Russia's Defense Minister Sergey Ivanov, center, attends the ceremony of laying wreathes to the Tomb of Unknown Soldier, the Kremlin Wall.
Photo: Dmitry Azarov
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Military to Pass Defense Order to Civilians
Russia’s Federal Defense Order Service (or Rosoboronexport) could be withdrawn from the Defense Ministry, to which it is subordinate today, Vice Prime Minister and Defense Minister Sergey Ivanov announced Friday. Ivanov made this statement when commenting on appointing Andrey Belyaninov, head of the Defense Order Service, to take over the Federal Customs Service. Along with forthcoming creation of the Federal Agency for Procurement and Contracting Military Hardware, this move may trigger the staff upheaval in the Defense Ministry and its divisions.
With Belyaninov out to the Federal Customs Service, his office in the Federal Defense Order Service went to his first deputy Sergey Maev, 62, who will hardly keep it for long though. The thing is that once the service is withdrawn from the Defense Ministry and made subordinate to Sergey Ivanov not as the defense minister but as vice prime minister, the status of the Service will go up materially and it will need a boss of more weight and authority.
That person could be Deputy Defense Minister for Armaments, Army General Alexey Moskovsky, 59, a source with the government said on condition of anonymity.
Another essential point is appearance of the Federal Agency for Procurement and Contracting Military Hardware at the beginning of 2007. This Agency will assume the client’s functions under defense order in part and in whole, i.e. Moskovsky won’t be able to dispose of defense order’s money any longer. And the loss will be certainly hefty. The amount of such money is estimated to exceed 237 billion rubles in 2006 and to near 303 billion rubles in 2007.
In this respect, being appointed to head the Federal Defense Order Service would be adequate compensation for Moskovsky. It will empower him, for instance, to control and supervise the Federal Agency for Procurement and Contracting, which Ivanov vowed, will “annually dispose of hundred billion rubles” and have only civilians in the staff.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of May 15, 2006
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