In the Kremlin

Why the State Duma is not a parliament

February 8, 2007 Alexander Golts

It is not for me that real life sometimes gets shorter than any action -packed novel. The day before yesterday at Echo of Moscow, together with the famous military expert, General Eduard Vorobyov and State Duma deputy Gennady Gudkov, I discussed the problems of grandfature in the Russian army. During the discussion, I asked a completely innocent question about why not the State Duma not take advantage of the parliamentary control over the armed forces. Gennady Gudkov reacted extremely sincerely and directly: “I can’t help but pin Alexander. Are you seriously sure Alexander, that we have a parliament in the country, endowed with authority, or are you kidding? ” After this revelation, it was no longer necessary to talk about any serious solution to any problem of the Armed Forces.

And it must happen that just the next day the Minister of Defense Sergei Ivanov reported to the parliament on the re -equipment of the Armed Forces, and at the same time about their current brilliant state.
So that the deputies immediately understand how much good Sergey Borisovich did for the army, the Minister of Defense compared the current situation with what was in 2001, when Ivanov headed the military department. Then - for the war in Chechnya, it was necessary to strain all the armed forces, today - for such an operation, the forces of one military district are enough. Then - all the money was spent exclusively for the survival of the armed forces, today - the new military equipment enters the arsenal of the army, which is involved and nightly engaged in combat training. It is not even clear why in such a wonderful army there are still regrettable cases of hazing, such as the story with ordinary Andrei Sychev. But this is nothing, the minister claims, because the former soldier will be assigned a pension after “full rehabilitation”. Honestly, it turns out that Sergei Borisovich is seriously confident in his own supernatural abilities. Not only that, thanks to these abilities, oil prices rose five times, which allowed to increase the defense budget three and a half times. Ivanov also has the ability to ensure the full rehabilitation of a young man who has amputated legs and genitals.

The deputies behaved exactly as statists in a pre -staged performance. Vladimir Volfovich measured different helmets. Former Governor Kondratenko asked Ivanov’s “experienced security officer” whether there was a foreign conspiracy in the army of the army in the 90s. Someone has already managed to declare the Minister as a presidential candidate. Against the backdrop of this fool, Sergei Borisovich looked extremely reasonable and sane.

Meanwhile, a completely substantial performance by the minister left many questions. Here Ivanov talks about the structure and composition of the nuclear triad by 2015: “... to put 34 shaft installations and command posts on combat duty, as well as 66 Topol-M soil mobile complexes (in fact, Ivanov said that there would be more than 50 such complexes, but the official transcript chose to clarify);
-have 50 strategic missile carriers in the Air Force (Tu-160, Tu-95 MS);
- Expand the mass construction and plan to introduce missile submarines of strategic purpose of project 955/955A into the fleet. "

If the State Duma was a parliament, there would probably be at least one person who would ask the minister, but how, in fact, things are about maintaining parity with the United States (not that I personally considered it necessary. It was simply called parity repeatedly called one of the most important state tasks). From the data presented by Ivanov, it should be clearly: even if you install five warheads on Topol-M, even if it is possible to deploy the Bulava Marine rocket (the tests of which end three times in a row), by 2015 it will hardly be able to hold the level of 1700 warheads. Meanwhile, in order to preserve parity, Russia must have such a quantity by the end of 2011. If the Kremlin decided to refuse to maintain nuclear balance with the United States, this would be a revolutionary step in our military strategy, which calls into question the sincerity of all conversations about the need to “give an adequate but asymmetric” response to the deployment of the American missile defense system. But not one of the deputies asked questions about this.

Sergei Ivanov also spoke about the implementation of the federal program on the partial transfer of the armed forces to a contract. According to him, more than 60 formations and military units are already equipped contractors. According to Ivanov, about 78 thousand soldiers and sergeants are serving in them, according to Ivanov. By the end of this year, the minister promises, another 20 military groups will become, and these are another 47 thousand posts of soldiers and sergeants.

And again, among the Duma, there was not a single person who would ask a very simple question: why will almost 40 percent of the program be implemented in its last year? (The fact that the head of the General Staff Yuri Baluevsky actually admitted that in 2006 this program was practically disrupted, to the deputies did not have to know). The answer is obvious: in the first years of implementation of the Ministry of Defense, it sabotaged it, and now is trying to achieve the specified result with the help of posts and assaults.

Such natural, begging questions can be asked to Ivanov a good dozen. Not a single one was set, although there are many people who have knowledgeable in military affairs among the Duma. Why? Just the Duma is not a parliament. Alexander Golts

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