A Whole New World, Militarily-Speaking 9/17

Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov of Russia and Defense Secretary Robert Gates of the U.S. came out of an intense two-day visit as a united front against expensive and expansive militaries. The main result of their talks is the advance of the new START treaty (a.k.a. the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty), which has been approved by a Senate panel and now lies uncertainly in the hands of Senate at large (Russia's Duma has indicated it will wait to see what the Senate does with the treaty before ratifying it in turn). The treaty, and the visit, is a sign of evolution in U.S.-Russia military relations - though this is not to say that everything is peachy-keen: there are lingering resentments over (among other things) Russia's war in, and continued occupation of, Georgia.

Serdyukov has been busy since he was appointed to his position by (then) President Putin in 2007. Most recently he has been renegotiating military treaties and agreements with several nations outside of the U.S. - France and Israel being some of the main ones. He has also withdrawn Russia from the CFE (the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe - see Definitions below) until new terms are adopted, which should be "modern" and less heavy on Moscow. In another side to military negotiations, Russia has been getting recent attention for arms sales to both Kyrgystan (as part of a raise in rent charged for a Russian military base) and Syria.

But what's causing the biggest stir in Russia itself are Serdyukov's plans for inner reform, rather than international reform. The Defense Minister has declared it his goal to slim down the military chain of command - especially getting rid of the humongous officer corps, which has been around since the time of Peter the Great as a way for noblemen to serve without losing status. The troops themselves will feel the effects of the reform as well, in a new focus on mobility rather than overwhelming numbers as war tactics change. Many Russian men are watching their jobs and their traditions disappear, and they resent Serdyukov far more than any foreigner could. Though Serdyukov's goals are often paralleled with Gates' goals for the U.S., it is not hard to see who is going to have the harder time of it; for in the U.S., Gates has the precedent on his side, while in Russia Serdyukov will have to fight it all the way.



The Moscow Times' Summary of the Visit:
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/serdyukov-gates-rue-pain-of-military-reforms/416466.html

From the U.S. Side:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/15/world/europe/15military.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Serdyukov&st=cse

ITAR-TASS on the CFE:
http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=15502290&PageNum=0

Forest Fires Set Government Arguments Alight 9/13

The wildfires that have been raging in Russia are finally beginning to relent. While at one point there were as many as 21 fires covering roughly 866 hectares, most Russian regions now report a dramatic drop - in Khakassia alone all wildfires are reported extinguished (as of 9/13). Not all battles have been won, however; there are still many displaced people and disrupted services that need to be attended to, enough that some places are still in an official state of emergecny (13 districts in the Altai Territory, for example).

Battles on the civic front, too, are still being waged. As more and more Russian regions report the end of forest fires, more and more finger-pointing and new proposals are popping up. Investigations on behalf of the federal government have come up with nine cases of negligence (and counting) against local forest monitoring in more than half a dozen regions, including Altai, Volgograd, and Moscow. Stakes are running high enough that in Volgograd several officials have already resigned, citing damage caused by fires as the reason (9/6). And at the opening day of the State Duma, Russia's Emergency Situation Minister (Sergei Shoigu) blamed regional governments for the extensive damage caused by wildfires. Not only, according to him, should visitors have been prohibited from going into drought-stricken areas susceptible to burning, but in addition the regional governors should have been quicker to call in firefighting planes and federal assisstance when fires began.

But that's just the problem. In 2006, a policy overhaul replaced the federal Soviet-era forest protections (which were quite extensive) with an infastructure that many officials now are pointing out is incapable of looking after forests across a huge nation. With the Duma in session, President Medvedev has told the press that he is hoping for reform of forest protection policies, and is willing to step in and use his authority to entirely overhaul the system if a working plan does not emerge. (Medvedev has also recently put plans for a major highway on hold to consider environmental aspects, reminding companies that forest damage must be considered - though, of course, economics will still be central - and citing the pristine quality of forests in Russia's European neighbors as something to aspire to.) While Medvedev has been the voice for reform and bringing up Russia's youth in an environmental state of mind, Prime Minister Putin (with whom most of the final authority on the forests lies, under the current legislation) has been widely publicized visiting fire-stricken towns and co-piloting fire-fighting aircraft (see picture above). Putin has yet to make any substantial statements about the federal politics involved in forest protection - and Medvedev, his protege, has yet to challenge him on the issue.

From ITAR-TASS, a federally owned Russian newspaper:

http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=15493304&PageNum=0

From the Moscow Times:

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/medvedev-eyes-forest-code-reform/415297.html

Car Bomber Hits Dagestani Military Base 9/5/10

Late Sunday night a car bomber crashed through security on a Dagestani military base near Buinsaksk and killed four men, injured 35, in the blast. The car was prevented from reaching the main area of the base by a collision with a truck, which detonated the bombs. The Russian government indicates that the blame lies with Islamic militants in the area, known to be under the direction of a new leader (Israpil Velidzhanov) after the military killed the last one (Magomedali Vagabov) in August of this year. In addition, the Russian Defense Ministry says that the security measures on the base were sub-par, which allowed the car bomber to get through. President Medvedev has taken note of the attack and has promised to conduct an investigation into the motive and possible insurgent connections of the attack. In speaking to the newspapers about the bombing, local government leader Magomedov called for more military might to put down rebel groups in the area.

The violence in Dagestan has shown some rise in the past year (most notably with two suicide attacks in March, which killed approximately 40 people), and is seen
as a new hotspot for insurgency; focus has shifted there from the neighboring region, Chechnya, where there have been several recent civil wars. In each case, the violence is generally linked to an Islamist separatist movement. In Dagestan the Russian goverment has relied on harsh military measures and attempts to reduce poverty among citizens as a way to combat terrorism, though it has not found success with either to date.


From the New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/06/world/europe/06russia.html?_r=1&ref=russia

From the Moscow Times:
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/poor-security-blamed-for-dagestani-car-blast/414916.html