An ambitious plan to slash the size of Russia's military and modernize its Soviet-style structure is meeting fierce resistance from generals and politicians who usually toe the Kremlin line. Advocates say the reforms are needed so Russia can deal with modern threats like terrorism and local ethnic conflicts, instead of the Cold War scenario of a worldwide battle with the United States and NATO. “The armed forces that Russia has today do not fully match the threats that Russia faces, and they need serious reform,” the head of Russia's general staff Nikolai Makarov said this week at a meeting with foreign military attaches. Makarov cited “serious shortfalls” during Russia's brief war with Georgia in August and said they would be fixed by the reform plan, which is backed by President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. The plan would slash what critics call a bloated officer corps and provide troops with high-tech gear standard to other modern armies. Its details have not been made fully public but its main author, Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov, has said that by 2012 the number of officers will be cut by 150,000 from a current level of 355,000. The total size of the armed forces would drop from 1.13 million to 1 million while the 20,000-strong staff of the Defence Ministry's headquarters in Moscow would be more than halved and 200 generals pushed into retirement. A tighter chain of command and the formation of autonomous combat brigades would help make the army “modern, mobile, equipped with the newest weapons technology and ready to handle a range of threats,” Makarov said. Independent defence analyst Alexander Golts described the planned changes as historic. “They are giving up the idea of a mass-mobilisation army. This is of fundamental importance,” he said. But the expected cuts have led to reports of dismay in the top brass and a backlash from hawks like Leonid Ivashov, a prominent retired general who blasted the reforms at a press conference last week. “The officer corps is demoralized today. Four star generals are handing in their resignations because of their opposition to the reforms,” he said. Ivashov, who heads the Academy of Geopolitical Affairs, a defence think tank, also warned darkly that the reforms would open Russia to a US attack. “In the past 10 years the United States has raised its defence budget to unprecedented levels,” he said. “The push to create a unipolar world is one of the main threats to Russia.” Opposition also has more prosaic reasons, as officers fear being laid off and losing their incomes, housing and other benefits. Much of the criticism has been targeted at Serdyukov, a former furniture store manager who was appointed defence minister by Putin and is often pilloried for his lack of military background. “The Defense Ministry has not yet said how it will select people to be cut. I consider this a big mistake,” Golts said. The Kommersant daily reported last month that officers had been ordered to stop speaking publicly about the reforms in a bid to squelch the controversy. The Defense Ministry denied the report. In a sign of how controversial the changes are, complaints have emerged even in the usually compliant Russian parliament, dominated by the pro-Kremlin United Russia party. “Irritation is growing in the army and in society. Hence the necessity to clamp down on information,” Mikhail Babich, a United Russia member and deputy head of the defence committee in the parliament's lower house, told Kommersant. Meanwhile 58 members of parliament from the opposition Communist Party have signed a letter to Medvedev saying the reform “threatens to become the biggest military catastrophe for the armed forces in Russian history.”
