In uniform

The little people are over

October 5, 2011 Alexander Golts

So, the weight reached the floor. The retired colonel General Vasily Smirnov, who still celebrates the position of chief of the Main Organizational and Mobilization Administration of the General Staff, announced a sensation: this fall, it is planned to call for a little more than 135 thousand young men this fall. A few months ago, the same Smirnov assured that the autumn appeal would not differ from the spring - about 250 thousand people. Now the military leader assures: 135 thousand will completely and completely satisfy the needs of our army, in which, supposedly, the soldier and sergeant posts to the contract are in full swing.

I am sure that Vasily Vasilievich Salt, even if you ask him, what time is - so lies have become a habit of this person. After all, for ten years, he has been at the very tip of the confrontation of the generals and society. He with all his might preserves the fully decomposed draft system of acquiring the army. A year ago, relying on his reports, the leaders of the Ministry of Defense cheerfully broadcast that the program of the partial transfer of the Armed Forces to the contract was disrupted (for which special thanks to V.V. Smirnov) and that the army would be equipped mainly at the expense of conscripts. In fact, our glorious retired general promised to catch either 100 or 200 thousand deviations and thus cover the shortage of recruits.

As I understand it, in the fall of last year and in the spring of the present, such an attempt was made. They tried to drive everyone into the army - graduate students, musicians, dancers. There is no longer a conversation about patients-heartrs. They told me that in Moscow a brigade of Tajikov-iligals was grabbed under a hot hand. At the same time, shit of Medvedev and Serdyukov rushed enough. The President and the Minister of Defense had to publicly stop the military commissars, who, wanting to preserve the position, were ready not only to the graduate student - to send a baby directly from the hospital to the glorious ranks. And the call still failed. The historical foreboding of the former chief of the General Staff Anatoly Kvashnin, who opened one of the meetings with the words "Baba, comrades, opened. Contrary to the confidence of the military leaders, in the early 90s they did not give birth to the right number of future soldiers.

Russia is rapidly flying into a demographic one’s hole already, but the abyss. Scientists of the Institute. Gaidara with numbers in their hands has been proved for five years: it will be possible to catch the sloppics, it will not be possible to catch the slope - all the same, in two years, the resource will be completely exhausted in two years. And just now the Russian bosses seemed to realize an unpleasant reality: for the first time in three hundred years of the regular army, people ended in our country. There is no one to call.

I would rejoice - after all, I was among those so -called human rights activists whom V.V. Smirnov stigmatized for such predictions. And now, one way or another, the Russian authorities are forced to recognize our rightness. But there is no joy, because there is no certainty that from this world shame (how else to name the situation when the highest military leaders of the Great Power, and not some Banana Republic there, now and then change their views on the issue of recruiting the armed forces to directly opposite) The correct conclusions will be drawn.

Until now, the leaders of the country insist on the number of an army of 1 million people. In the current conditions, this is basically impossible. If the spring appeal remains at the autumn level, then by the summer of next year 220 thousand officers, about 180 thousand contractors, 30-35 thousand cadets of military schools and 270 thousand conscripts will serve in the Armed Forces. That is 710 thousand people. Talking that the mass set in contractors is about to begin, do not look serious. Today there is no one hundred percent confidence that the state will be able to fulfill obligations to officers to increase their salary about three times from the beginning of the next year. It is unlikely to be added to this salary of professional sergeants and ordinary (no less than 30 thousand per month).

In general, a number of serious military experts believe that applications for the recruitment of 425 thousand contractors by 2017 are nothing more than a response step by Serdyukov in a complex interagency confrontation. In fact: in order to raise an officer salary, the Ministry of Defense for three years mercilessly reduced the positions of officers and warrant officers. But as soon as the decision was made, the internal troops, the FSB and the FSO arrived in the distribution of money, who did not fire anyone, but are sure: they will raise the salary (after all, aimed at the enemy of the “utility”, much more important than some army). And for sure - in the internal troops, salaries will be increased simultaneously with the armed forces. The rest of the security forces-from the 1st January 2013. In these conditions, Serdyukov announced 425 thousand contractors-in order to have at least some opportunity to demand an increase in financing.

There is no evidence that someone is seriously going to gain so many military professionals. Therefore, the most urgent task for today is that the Russian authorities finally recognize: they may contain a maximum of 500-600 thousandth army. Someone will say: if you really want to, let them say that they have a million under a gun. All the same, everyone knows that no more than 700 thousand. In fact, this is not at all harmless.

If the army is reduced in a “secret”, an uncomplex is growing in units and formations - up to a quarter of the personnel. Until recently, as the main achievement of the “Serdyukov” military reform, the bringing of all units and formations of the armed forces into a state of constant combat readiness was called. In fact, this meant staffing (mainly by military military personnel) for wartime states. But the secret reduction in numbers will inevitably lead to a lack of personnel. The commanders will receive a completely legal explanation for the fact that their parts and units of the sky. With all the ensuing consequences ...

Photo by RIA Novosti