What threatens the military security of Russia
Last week I attended an interesting event. The Scientific and Practical Conference “Military Security of Russia: XX1 Century” organized by the committees of both chambers of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation for Defense and the Foundation for Assistance to Scientific Research on Security Issues Science-XX1 took place in the cultural center of the Ministry of Defense.Skip such an event was impossible. First, because it is not so often in the open mode similar topics are discussed, and with the organizers announced very deep goals. First of all, it was supposed to analyze the challenges and threats to the country's military security at the current stage of development of its statehood, determine the sources and causes of these threats, search for possible ways to neutralize them. And secondly, because the preliminary program announced the participation in the conference of the first persons of the political and military elite of the country. Alas, it was not possible to hear their opinion on the burning issues of Russia's military security. Neither the Chairman of the Federation Council, V.I. Matvienko, nor the Minister of Defense, S.K.Shoigu, nor the Deputy Prime Minister, D.O.Rogozin, came to the conference. But still it was interesting, because for the first time, probably, in a sublimated form, it was possible to hear from the lips of military professionals an assessment of the situation around the country and its security.
This was sounded, first of all, in the report of the Chief of the General Staff and First Deputy Minister of Defense Valery Gerasimov, and later repeated in many speeches. Military analysts believe that for the period up to 2030, the level of existing and potential military dangers for Russia may significantly increase. The level itself will be determined by the struggle of the leading states for fuel and energy resources, commodity markets and living space. To ensure access to these resources, military potential will be actively used. Moreover, the nature of the war is changing, and how the methods of warfare are changing; weapon. Fighting will be conducted in all existing habitats, including space and cyberspace.
It is obvious that in order to successfully counter these kinds of threats, a radical modernization of not only existing weapons, but also approaches to waging a modern war is required. In the report of the chief of staff, this thought was quite distinct, especially in the part where he spoke about connecting military science to developing concepts of what the Russian army should be in the near future, according to what principles it should be shaped, trained and equipped. Already, according to Gerasimov, the troops are beginning to receive new, modern equipment and weapons. They will be updated to 2020 percent by 70, he assured. In its own way, an unprecedented rearmament of all the armed forces is under way, and new ones are being created. Thus, before 2020, the creation of military space defense forces should be completed, which will be equipped with modern C-500 and C-400 complexes.
Without bothering anyone with listing all the measures that the military-political leadership of the country is going to take and details of technical characteristics — how many and what types of weapons are being received or will be sent to the troops — I will note: there is a movement to upgrade the Russian army, and this is gratifying. Russia has something to protect, and it should have everything to defend. I fully agree with the chairman of the State Duma Committee on Defense, Vladimir Komoyedov, that external military threats to Russia are becoming more and more real and tangible.
Today, war, in all its forms, is becoming a means of pursuing politics as never before. But wars are not only traditional, from the point of view of the form of warfare, but also non-traditional, when they are conducted or, at least, kindled by proxy in the name of the interests of some third party. We all remember how the dismemberment of Yugoslavia took place and what it led to. We see what happened in Libya and other countries of North Africa and is happening now in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria. Next in line is Iran. Deputy Komoyedov is absolutely right, recalling that after the 1945 year, the United States used 300 more than once to use military force, including about 200 once making direct armed aggression on the territory of other countries in order to resolve problematic situations that meet American political and economic interests outside the country.
This is a very alarming statistic, in the light of the fact that Russia, as before the Soviet Union, despite all the "reset" in international relations is under the gun of the United States and its satellites, which is not at all hidden. Not so long ago I was at the so-called “Gaidar Forum”, which I shared my impressions a few weeks ago with the readers of Military Review. I had a curious meeting there and a public dialogue with the President of the American University in Cairo, Lisa Anderson. Let me remind you that this lady quite frankly told how she worked as a technologist for the action of democratic changes in the Arab spring, what is happening now in the Middle East, about authoritarianism of Kadaffi, Assad, Mubarak and how the USA opposes it, spreading democracy according to its export pattern. That is, by organizing bloody revolutions, with the imposition of human sacrifices on the democratic altar.
Ms. Anderson did not hide the secrets of technology protest actions. It turns out that Americans are more interested in young people, starting with 1980 year of birth, with whom they will be engaged around the world. According to her, such young people will not be able to make some kind of revolution on their own, they need it for an emotional wave and as a battering tool in terms of overthrowing the regime. And, as it turned out in the course of our conversation with her, Russia is no exception.
I remembered the content of that recent meeting with the American political consultant absolutely no accident. And not when he sat down to write these notes, but during the speeches of the participants of the conference on the military security of Russia. Listening to the enumeration of promising military developments, understanding that the Russian military-industrial complex, even in its current ruined state, is capable of performing any task, I thought: who will take the latest weapon in hand? The army is not only officers and generals. These are, first of all, the executors of the orders of the military leadership — ordinary soldiers. That same youth, born after 1980 year. It is also not by chance that our American "friends" are interested in, the efforts of overseas political strategists are now aimed at its ideological and psychological processing. They cannot allow the Russian youth to be brought up in the spirit of patriotism and love for the Motherland.
In fact, the information or cyber war against Russia is not just unleashed, it is already underway. And in my opinion, we are still losing this war, especially in the part of the patriotic education of young people. Over the past decades, the authorities have repeatedly addressed the topic of patriotism. From which high tribunes they didn’t talk about it, which concepts they didn’t develop, something doesn’t work in the mechanism of state regulation of the process of patriotic education of society. Young people stopped remembering that they have a homeland. I say this with full responsibility as a teacher, regularly communicating with students. Most of them are aimed at going abroad. And I increasingly come to the conclusion that we are educating cosmopolitans precisely because we are not engaged in the education of young people in principle. Under the conditions of a changed information space, young people themselves extract information of interest from public sources, not distinguishing, because of a lack of life experience, where the truth is, and where lies, which they are thrown by various political technologists.
Some events within the country reinforce the result thus achieved. What kind of love for the Motherland and its armed forces can be discussed if young people see how the scandal is developing around former Defense Minister Serdyukov. The more information about the theft in the Ministry of Defense, the less information about himself, resting from the works of the "righteous" in freedom. So who to protect the young soldier - thieving officials? What kind of patriotic education can we talk about?
The absence of this very important element of the ideological basis of public life in the country at that conference was recalled by President of the Academy of Military Sciences, Army General Makhmut Gareyev. He ended his speech with prophetic words that God forbid can become reality. "If we do not engage in patriotic education, we will not have defenders of the Fatherland," he said. The thought is very simple and very true. If you think about it, today it is perhaps the most serious internal threat to Russia's military security.
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