Forwarded Post: Newsmax.com Although this is a contraray opinion to liberal press ideas; doesn't this seem rather like the direction of things in the US? I mean letting our conventional forces become bedraggled and unready for real combat while police forces become stronger and militarized? Governments afraid of their peoples. DP Russian Military Is Not In Big Trouble After All Col. Stanislav Lunev Thursday, Sept. 14, 2000 After the recent Russian nuclear attack submarine tragedy in the Barents Sea, some military experts and the U.S. mainstream press have been speculating about the alleged poor condition of Russia's strategic nuclear and conventional armed forces. Unfortunately the reality is different, and one of the world largest and most powerful military machines is not in really bad shape at all. The Kursk submarine tragedy was no accident, but was the logical result of Russia¹s President Vladimir Putin's policy, which is intent on moving the nation toward the re-establishment of a totalitarian state by any means possible. The sub's disaster also provides an example of former KGB Lt. Colonel Putin's manner of leading Russia in very difficult time of its history. We know that the supposedly visionary Putin was missing in action when it came to handling the submarine crisis in the Barents Sea. His "activity" during the disaster suggests a picture of a cold-hearted man who does not care about the people, including the men and women in military uniforms involved in the realization of his ambitious plans and intentions. We also know these plans are based on Putin¹s militaristic policy. As the Russian press reported on Aug 11, one day before Kursk tragedy, President Putin summoned his highest military officials to the Kremlin for a secret debate over the future of Russian defense, and to defuse tensions over control of its nuclear arsenal. At a four-hour meeting of the Security Council President Putin discussed with his military leaders and the most powerful members of his Cabinet future developments of Russia's strategic nuclear and conventional forces. For weeks these problems were at the center of a dispute between Defense Minister Igor Sergeev and the Chief of General Staff Anatoly Kvashnin. Sergeev, a former commander of the Strategic Missile Forces, is a strong supporter of these forces and argued that Russia needs to improve its nuclear arsenal to deter possible attacks by other nations. Army General Kvashnin, on the other hand, planned to reduce the strategic nuclear forces by merging them with the Air Force, and spend more money for the development of conventional weapons. In recent weeks this dispute became so personal that Mr.Sergeev blasted the General Staff Chief's idea as "criminal insanity" at an public military event. Details of this meeting¹s final outcome remains unclear. Sergei Ivanov, Security Council Secretary, said that resolutions on increasing military spending and improving combat readiness had been adopted, but they had yet to be finalized. Defense Minister Sergeev stated that "no missile silo will be destroyed until its service life expires." Like everyhing going on in Russia today, this dispute looks more like a show than a real concern. First of all, future development of Russia's military has already been proclaimed by the new Military Doctrine, approved by Putin last spring. According to this document, the nuclear weapons are Russia's first line of defense against any outside aggression, but in the future the government will pay more attention to conventional forces because of the former imbalance in their development. We know that over the last eight years Boris Yeltsin's government used about 70 percent of Russia's military budget for the development of its strategic nuclear forces. Currently Moscow¹s arsenal has so many thousands of nuclear warheads that it's more then enough to destroy our planet several times over. But Mr.Sergeev, former commander of these forces, spent most of this money to acquire about 20 new Topol-M (Poplar-M) missiles every year since he became defense minister in 1997. Its one of the paradoxes of our life that although having been in a very deep economic crisis Russia developed and deployed the operational Topol-M top-of-the-line mobile intercontinental strategic ballistic nuclear missile system, a system which even the U.S. military simply cannot afford. Traditionally Russia has always used its nuclear forces to extort money from the West by threatening the prospect of a world nuclear catastrophe if new loans and credits do not come to Moscow in time to prevent one. At the same time, however, the Yeltsin government paid little attention to Russia's conventional forces because of a simple shortage of money, most of whch had been used for the nuclear arsenal. During the last several years the near-1 million man-strong conventional forces were in a real decline, with very low combat readiness and extremely low morale among military personnel. That, however wasn¹t true for all members of the conventional armed forces. Yeltsin and his " Family" cronies paid very close attention to several army divisions they considered to be something of a PRAETORIAN GUARD that existed solely to protect them and their interests. According to Kremlin plans these Praetorian Guard troops could defend Moscow and protect Kremlin insiders from possible revolution or a peoples' revolt in the event