Officially, the military is attributing the downsizing to attrition, but unofficial sources say a cleansing of the personnel is taking place.
Photo: Yury Tutov
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Special Forces Face Layoffs
The results of an inspection of Vostok (East), the special battalion of the 42nd Division of the Russian Defense Ministry’s Main Intelligence Department (Russian abbreviation GRU), have become known. The inspection was a reaction to complaints by Chechen authorities about the illegal behavior of the battalion members and their commander, Hero of Russia Sulim Yamadaev. A decision has been made to reduce the size of the battalion by 30 percent. The GRU’s Zapad (West) battalion will also be reduced by 30 percent. Officially, the military is attributing the downsizing to attrition, but there are indications that a cleansing of the personnel is going on simultaneously. Last year, the Defense Ministry ordered that no more local draftees be placed in the divisions.
The decision was announced by Lieut. Gen. Vladimir Shamanov, chief of the main department of military preparedness and service of the Russian Armed Forces, who said that, in the eight years of its existence, the East and West battalions, made up of local residents, carried out dozens of successful operations and eliminated many rebels. Members of the battalions also serve as peacekeepers in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. However, the general said, “a commission of the main infantry forces command found a number of violations in the process of military preparedness and organization of the daily activities of the personnel of the battalions.”
Commander of the East battalion Sulim Yamadaev has reportedly been removed from command since the beginning of the inspection. He came into conflict with President of the Chechen Republic Ramzan Kadyrov after his car refused to give way to the cars of the president’s bodyguards on a Chechen road on April 14, 2008. Yamadaev’s older brother, former State Duma member Ruslan Yamadaev, told Kommersant that he and his brother support the Defense Ministry’s decision to downsize the battalions and the decision to reassign Sulim Yamadaev was made long before the conflict with Kadyrov.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of June 25, 2008
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