The annual visit by senior Russian Ministry of Defence officials to the UK took place from 20 – 24 January 2004. As previously, the visit was organised jointly by IISS Russia and Eurasia Programme and Harvard National Security Program in collaboration with the UK Ministry of Defence and the Northern Ireland Office.
In the second session, Role of the Armed Forces in Fighting International Terrorism, the keynote Russian speaker was Col. Gen. Vladimir Moltenskoi who is First Deputy Commander of the Ground Forces of the Russian Federation and who has extensive command experience in Chechnya. The presentation by Major Gen. Bailey, Director General for Doctrine and Development at the UK Ministry of Defence addressed civil-military interface in low intensity operations and gave examples of the UK approach and experience in peace-keeping support operations such as in Bosnia. The seminar allowed for discussion of the topics as all participants, which included representatives of the UK MOD and FCO as well as academics, had the opportunity to join in Questions and Answers sessions.
The delegation from Russia included representatives of the Central Staff of the armed services, military academies, and representatives of different MOD departments including the Department for International Military Co-operation as well as representatives of the Ministry for Internal Affairs, Security Council and Federation Council Defence Committee.
While on the UK mainland, the delegation visited OPTAG (the Operational Training and Advisory Group) of the MOD to learn first-hand how British soldiers are trained for peace support operations and were briefed by MOD officials in Whitehall. The Russian military officers then spent two days in Belfast. The programme, organised by the Northern Ireland Office, included briefings on the political process in Northern Ireland, police-military co-operation, specific support programmes for the victims of the Troubles, and the role of police ombudsmen in handling the public’s complaints. The group visited one of the military units and was briefed on approaches taken by the British Armed forces under police primacy in handling terrorist threats and threats to public order.
This latest visit built on the success of the programme over the previous two years by achieving a further expansion of the UK-Russian military to military dialogue. The 2004 visit met the programme’s specific objectives of contributing to the bilateral exchange of experiences of civil-military relations in formulating counter-terrorist policies and in contributing to peace-support operations.
