Results of the extended meeting of the Defense Ministry board: to grind so to grind ...
During the meeting, various issues were raised that are related to the acquisition of a new look by the Russian army. As it turned out, the Supreme Commander and the general secretary of the Ministry of Defense have answers to a whole series of questions, but the certainty of these answers in certain cases gives rise to certain doubts. These, let us say, dubious theses include the thesis of Vladimir Putin that in order to bring the army to a fundamentally new level, it should take three to five years - and not a year more. Three to five years - in fact, the term is more than short, which shows that it is simply inadmissible to pull the reformation rubber on. However, the brevity of this term causes certain concerns, which can be characterized by the following phrase: will they have time? ..
Moreover, even those people who stand behind the reformist machine of the Russian army today, it seems, they themselves cannot say for sure, but what exactly is the transition of the Russian army to a new qualitative level? If this quality level lies in the possibility of the Armed Forces to repel any modern threat to the safety of the citizens of the country, then this is one thing, and if the new quality level is “properly verified” paper reports on increasing the combat capability of the army and modernizing all spheres of its activities, then this another.
Obviously, any self-respecting person and the Russian army as a whole, a person involved in military reform, understands that the time periods that Vladimir Putin sets for the Ministry of Defense are too small to realize the idea of a total improvement in the combat capability of army units. Although even tight deadlines are not the main problem at all - in four years the Third Reich was defeated ... Fears lie in the other.
If, at the time of this, the announcement of a compressed time frame for the fulfillment of the archival task set by the head of state led to the beginning of large-scale work and to the fact that subordinates and subordinates of subordinates began to literally dig the ground with a “hoof” in order to meet the deadline and (otherwise you will be jailed for sabotage or wrecking), then today the times are completely different. And “other times” give rise to those before whom tasks are set, roll their eyes and dream: “perhaps the very three to five years will pass, and the Supreme himself will forget about his demands”. And yet, oddly enough, dreams of this nature often come true ...
I would like to sincerely count on the fact that this time such dreams did not come true, and already in 2016-2018 years, Vladimir Putin strongly asked from all those who are directly responsible for the reformation procedures. It is tough - it will not just say with poorly concealed anger “you work well ...” in case of failure to meet deadlines and cost increases in sales, but also help to send responsible, or rather irresponsible, people to bed. Although what we are talking about here: we have all the questions on the level of “send - not send on the bench” are the sole responsibility of the third branch of government - the branch of the judiciary ...
In general, the timeframe for the transformation of the Russian army into a fully modernized version, voiced by Vladimir Putin, has been announced, which means that it’s time to roll up our sleeves to begin titanic work. More precisely, to the continuation of the work that was started before Sergei Shoigu came to the post of Minister of Defense. But after all, that “pre-shyohigovskuyu” work seems to be impossible to continue, because it was under the past leadership of the military ministry that the most important anti-modernization blunders were allowed. Among such blunders are the excessive reduction of military higher educational institutions, the complete destruction of such a military unit as warrant officers and warrant officers, the disbanding of several thousand military camps, and, most importantly, financial crimes whose perpetrators for some reason cannot be held accountable for some reason. .
It would seem that it is necessary to move on to a sensible policy in terms of bringing the Russian army to a new qualitative level. The president, in his speech, seems to mention this: “not all the decisions taken on reforming the Armed Forces justified themselves”. However, at the same time, he makes a very strange addition: “... there should be no constant shuddering, endless revisions of earlier decisions, especially since we are now entering the stage when it is necessary to finely grind all the mechanisms of the war machine”.
This addition makes it possible to judge that, in principle, the reform itself has already been carried out, and to get a truly combat-ready and efficient army, all that remains is to be polished ... Well, if the Supreme Commander calls what remains to be done before the Russian army’s withdrawal to a new level of quality, fine polishing, then ... For God's sake, of course ... You can even call it fine tuning or control smoothing, the main thing is that the end result is digestible. But only for the time being it all resembles a case from a bearded anecdote, when “after assembly the product needed to be modified by a file”.
And “modifying with a file” is what ... As such “refinement”, the Ministry of Defense plans to start rebuilding several hundreds of actually closed military camps, increasing the number of cadets enrolled in military universities (up to 15 thousand people), partially restoring the institute of midshipmen and ensigns, inventory of military equipment, bringing the volume of the fulfillment of the defense order to 100%.
After the new terms voiced by Vladimir Putin to bring the Russian army into effective form, the Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov spoke, who simply and the military stated that if the Supreme Commander-in-Chief had set the task, then we (the Ministry of Defense) will fully implement this task. Judging by the words of General Gerasimov, there are already plans.
True, while the current leadership of the Ministry of Defense will have to work in the fine-tuning mode. Why? Yes, because the same Sergei Shoigu obviously would like to reconsider many of the “undertakings” of his predecessor in the near future, and many have already revised, but after Vladimir Putin’s words about the “constant shyness”, Shoigu clearly does not fully understand how to reform him further . Indeed, on the one hand, there are obviously counterproductive decisions in a number of areas (from purchasing large quantities of military equipment to total reductions of personnel) made by the previous head of the ministry, and on the other hand, the installation of the Supreme Commander, according to which everything is already, like reformed - it remains only to walk on the grinding machine. You must admit that the situation for Shoigu is more than complicated.
But Shoigu and Gerasimov, as expected, the military, the orders are not discussed, and therefore: it is said - to grind, which means they will grind. What kind of labeling sanding paper will be applied? - this is another question.
For now, one thing is clear: there will be no “epic” revisions in terms of military reform. In particular, no one is going to cancel outsourcing in the army (from speeches for all the same collegiums) - once, there will not be any changes with the conscription service either - two, there will be no changes in terms of the quantitative set of contract servicemen - three. And if the first two cases for a certain circle of military personnel may look quite benign, then here’s the case presented at number three can hardly be called benign for the Ministry of Defense itself. After all, the snag is that even after a multiple increase in the monetary allowance for those servicemen who serve under the contract, there is no significant influx of people who want to sign a contract. What is the reason? It can be assumed that the majority of persons who sign a contract with the Ministry of Defense, finding themselves in the army, remain disappointed with what they were offered in the mode of advertising and with what they actually have to face. One of the main problems is incompleteness, which leads to the fact that contract servicemen today have to serve, as they say, for themselves and for that guy ... And “that guy” doesn’t want to join the ranks of the Russian army in its contract cluster. This often leads to another situation when the contractor begins to think about the expediency of his decision.
Summing up, once again I would like to wish the leadership of the Ministry of Defense productive zeal and success based on it. I would also like to wish that the thoughts about the quality and effectiveness of the Russian army should be translated into reality, and not remain at the level of thoughts and plans three and five and fifteen years later.
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