possible? Why not? Only history shows that in this case, most likely, we will have to show our teeth again or even fight to the death.
As for the Far East, today a struggle is unfolding there between the United States and the PRC. The reasons for this struggle are about the same as the confrontation between Russia and the United States. Control over trade routes. But it's easier for us. The Americans do not yet have the opportunity to seriously claim the Northern Sea Route. Simply because there is no such fleet in the United States. But with China, the situation is exactly the opposite. The trade route to the Indian Ocean is controlled by the United States, and China is trying to squeeze them out of this region.
And I will end again by telling the story of the old hunter to the end. I'll just end because many people have questions. If a glutton eats so much to grow into a bear, have there been cases when he succeeded?
Yes, it also happens that some gluttons still find enough food in the taiga to grow into a big bear. But if this happens, woe to all living things, and the hunter who invaded the territory of this bear. Nature is not easy to defeat. This bear does not lie down in a den for the winter. So it wanders through the taiga all winter, killing all living things that meet on its way. They call it that - connecting rod.
And only if it survives this winter and waits for spring, it becomes a real bear as we know it. You will meet such one in the taiga, he will look at you and leave on his way. Unless, of course, this is a mother with cubs. Mothers don't leave. They attack. Children are protected. But this is understandable - we live for the sake of children.
Information