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The Generals Revolt: Crisis Is Impending in the RF Defense Ministry
In the Defense Ministry, they apprehend a string of resignations of high-ranked officers. A few generals stand ready to send in their papers in opposition to the policy of Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov, Izvestia reported.
Some generals have written the resignation reports. Amid them is General Staff Chief Yuri Baluevsky, whose service term President Vladimir Putin personally extended for another three years not long ago.
The reasons of generals’ discontent are radical reforms initiated by Serdyukov. The matter at stake is stripping of military status the military medical officers, justice officers, men serving in rear and journalists.
But transferring those people to civic service will deprive them of a number of benefits, including the chance to claim free housing and medical treatment. They will no longer be able to visit some military facilities.
Another reason of generalship’s discontent is the large-scale disposal of real estate belonging to the Defense Ministry. By hearsay, some deals – auctioning, for instance, the cantonments in the Moscow Region’s Rublevka and Levoberezhie - have astonished even Russia’s Federal Property Fund (RFFI). The thing is that the sales permits were signed not by the RFFI Chief Yuri Petrov (as the law requires) but by Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov.
Meanwhile, in the Defense Ministry, they don’t rush to execute Serdyukov’s orders and quite a few generals are in no hurry with the resignation reports. They stake on the changes in cabinet once President-Elect Dmitry Medvedev is inaugurated and Vladimir Putin becomes the prime minister.
www.kommersant.com
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