RUSSIA: Russia said yesterday it would start the wholesale switch of its largely conscript army to a mainly volunteer force in 2007, but experts said the reforms ducked tough questions facing the ailing military.
Ministers approved a three-stage plan presented by Defence Minister Mr Sergei Ivanov, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, that called for more funding, better training and higher pay for a high-tech force of professional soldiers.
The 2004 budget would give extra cash to fund more volunteer units, but Mr Ivanov was non-committal about reducing hugely unpopular conscription, which army generals want to keep.
"The priority [for the move to volunteers\] will be the infantry, paratroopers and marine infantry, because they are in the front line of counter-terrorist operations", Mr Ivanov said.
They are part of permanent combat readiness units comprising some 166,000 soldiers. "I think this is a very ambitious plan, but in principle it is possible to fulfil it." Military experts were caustic about the changes.
"This is not reform, this is a sabotage of reform, because it doesn't change the essence, the posture of Russia's forces. Their numbers are the same more or less," said Mr Pavel Felgenhauer, an independent Moscow-based analyst.
Mr Putin wants to transform Russia's bloated, impoverished and demoralised military into a force able to respond to the security threats of the 21st century.
He has ordered a revision of Russia's security doctrine - expected next spring - to reflect the absence of a major external threat to Russia after the Cold War and the global trend to concentrate on fighting terrorism.
That mirrors a debate within Russia's erstwhile rival NATO, now a Russian ally in the fight against terrorism, whose summit this week aims to ensure the security pact remains relevant.
Liberal leader Mr Boris Nemtsov, who has been pushing for radical cuts in troop numbers to fund a volunteer force, criticised the defence ministry for trying to delay the move to fully professional armed forces until after 2011.
"It's impossible to have such a long lead time, because Putin won't be President in 2011 and no programme that goes beyond the term of a president has ever been fulfilled," he said.
"The army will already be in a state of collapse [by then] so we need to start reforming it in 2003-04." Mr Putin is expected to win comfortable re-election in 2004 for a second and final four-year term.
The Pskov 76th Paratrooper Division, which expects to have 80 per cent of its 7,000 soldiers serving as volunteers by next September, is acting as guinea pig for the reforms.
However, its $84 million switchover is already straining this year's $9.6 billion military budget, raising questions about Russia's ability to fund a volunteer army. Mr Nemtsov estimated the changes would cost an extra $1 billion a year. - (Reuters)