.... is comin - in their armored money
trans****ts?
A funny article about a "resignation" and
the dangers posed to "matushka" by the
Baltic military hordes.
In the immortal words of Evaldas:
"Enjoy"!
Best - - Henry
For educational purposes only:
From: The Jamestown Foundation
(Eurasia Daily Monitor)
KREMLIN MOUTHPIECE TO LEAVE
GENERAL STAFF
By Pavel Felgenhauer
Monday, March 31, 2008
When Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Defense
Minister Anatoly Serdyukov met their U.S. counterparts,
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary
Robert Gates, in Moscow March 17-18, one im****tant person
was absent Russia''s top military commander, First Deputy
Defense Minister and Chief of General Staff of the Armed
Forces General Yuri Baluyevsky. Officially, Baluyevsky is
on leave, but his absence was all the more conspicuous
since Baluyevsky has always enjoyed high-level contacts
with foreign dignitaries. First Deputy Chief of General Staff
General Alexander Burutin replaced him at the 2 + 2 talks.
According to the Russian media, Defense Ministry sources
say that Baluyevsky has offered his resignation and will be
replaced after President-elect Dmitry Medvedev is inaugurated
on May 7. Burutin, who previously served in the Kremlin as
President Vladimir Putin''s advisor on the arms trade, is seen
as Baluyevsky''s possible successor (RIA-Novosti, March 21;
Nezavisimaya gazeta, Izvestiya, March 24).
I met Baluyevsky in 1996, when he moved to Moscow to the
General Staff after serving in Tbilisi, Georgia, as chief of staff
of the Russian forces in the Transcaucasus. His career in
Moscow was outstanding. In 1996, he became chief of the
General Staff Main Operational Directorate (GS-MOD) and
continued in this position until 2004. Baluyevsky once told me
over drinks that he was the longest-serving chief of the
GS-MOD in Russian military history. The GS-MOD is in
operational real-time control of Russia''s land-, sea- and air-based
strategic nuclear deterrent.
Baluyevsky was in the line of command to initiate a nuclear
attack. In 2004, he replaced General Anatoly Kvashnin as
chief of the General Staff and was assigned one of Russia''s
three nuclear footballs, known as the ""suitcase"" or
chemodanchik, that may be used to launch nuclear hostilities.
The president and minister of defense control the other two.
Baluyevsky was an intelligent, light drinking, and capable
staff general; I would even say ""enlightened."" Putin liked
Baluyevsky and in 2000 ordered him to carry out im****tant
military negotiations with the United States, NATO, and the
Chinese military instead of the hard-drinking buffoon Kvashnin.
In December 2002, during a U.S. reception in honor of the
participants in a pompous NATO-Russia Council conference
in Moscow on fighting terrorism, Baluyevsky told me that the
notion of a multipolar world was rubbish and that Russian
national interests demanded that Moscow be a close partner
and ally of the West, Brussels, and Wa****ngton. Asked when
such worthy policies would be employed, Baluyevsky
answered, as soon as the Kremlin gives the order.
Instead, from 2003 onward relations with Wa****ngton
deteriorated from bad to worse, and Baluyevsky turned
with the tide without hesitation. Baluyevsky repeatedly,
publicly and without any military merit declared that
planned Western military deployments in Europe
were a threat to Russia. At a December 2007 press c
onference in Moscow, Baluyevsky argued that Russia was
right to abandon the Conventional Forces in Europe treaty,
because the tiny armies of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia
no more than several thousand men with no tanks or
military aircraft posed a threat to Russia. ""Mr. [Pavel]
Felgenhauer attempted to argue with me,"" said Baluyevsky,
""That I had counted armored cars employed to collect
cash by Baltic banks as armored combat vehicles (ACV)
deployed in the Baltics. No, respected colleague, I counted
the true ACVs, as designated by CFE, that do not, I stress,
carry money, and their number has recently increased in
Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia 10 times to 430 pieces.""
Furthermore, Baluyevsky announced that the ACVs and
340 heavy artillery pieces that allegedly been recently
deployed in Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia are aggressively
aimed at Russia.
The announced resignation of Baluyevsky, who I once
admired as a sound military professional, is good riddance.
But he is on his way out not because of his ridiculous
statements about the Baltic military threat. In February 2007,
Baluyevsky was expected to replace Sergei Ivanov as defense
minister, but Putin instead chose Serdyukov, a former tax
official, to clean up the massive misappropriation of military
funds. Baluyevsky opposed Serdyukov''s reforms and last
September publicly rejoiced when Serdyukov announced his
resignation after his father-in-law, Viktor Zubkov, became
prime minister (see EDM, September 26, 2007).
Serdyukov has announced plans to employ more civilian
personnel and outsource logistics and other sup****t tasks
to private companies. The Defense Ministry is also planning to
publicly auction land near Moscow to raise money to buy
housing for officers. The top brass oppose these plans, and
Baluyevsky is seen as a focus of discontent (Izvestiya, March 24;
Trud, March 25).
No one can guarantee that Serdyukov''s reforms will improve
anything, but doing nothing is not an option. Defense Ministry
budget funds, property, and real estate have been in the
past squandered and grabbed, while Russia''s armed forces
disintegrated. I did not hear anyone accuse Baluyevsky of
profiteering directly from this corruption, but he did not seem
to do much to stop it, either. Baluyevsky does not enjoy any
true following among the impoverished rank and file of the
military and cannot be a genuine focus of discontent.
Some other general or group of officers may in the future
lead this widespread discontent if Serdyukov''s reforms fail,
as did all other attempts to revamp Russia''s military since 1991.
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