Results of the week. Military versus civilians

Until recently, the assumption that Putin’s power vertical would not be able to function under the conditions of a presidential-prime “duumvirate” was purely theoretical. Last week, theory began to turn into practice. An active rustling began under the carpet. Here, journalist-deputy Alexander Khinshtein, known for his integrity and impartiality, describes in detail the merciless battles of the heads of the Investigative Committee. Some investigators accuse others of millions in bribes. And the head of the committee, Alexander Bastrykin, according to the journalist, is completely unable to restore order in his own department. The appearance of the text is especially funny considering that the day before the head of the Investigative Committee said that his subordinates were being attacked by terrorists and foreign intelligence services, which were being assisted by some human rights activists and the media. In this regard, it is curious to what category Mr. Bastrykin classifies the General Prosecutor’s Office, which, as is known, is his main opponent (and, as one might suspect, the source of incriminating leaks).

The Ministry of Defense has been in a fever all week. Leaks came to the press one after another. Outraged, they say, by the blatant incompetence of the civil minister Anatoly Serdyukov and his assistants, the General Staff generals, having formed platoons, received reports of resignation. This rebellion is allegedly headed by Chief of the General Staff Yuri Baluevsky. As evidence of the minister’s incompetence, the decisions to transfer some services of the General Staff of the Navy to St. Petersburg and the intention to transfer the Peter the Great and Mozhaisky academies to the Moscow region were cited. He was also reproached for his intention (of course, not selfish) to corporatize the property of the Ministry of Defense, as well as to sell off the lands that are in use by the military department. The apotheosis was the information about the directive, which seemed to prescribe the removal of shoulder straps from military lawyers, journalists, doctors and even logistics officers. The purpose of the leak was completely obvious - to reinforce the general's opposition with the indignation of the broad masses of the army.

Only a week later came a statement from the Department of Information and Public Relations, which said that no mass filing of reports was taking place. The ministerial directive only required the development of proposals on which categories of military personnel could be transferred to civilian positions. As the head of the combat training department, Vladimir Shamanov, explained, “we are talking about the possible replacement by civilian specialists of a number of military positions that do not directly affect the combat readiness of the troops... It’s one thing for a military medic who is directly in a military unit or is part of a combat duty shift , or is a member of a submarine crew, and something completely different is doctors who are in military hospitals, military clinics, military sanatoriums.”

Both stories - both from the Ministry of Defense and from the Investigative Committee - have, as it seems to me, the same wrong side. As soon as it seemed that the source of power had lost its certainty - either the current president, who appointed Serdyukov and Bastrykin, or the elected successor, who may have a different opinion - a fight immediately began between bureaucratic clans. And the vertical shook in convulsions. For a whole week, the military department hesitated with an official reaction. For a simple reason - it itself did not know what the general line was today. And it was unclear who to ask—either Putin or Medvedev. And there is a considerable risk - suddenly Vladimir Vladimirovich will be offended that the head of the military department is interested in Dmitry Anatolyevich’s opinion on personnel issues. And this seems to be just the beginning. When the “duumvirate” takes shape, real schizophrenia will begin. The intersection of the functions of the Ministry of Defense and the General Staff at many points has led to the fact that those dissatisfied with the minister are automatically grouped around the General Staff. In the same way, those dissatisfied with the president’s decisions will run to the prime minister, and vice versa.

It is especially curious that these stories took place in departments “in uniform”, which were deliberately closed by Vladimir Putin from any civilian control. All control was concentrated in the hands of Vladimir Vladimirovich personally. And as soon as the controlled ones began to feel that control had weakened, they immediately started the old song about the defiant incompetence of “these civilians.” The first time it was performed by Dmitry Yazov, shocked by the impudence of civilian staff from the Institute of the USA and Canada. In the wake of perestroika, relying on their knowledge of the military organization of a potential enemy, they started talking about the redundancy of Soviet defense spending and the need for military reform. The reform commission assembled then gave them a worthy answer, explaining that the reform consists of increasing the distance between the soldiers running to attack. True, the USSR collapsed.

Then Igor Rodionov, who fought with presidential adviser Yuri Baturin, sang a song about incompetence, who again tried to rationalize the activities of the military department. Then Rodionov gave birth to a saying worthy of being embossed on the building of the Ministry of Defense: “If the country and society cannot support the army, the country and society must change, but not the army.”

During the years of resistance to reform, the generals invented a remarkable logical “catch 22”. The first point is that the military cannot reform itself. Point two: civilians are not competent enough to reform the military. It would seem that strict presidential control has put an end to the confrontation between military and civilians forever. But no. As soon as control weakened, the same story began anew.