Corrupt army incapable of defending Fatherland

Unless urgent measures are taken, the Russian army, currently wallowing in a mire of theft and corruption, will soon lose its combat efficiency, declared the chief of the Russian Defence Ministry’s General Staff Anatoly Kvashnin. He was speaking ahead of the Security Council’s Friday session dedicated to the prospects of army development for the period 2003-2010.

The sweeping statement made by the head of the General Staff was perceived by many as his response to the dressing-down Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov gave the General Staff earlier this month. Addressing a gathering of Russia’s top military command, held at the Defence Ministry in Moscow earlier this month, Ivanov publicly accused the General Staff, and in particular, Anatoly Kvashnin, of disrupting the winter military training season. ''The insufficient level of skills, lack of initiative and purposefulness in the actions of many representatives of army command on various levels have prevented us from making consistent progress,'' Ivanov claimed then.