By Vestnik Kavkaza
The Center of Political Information prepared a report headlined “Sergey Shoigu: a year as the defense minister of Russia. Results of work.” The head of the Center, Alexei Mukhin, explained that “the image of the Russian army is personified. Earlier, it was the army of Anatoly Serdyukov, now it is the army of Sergey Shoigu. The figure of the minister influences the image of the Armed Forces in society a lot; a huge responsibility lies on him… The transparency and intelligibility of what the minister wants from his employees are an important element in the management mechanism, the effective management which Sergey Shoigy plans to build. The result of his efforts is improvement of trust, not only between top officers and the ministry, but also within the Armed Forces, because they accepted the situation adequately. Now we can say that martial spirit has increased in the army. One of the key goals chosen by Sergey Shoigu for development of the Armed Forces is de-commercialization of the department. This is a very important element, which will enable such a serious risk as corruption to be avoided.”
“The complex of measures taken by the Defense Ministry in a year can be divided into two parts: special and social,” an analyst of the Center for Political Information, Pavel Verkhnyatsky, thinks. “A military strategy is the most interesting thing in the special part. Sergey Shoigu presented the plan for Russia’s defense less than three months after his appointment. The plan considers all the threats and risks which Russia can face. The character of modern threats and risks increases the requirements for mobility and the technical infrastructure of the army; that is why the forces for special operations were founded, according to the minister’s initiative. Moreover, a development plan for the Defense Ministry to 2020 was adopted. This document enabled the minister to elicit oddness in decision-making in the Armed Forces. The next important aspect of the Defense Ministry’s work is rearming the Armed Forces. The state program to 2020 requires re-equipping the army by 70% by 2020. In 2017 it is planned to re-equip the missile complexes of infantry troops by 100%. Moreover, the Defense Ministry strives for cooperation with the Russian military-industrial complex and to purchase armaments in Russia, rejecting certain contracts with foreign weapons' producers.
One of the key questions for the Defense Ministry is hiring contract soldiers in the Armed Forces. According to the plan published by the ministry, by the end of 2013 the make-up of the staff of the army will reach 82%, including 241,000 contract soldiers; by the end of 2014 it will reach 100%, including 250,000 contract soldiers.”
Part of Shoigu’s know-how was the increasing number of recruits from Dagestan, where about 40,000 young man of drafting age live, and most of them want to serve. Since 2010 the number of recruits from Dagestan was falling. Opponents of the quota increase said that young Dagestani people shouldn’t serve in the army, because they would “ruin discipline” there or even become extremists. Shoigu ordered the quota to be increased after the Dagestan authorities addressed him.
“The draft in Dagestan is accompanied by discussions on the quota increase,” Pavel Verkhnyatsky says. “Sergey Shoigu considered various opinions and made such a seemingly simple decision, considering the Caucasian mentality. Along with the quota increase, in Dagestan a mechanism of cooperation with local authorities, communities and authoritative leaders is being developed. They will be guarantors that there will be no growth of tension in the army after the quota has been increased. They have found a solution in cooperation with powerful representatives of Dagestani Diasporas. At the same time, education officers were returned to the troops. However, this aspect touches not only on the draft in the Caucasus. At the same time, it is also a solution aimed at reducing tension.”
The president of the Center of Strategic Assessment and Predictions, Sergey Grinyayev, recalled that “Dagestan is a Russian region. Speculation over the draft is unacceptable. I think it means only a weakness in the command of units where young men are drafted. We should speak not only about the quota increase, but also the increase of responsibility and severe punishment for harassment and stirring up ethnic hatred. We are one state, one army. We can’t say that we will establish “a wild division.” The quota should be increased and be equal to other regions of the federation; at the same time, we need stricter educational and administrative work.”
“I would also add educational work,” Alexei Mukhin says. “When I served in Soviet times, the problem existed; and by a professional combination of educational and disciplinary measures it was easy to make the dear representatives of ethnic communities serve like all other soldiers. The system of development of relations in a military community should be built professionally. It is important to prevent criminalization of such processes, because if you go soft, for example, in Dagestan, all the other North Caucasus republics will demand benefits. And a ripple effect will take place – ethnic republics will demand quotas, benefits in service and so on. I think we shouldn’t allow this to happen.”
