Russian President Vladimir Putin (left) has decided to enhance the strong impression from the report of Russian Defense Minister Sergey Ivanov with a vital addition.
Photo: Dmitry Azarov
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Money for Peace - That's All We've Got
Russian President Vladimir Putin met the country’s highest military ranks on Thursday. Defense Minister Sergey Ivanov announced at the meeting that the ministry is setting up its Public Council. Reportedly, the new body will be headed by Nikita Mikhalkov. Russia’s famous film director has made even greater shows before. Kommersant correspondent Andrey Kolesnikov has more.
The convention of officers is an annual event which is always lively anticipated by all military men. The main reason is that Russia’s President Vladimir Putin drops in by, always trying to cheer up the officers who lose interest in the service after a hard year. He usually brings some kind of present such as an unscheduled hike in salaries or news about successful tests of a new never-seen-before armament which has burnt to ashes the money that could have been spent on unscheduled hikes in salaries.
Sergey Rybakov, head of the Defense Ministry’s PR department, made a summary of Minister Sergey Ivanov’s report and its meaning to the journalists before the session, which was, of course, very nice of him. I have to say that only after listening to the report did I realize what a far-reaching and wise decision it had been.
The report sounded very substantial in Rybakov’s narration. It was turned to the man, his needs and wants – turned with a gun’s muzzle, actually.
Rybakov asked the journalists to note that the defense minister was asking the president to increase military salaries by 10 percent, in addition to the planned hikes. Thus, the ministry will be able to follow the president’s instructions on social welfare for military men that Vladimir Putin presented in this annual address to Russia’s Federal Assembly.
Sergey Ivanov was harboring such a devastating strike on the Finance Ministry that I thought the civilians would give up under the pressure of the enemy. To make it clear – anyone who encroaches upon the Russian budget is an enemy to Minister Alexey Kudrin as the budget in Russia is now as sacred as the president’s annual address.
Rybakov also informed the press about the Defense Ministry’s new policy in relation towards the parents of conscripts. Now the army is going to recognize human rights and it will be doing it so vehemently that the Committee of Soldiers’ Mothers will have no choice but lay down the arms before the superior – in terms of goodness and transparency – forces of the Defense Ministry.
So, now the parents will have a right to give a call to one of the top men of the army unit where their child is serving but not the person who the parents of a private usually call in a hope to save the children from the officers’ abuse. The Defense Ministry has ordered to disclose phone numbers of units to those who may want to give a buzz. What is more, commanders promise to meet the parents regularly, thought usually in groups.
“I would not call it a parents’ day… but yes, it is some kind of it,” Rybakov said.
“So, now units are going to accessible only on parents’ days, aren’t they?” someone has asked tentatively.
“On other days as well,” Rybakov replied. “Or if the parents decide: ‘Let’s go and see them having their meals!’ Everyone’s welcome – we can arrange that.”
I did not ask to specify if it would be possible for the parents not only to see their children having their meals, but also what meals they are having.
Russian President Vladimir Putin appeared before the audience as planned. If the defense minister’s report was addressed to every soldier, as I understood it from Rybakov’s comments, the president’s report was aimed at their commanders.
He made the officers beam, saying that they had “regained power, strength and inner poise.”
It seems that they still have a long way to go to gain outer poise.
“More importantly, men at arms are regaining the feeling of their own national significance and demand.”
You would be making such conclusions so soon if you could see how fast officers in the canteen were devouring ¢28 sandwiches with lard and patty with potatoes at ¢27 before the session.
“Officers are the backbone of any army,” the Russian president noted. “The majority of Russian officers have good military, professional and morale qualities, and the last but not the least, pedagogical tact and patriotism.”
I am sure that none of those listening to the speech would like to be in the minority with no qualities from this set.
“But we need to lay it on the line – not all commanders are ready to conduct combat training on the required international level,” the president said. “We are still short of professional skills and personal authority. It cannot be tolerated that in some cases educational work is substituted with formal administration, cruelty and indifference to the things that are happening in barracks.”
Putin believes that to improve the situation Russia “particularly needs halt the personal outflow and set clear and objective criteria for promotion. We need to foster simple career and professional ambitions in officers.”
I thought I saw some officers more distracted at the end of the speech than at the start, so Putin found the right moment to add:
“I hope that all those present at the session, our combat comrades, are well aware of the amount of responsibility for the task.”
In this situation, it is enough that each of the participants will have their own idea of that amount.
The presentation of the report by Defense Minister Sergey Ivanov took 40 minutes. Ten minutes after the start, I saw that the civilian part of the audience (mainly, the journalists) were already fast asleep. It was at the moment when I realized how wise the organizers of the meeting were, asking Rybakov speak to the press before the event.
I guess that the journalists who nodded off impressed by the defense minister’s speech had a good reason for it. It was there and at that moment as they started listening to Sergey Ivanov (and I was no exception) that they felt the long-anticipated confidence in future which they had been craving for since last November. Indeed, Sergey Ivanov sounded confident:
“It is true that our country is rising after surviving the collapse of the 90s. We are no longer dependent on currency influxes of international financial organizations. Russia’s voice is sounding more confident and competent on the international arena. But to make this voice heard and, more importantly, to get the message through to the right people, each word should be supported by real military strength of the state!”
Obviously, now only those sitting in the hall could feel absolutely safe.
Sergey Ivanov pointed to unprecedented efforts of the Defense Ministry to set up the Federal Agency on Armament Purchases. The efforts did not reach the aim, though, but there is no doubt that they will. This agency and a reliable man to head it are badly needed to make a good use of five trillion rubles to modernize the armed forces, the defense minister was happy to tell the audience.
The defense minister confirmed Sergey Rybakov’s information that he had signed an order creating the Public Council at the Defense Ministry. He did not mention who was appointed to chair at the council, but sources of Kommersant say that the decision has already been taken. Film director Nikita Mikhalkov will head it.
Sergey Ivanov repeated and developed the arguments of Sergey Rybakov’s speech before the journalists.
I noticed that Vladimir Putin was probably putting down the minister’s report word to word. After the speech was over, the president waited for the end of muted applause for the defense minister and started reading out his notes. Apparently all this time Vladimir Putin had been writing a short comment on the importance of the joint agency on armament purchases. He thought it so important that he did not even look up from his notes.
Putin explained what he means by “sustaining strategic balance of armaments in the world.” It is “an opportunity to ensure the destruction of any aggressor,” he said. The president underscored that the financial resources that the state is ready to spend on defense are not unlimited “though they exist”. And there will be plenty of money for “carrying out peaceful foreign policy”.
This phrase was last heard in a speech of the Communist Party Secretary General Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev, if I am not mistaken.
Andrey Kolesnikov
All the Article in Russian as of Nov. 17, 2006
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