Posted By IISS at 02/11/2009 16:19:07
The Russian army is undergoing its most fundamental reform since Tsarist times, changing its command structure, closing divisions, laying off 200,000 officers and giving more power to professional NCOs.
This will bring the army well below one million troops, of which 600,000 will by yearly conscripts, says Oksana Antonenko, the IISS’ Senior Fellow for Russia and Eurasia.
‘For the first time ever in Russian history we will have a Russian army that will have something like 300,000 officers – that’s it. This is certainly [an] army that will not be able to fight NATO... This is probably not an army that will be able to fight a war with China.’
At this year’s Valdai Discussion Club in Russia, Antonenko was among a small group of academics and journalists to receive a briefing on the reforms from Vitaly Shlykov, a senior adviser to Russian Defence Minister Anatoliy Serdyukov.
In this video she starts by outlining the contents of Shlykov’s briefing, before moving on to the ‘desperate state’ of today’s army. She also discusses Moscow’s capability gap in the next three to five years, and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s wish to buy defence equipment from, and eventually build it with, NATO countries.
A full description of the Russian military reforms will be spelled out in the IISS Military Balance 2010, launched in January.
