Abscess

The reform of the army has reached its most painful points.

The hatred of the officer corps for Minister of Defense Serdyukov is growing, and it is understandable why: in the two years of reforms, more than 100,000 officers were fired from the army, and not all of them received the promised benefits. Another 40,000 officers lost their positions and were taken out of the state: they receive only a meager salary according to their rank and are waiting for the promised apartments, which, of course, not everyone will get either. In military schools, the recruitment of cadets was stopped in 2010, it was announced that there would be no recruitment in 2011, and it is possible that in 2012. The official version is an overabundance of lieutenants. For reference: this year, a third of graduates of military schools did not receive officer ranks - only sergeant shoulder straps. Finally, the third source of hatred for the current Minister of Defense is the top generals, who are increasingly cut off from financial flows. The reduction of military districts from 6 to 4, the creation of the Joint Strategic Commands, when - for the first time in our history - the forces of the fleet, aviation and ground forces are combined under a single leadership, as it should be in a modern army, and, accordingly, a sharp decrease in the role of the main commands - all this deprives the generals of not only posts - tools for controlling resources. Here are the generals, taking advantage of the incident, which happens hundreds in the troops, with the help of organizations of retirees of the Airborne Forces, and give a signal to Putin and Medvedev: “Remove Serdyukov, or we will arrange it, my God.” “Oh my God,” they, of course, will not do anything: those who have not been dismissed from the army are longingly waiting for January 1, 2012, when, as stated, salaries will be raised many times: a lieutenant will receive 50 thousand rubles and more, respectively. Therefore, graduates of schools and agree to sergeant's shoulder straps - they have a prospect.

So why did the abscess break through precisely in the Airborne Forces? In addition to the fact that Serdyukov is not distinguished by excessive diplomacy, as they say, there was a reason. One of the cunning political technologists, close to high-ranking opponents of the Minister of Defense, decided that if a scandal arose around the church, then it was possible to excite the public on it - from the series of “our beats” - and involve the Russian Orthodox Church in the conflict as an institution that has influence on the first persons.

Well, besides, the paratroopers are the reserve of the commander-in-chief, that is, through the General Staff they report directly to the president. From the composition of the Airborne Forces, five battalions consisting of contract soldiers are also formed - our version of the rapid reaction forces. The janissaries beat the sultan with their foreheads so that he would remove the objectionable vizier.

Most likely, this whole campaign will turn out to be zilch: both Putin and Medvedev understand that the entire reform of the army rests on one person. And it is akin to Gaidar's reforms in the early 1990s - both in terms of the urgency of this reform, and in terms of its importance, and in terms of the degree of its pain: people are hurt, they are losing positions, salaries, status, many do not have a very bright future ahead. And I feel sorry for these people. But there is no other way out: the war with Georgia has once again shown that our army, in the form in which it is, cannot fight: crushing a small country with a mass is no problem, but defeating a more serious enemy is zero chances. For twenty years in our country there was an army of a state that no longer exists - the USSR. And all these years it was decomposing due to unsolvable internal problems: an excessive number of officers who did nothing for years, the need to maintain incomplete formations that could not be used in hostilities without declaring mass mobilization. The state spent gigantic funds that disappeared without a trace. The situation has been brought to the point where there are simply no other measures except surgical (and, alas, without special anesthesia). There is no doubt: Serdyukov, just like Gaidar, will be cursed, not now, but sooner or later, when he does the "dirty work", they will fire him and blame all imaginary and real mistakes on him. The rewards, of course, will go to others. But in the end, the country will get another army. Who will win as a result? Motherland.