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Putin Presses Overhaul of Top Military Leaders Putin Presses Overhaul of Top Military Leaders
(about 2 hours later)
MOSCOW — President Vladimir V. Putin replaced the head of the Russian military’s general staff and a number of top generals on Friday, continuing an overhaul of military leaders that began with the removal of Russia’s defense minister earlier this week. MOSCOW — President Vladimir V. Putin replaced the head of the Russian military’s general staff and a number of top generals on Friday, continuing a military overhaul that began with the removal of Russia’s defense minister earlier this week.
Col. Gen. Valery Gerasimov will replace Gen. Nikolai Makarov, who has served as chief of the general staff since 2008. The move was not unexpected, since the new defense minister, Sergei K. Shoigu, has the right to install his own team in top military posts. Col. Gen. Valery Gerasimov will replace Gen. Nikolai Makarov, who has served as chief of the general staff since 2008. The move is not wholly unexpected, since the new defense minister, Sergei K. Shoigu, has the right to install his own team in top military posts.
His predecessor, Anatoly E. Serdyukov, was dismissed on Tuesday amid a swirling corruption scandal. Many analysts saw those charges as a pretext, though; Mr. Serdyukov had alienated many in the uniformed military by pushing through deep cuts in the ranks of officers, and top generals were eager to see him go. Still, the shuffle has shed light on simmering disagreements within the military, which is about to receive an infusion of 20 trillion rubles, or around $634 billion, to be spent on new weaponry. Mr. Putin is known to dislike internal dissent and appears to have taken steps to calm a backlash against reforms implemented by the departing defense minister, Anatoly E. Serdyukov.
At a meeting Friday morning, Mr. Putin alluded to another set of tensions building within military circles, this time over relations with defense manufacturers. He told Colonel General Gerasimov that the Defense Department had been frequently changing its orders for weapons and other military hardware. Though Mr. Serdyukov was dismissed amid a corruption scandal, some analysts said the real cause was a systemic problem: Mr. Serdyukov had alienated many in the uniformed military with deep staffing cuts intended to streamline and update Russia’s vast conventional forces.
“The situation in the scientific-technical sphere is changing quickly, and new means of armed warfare are appearing,” Mr. Putin said, according to the Interfax news service. “We should orient ourselves toward optimal means, but still need to maintain a certain stability. I am counting on you and the ministry to establish stable, good collegial work with our leading manufacturers in the defense sector.” During a meeting Friday morning, Mr. Putin alluded to another apparent disagreement, urging General Gerasimov to smooth over relations with the defense manufacturing sector. Defense plants have complained that top military brass too frequently update their orders for weapons and other military hardware.
Defense manufacturing dominates large areas of Russia, in many of the places Mr. Putin counted on as a base of support ahead of the presidential election in March. Major government orders buoyed economic prospects in many of those places during Mr. Putin’s campaign, helping him to win around 64 percent of the vote nationwide. Military spending became a tense subject this fall, however, when the government turned its attention to the budget. “The situation in the scientific-technical sphere is changing quickly, and new means of armed warfare are appearing,” Mr. Putin said. “We should orient ourselves toward optimal means, but still need to maintain a certain stability. I am counting on you and the ministry to establish stable, good collegial work with our leading manufacturers in the defense sector.”
Some analysts on Friday concluded that General Gerasimov was being instructed to accept outdated Russian-made weaponry.
Defense manufacturing dominates large areas of Russia, in many of the places Mr. Putin counted on as a base of support ahead of the presidential election in March. Major government orders buoyed economic prospects in many of those places during Mr. Putin’s campaign, helping him to win around 64 percent of the vote nationwide. Military spending has become a tense subject this fall, however, when the government turned its attention to the budget.
Aleksandr Golts, writing for the Web site Yezhednevny Zhurnal, said Mr. Serdyukov had refused to buy obsolete weaponry.
“The stubbornness of the ministry of defense has turned into a political problem for Putin,” he wrote. “Serdyukov’s position would make it impossible to spend trillions on feeding the obedient part of the population.”
Fyodor Lukyanov, editor of Russia in Global Affairs, said the 20 trillion rubles Mr. Putin pledged for military spending is unlikely to ever be allocated.
“Serdyukov was one of those who said, ‘If you don’t produce good and cheap weapons, we will buy it abroad,’ and that was a profound change in the psychology,” Mr. Lukyanov said.
Mr. Putin’s instructions on Friday, he added, show that “for the time being, the defense industry has won.” But he doubted that this deal will hold for long.
“They will try to pacify the military industry, maybe to increase their arms purchases, but they will not keep their monopoly,” Mr. Lukyanov said. “They will gradually get them to understand that the time when they could sell anything to the Russian state — it’s over.”