C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 MOSCOW 012595

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/22/2016
TAGS: MCAP PREL PGOV PHUM RS
SUBJECT: PRESIDENT PUTIN, DEFMIN IVANOV ADDRESS RUSSIAN
MILITARY'S INTERNAL PROBLEMS

REF: MOSCOW 12457

Classified By: Minister-Counselor for Political Affairs Alice G. Wells.
Reasons 1.4 (B/D).


1. (C) SUMMARY: Putin and Defense Minister Ivanov candidly
acknowledged many of the military's internal problems during
a 16 November senior commanders conference in Moscow. The
two leaders promised various remedies ranging from higher
salaries and better treatment for soldiers to steep increases
for military hardware. Defense analysts praised the
leadership's frank appraisal but remain skeptical whether the
proposed changes will outlast the 2007-08 electoral cycle.
END SUMMARY.
.
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FRANK ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF SERIOUS PROBLEMS
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2. (SBU) President Putin and Defense Minister Ivanov
participated in an annual senior commanders review conference
in Moscow 16 November. Military commanders, chiefs of
military districts, admirals, and heads of the Defense
Ministry's main departments listened as the President and
DefMin candidly addressed many of the internal challenges
facing the military.


3. (SBU) Ivanov acknowledged hazing and abuse of conscripts,
poor housing and working conditions, and high suicide and
accidental death rates among soldiers. He reported several
positive trends; for example, incidents of hazing and
accidental death have declined over the past year, while the
army has increased its contacts with media, human rights, and
other public organizations. On the negative side, corruption
remains a serious issue, while low-quality training and poor
logistics management continue to plague the military. Other
issues that Ivanov addressed:

-- The military can anticipate a significant increase in
budgetary outlays for armaments during the 2007-15 period.
Ivanov commented that the military could expect to receive
five trillion rubles for hardware (roughly USD 180 billion).
To complement the increased spending, the Ministry of Defense
will inaugurate a new purchasing system and establish a
federal agency, led by civilians,

to supervise acquisition
and delivery.

-- Armed forces must be prepared to fight several conflicts
simultaneously and be fully capable of operating globally,
regionally, and locally.

-- Military districts will be reorganized into joint regional
commands or, in some cases, eliminated.

-- Transformation from a conscript military to contract
personnel will continue.

-- There will be more civilian control to improve
transparency, including support for a proposal by the Public
Chamber to establish a Public Council under the MOD.

-- Construction battalions, notorious as the vehicle of
choice for corrupt officers to misuse military personnel,
will be disbanded by the end of 2006. MOD has already
dismissed three general officers for misuse of soldiers and
has launched investigations against three others.

-- Quality of training will improve and incorporate greater
use of computers and other information technology.

-- There will be greater transparency in keeping parents
informed of the welfare and whereabouts of their children in
the military. MOD will encourage military personnel to
report instances of abuse -- "no more punishment for
whistle-blowers."


4. (SBU) Putin focused on greater investment in military
hardware, strengthening strategic forces, developing new
strategic weapons, and promising steep pay raises to military
personnel (50 percent by the end of 2008). The
Commander-in-Chief emphasized that Russia's armed forces
would soon emerge from their "bare survival phase" and be
fully capable of confronting any type of threat through a
combination of weapons modernization and revamping of the
personnel system.
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BUT WILL REFORM TAKE HOLD?
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5. (C) Defense analysts told us that the goal of Putin and
Ivanov was to motivate senior commanders during a difficult
transition period. Boris Makarenko, Deputy Director of the
Center for Political Technologies, and Pavel Felgengauer, an
independent analyst, were impressed with the frank
acknowledgement of internal problems in the military but were
less sure that the proposed solutions, especially those that
promised to improve conditions for rank-and-file soldiers,
would survive the 2007-08 electoral cycle.


6. (C) Felgengauer, in particular, was more pessimistic. He
agreed that the Russian military was badly in need of weapons
modernization. However, the greatest challenge that the
military establishment faced in implementing the solutions
proposed by Putin and Ivanov was bureaucratic inertia. He
welcomed the analysis of the military's internal problems and
appreciated that the media had been permitted to publicize
them, but more than rhetoric was needed to push the changes
through a resistant senior officer corps. Felgengauer
emphasized that, rather than a handful of prosecutions to
reduce corruption and misuse of soldiers, perpetrators of
hazing incidents needed to be convicted and sentenced to
harsher prison terms. Otherwise, the message would not
filter down through the ranks.


7. (SBU) A more poignant reminder of public perceptions of
the military came from an ordinary Russian citizen. Sitting
next to a poloff at dinner, the middle-aged woman commented
that conditions for today's soldiers had declined
significantly. She noted sadly that "even in Moscow we see
how poorly their uniforms fit, and we can see how hungry they
look. This was not the case during Soviet times."
BURNS