You won't find cheap soldiers

Consequences of great greed and severe error

The question of creating a modern Western-style army in Russia has been raised permanently by our public and domestic media for almost two decades. Boris Yeltsin, at the beginning of the 90-s, stated that we need other Armed Forces. And in 1996, going to the presidential election, he confidently promised that by 2000, Russian troops would be fully staffed with contract soldiers. And naturally, the need for conscripts will disappear. But alas ...

A few years after the early voluntary resignation of Boris Nikolayevich, the federal target program (FTP) “Transition to recruitment by military personnel undergoing military the service by contract, a number of formations and military units "for 2004-2007 years. But in February of this year, Chief of the General Staff General of the Army Nikolai Makarov acknowledged: “The task that was set up - the building of a professional army was not solved”.

RESULTS OF ECONOMY

There are many reasons for this. However, I will focus on the most important, in my opinion, of them.

I remember that at one of the “round tables”, where representatives of different political parties, experts, journalists, the head of the Main Organizational-Mobilization Directorate of the General Staff, Colonel-General Vasily Smirnov, stated, in order for the young man to voluntarily want to serve in the army, it’s necessary to create normal living and social conditions, there must be an appropriate salary. On the basis of this, the Ministry of Defense proposed to spend about 140 billion rubles in four years to carry out an FTP. The Ministry of Finance has allocated 79 billion for this program.

That is why we had to completely abandon the construction of social facilities (clubs, sports facilities), and contract servicemen were supposed to live in barracks. In exchange for family dormitories, the notorious monetary compensations were allocated, for which few were able to rent even a relatively decent room. In addition, at the initial stage, the salary of a contractor generally identified thousands of rubles in 6,1, which was less than the average salary in the country and, of course, did not meet the needs of young healthy men.

In addition, in March 2004, the State Duma adopted amendments to the Law on the Status of a Military Person, according to which contract servicemen who entered the service in the Russian Armed Forces after 1 in January 2004, were required to go on vacation at their own expense. This innovation was supplemented by amendments made to the legislative base: for candidates for contract soldiers returning to the army and fleet from a “citizen”, a three-month probation period was established, additional leave for volunteers in permanent combat readiness was canceled, instead of that, money was paid again (in the 76 Division of the Airborne Forces - 1200 rubles).

I then happened to hear from one high-ranking military official the following: “We understand why the Ministry of Finance is fighting for every ruble of the program. There are economic problems and they need to be considered. But whatever the numbers are named and planned, the algorithm for the transfer of troops on a professional basis is determined and agreed with all interested departments. ”

It turned out that this algorithm is in principle incorrect and took away considerable resources and resources from the state.

EVALUATION - “UNSATISFACTORY”

The transfer to a contractual basis of units and divisions of the Russian army was preceded by an experiment launched in July of the 2003 of the year in the elite 76 of the Pskov Airborne Division. It was assumed that the connection will recruit qualified specialists from the "citizen", as well as offer to remain the most conscientious, disciplined and skillful conscript soldiers to remain in it. For them, built several barracks with cabin for four people. But military equipment, as suggested by the General Staff, was not updated in the division. Sports facilities and community facilities were not erected.

Journalists and politicians were taken to Pskov to demonstrate the course of the experiment. The soldiers complained of boredom, the inability to arrange a family, low wages. However, nothing has changed, the proper conclusions were not made and the implementation of the FTP has started.

It took a little time to make sure:

1. For contract military service, privates and stock sergeants are reluctant to go. If anyone wants to return to the army, then this is often not the one she needs. The military enlistment offices are trying to fulfill the plan for recruiting contractors at any cost.

2. More willingly contract soldiers-yearlings, who wanted at least some money and some freedom, that the voluntary service had to guarantee.

According to the head of the group of one of the analytical divisions of the Main Organizational-Mobilization Directorate (GOMU) of the General Staff of Colonel Yevgeny Shabalin, in 2005, the military service was suspended ahead of time (that is, the contract was broken) 12,9% of volunteers. At the same time, in the 42 th motorized rifle division, stationed in Chechnya and operating, as is known, in a combat situation, these turned out to be almost a third. A similar trend was observed in subsequent years.

By the way, analysts of the General Staff were more worried about another problem: a significant number of military personnel who signed the first contract in 2004-2006 did not intend to renew it.

In turn, the Sociological Center of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation reported: only 15-19% of volunteers are ready to sign the second contract. In their analytical notes to the Kremlin, the General Staff informed that in the next two to three years the troops could lose the core of the professionals who signed the contract in 2004-2005 and then formed the basis of the forces of constant combat readiness.

Then the Deputy Prosecutor General of Russia, Chief Military Prosecutor of the Russian Federation Sergei Fridinsky, who noted that significant mistakes were made in implementing the Federal Targeted Program, sounded the alarm. According to him, the federal executive authorities failed to achieve the required level of social security, increasing the attractiveness of military service under the contract for soldiers and sergeants, improving the combat training of military units transferred to the contract principle of recruitment.

“As a result, in August 2007, the progress of the program received an unsatisfactory assessment of the President of the Russian Federation,” said Sergei Fridinsky, adding that the increase in unsuccessful tendencies in the state of law and order in parts, transferable to a contract. And what is most regrettable - a significant part of offenses committed by contractors, is still evading military service. That is, "professionals" simply flee from the barracks. And the reason for this - the low moral and business qualities of military personnel. It is not a secret that conscripts mostly go to the contract. And if a person comes from a “citizen”, then, as a rule, he who has not found a place in society, concluded the head of the GWP.

Already in January of 2008, then Army Commander-in-Chief, Army General Vladimir Boldyrev, said that he was not satisfied with the situation when the units and military units transferred to the contract recruitment mode had a low level of manpower, the level of training was practically the same as those of the units and units staffed by conscription. The general named the reasons for this problem: low level of pay, lack of housing for family soldiers, unregulated office hours, regular involvement in economic work.

Hearings were held on the problems of the contract army and in the Public Chamber. The head of the National Association of Reserve Officers of the Armed Forces (MEGAPIR), Alexander Kanshin, said: “Errors in the planning of the Federal Target Program have led to the contract rate of servicemen, Rotation of military personnel in the units of constant readiness was carried out by hundreds due to the unwillingness of military personnel to serve in the conditions that were created for them. Thus, the very meaning of the professionalization of the army recruited under the contract is lost. ”

Difficult time

The Ministry of Defense finally realized that a mistake had been made: the available funds did not allow contract soldiers to be recruited only for certain positions, on which combat readiness depended first of all. Apparently, it is not by chance that Minister of Defense Anatoly Serdyukov, enumerating tasks for the near future, actually predicted that only contract soldiers would serve as sergeants and foremen, as well as in the naval personnel. In MO, a draft of an appropriate federal target program was prepared. The Government of the Russian Federation, by decree No. 1016-r of July 15, 2008 approved the concept of this program. She had to act until 2015, it was planned to spend over 243 billion rubles on it, so that in the end the Armed Forces would receive thousands of junior volunteer commanders 64,2.

However, in the fall of 2008, a financial and economic crisis erupted and the government froze the new federal target program. Only now the Ministry of Defense was able to take emergency measures and begin training for future sergeants, who will for a long time connect their lives with the Armed Forces. Meanwhile, the period of military service on conscription was halved, as a result of which it was necessary to sharply increase the number of contingent of new recruits sent to the troops, and at the same time during the military reform fleet tens of thousands of officers fired.

Consequently, our Armed Forces will have to go through a very difficult period. After all, it is not easy to control the situation in military teams consisting of young people aged 18-27 for years, until five to ten thousand contract sergeants arrive there.