of an economic collapse which was then considered possible. Located inside and around Moscow were the so-called Presidential Kremlin Regiment, Tamanskaya and Kantemirovskaya full strength tank and motorized infantry army divisions, Dzerzhinskaya special forces divisions, 16th brigade and 218th battalion of special operations forces as well as two of the so-called "near the palace" air-born divisions. These military units never had any problems with personnel, or any shortage of money, new weapons, ammunition, and other supplies. Their troop commanders and officers were extremely loyal to Boris Yeltsin personally, and are equally loyal to Putin. Under their supervision there are enough highly trained and well-armed military professionals, tanks, APCs, tactical missiles, artillery pieces and other weapons to defend Moscow and protect Kremlin insiders from any kind of public unrest. Yeltsin¹s "Family" was totally satisfied with these troops and ignored all the other conventional forces with all their problems such as low combat readiness, shortage of money and weapons, as well as the murdering of young conscripts, suicides of officers, and real hunger in the more remote military camps. The same situation existed not only in the army, but in the conventional air force and navy, including such attack submarines as Kursk which sank during regular naval exercises. We now know that neither the Kursk submarine, nor any other combat ships from Northern Fleet received regular technical maintenance during 1999. Although the causes of the Kursk's sinking are not yet known, neglect may end up topping the list. There have been reports that the submarine left port without vital batteries to power the backup air-purifying and lighting systems needed in the event of an emergency. Emergency exits and safety equipment aboard the submarine were substandard when they were installed in 1994, a compromise hushed up at that time by bribes. >From beginning of his presidency Vladimir Putin was unconcerned by the state of the conventional armed forces, but not any more. Putin¹s only presidential "success" the blody year-long war in Chechnya against few thousands rebels clearly demonstrated the very low combat ability of Russia's conventional forces then engaged in only one limited military conflict. And this is in a country with 89 administrative regions and districts encompassing different nations and nationalities, which any time could follow Chechnya's example in their drive for independence. As a result of the lesson learned in this war, Putin decided to establish a balance in development of Russia's nuclear and conventional forces. Of course, it is not because he wouldn't like to use strategic arsenal to extort more money from the West and to blackmail the U.S. and other outside investors. There is no doubt that he will continue this practice of his predecessors in the Kremlin. But while he is consolodating all state power in his hands Putin desperately needs more reliable conventional forces, which he can use against his own population, first of all against any people who won¹t follow orders and obey requests from Kremlin. We know that Putin does have enough money for both the nuclear arsenal and the conventional forces. Russia¹s defense budget is over 20 percent of the total government spending and Putin promised his military leaders he would increase their budget by as much as 50 percent. The main-stream American media would like to impress its readers by saying that Russia's Defense Ministry budget for 2000 is less than $5 billion compared to about $268 billion in the U.S. But what the media doesn't report is that it is simply impossible to compare Russian and U.S. military spending. For example, the media doesn¹t report that if the U.S. enlisted soldiers' salary is several hundreds dollars per month, a major part of Russian 1, 200, 000 military personnel are conscripts who do not receive ANY SALARY. The government pays them only few rubles monthly as reimbursement for several packs of cheap Russian cigarettes, now made somewhere in Africa. If the monthly salary of U.S. mid-level officers consists of thousands of dollars, the Russian army officers of similar rank get a monthly salary of not more then $100. U.S. weapons systems cost American taxpayers millions of dollars, Russian weapons cost millions of rubles, or only few thousand US dollars. American strategic missiles cost billions of dollars while Russia¹s cost billions of rubles but only millions of US dollars, and so on. In other words, Russia's military is in not in the bad condition the U.S. media likes to picture it as being. Additionally Moscow can use additional extra billions of dollars, currently coming in every month from high oil prices in the international markets, for the development of its military machine and defense industry. And there is no big argument as to where this money would go either to the strategic nuclear arsenal or to conventional forces. But there is no doubt, that if this money is not diverted elsewhere and is spent on defense , America and NATO in the near future will face a much more powerful and unfriendly Russian military power. Thanks to Putin and American politicians who still talking about a mythtical "strategic partnership" with the Kremlin leaders. <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. 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