Russia’s Military Reform: Political Trajectories
Russia’s Military Reform: Political Trajectories

Summary/Abstract: Russia's state and identity crisis that commenced with the end of the Cold War has inevitably touched the military of the country. Military reform has been discussed over the last decade in Russia with decidedly mixed results. In practice, reform has primarily meant further cuts in the size of the armed forces (from 5.1 million to 1.2) with some moderate organizational changes. Reform under Pavel Grachev (1992-1996) basically amounted to a gradual hollowing out of the military structure inherited from the Soviet Union. The army was cut but not reformed. Igor Rodionov's tenure (1996-1997) was marked mainly by his increasingly strident complaints of the meagre finances availably to the army and advocated preparations for theatre-wide conventional war with NATO. The most significant steps toward not just a smaller but also restructured military have taken place under Igor Sergeyev (1997-2001). Further cuts were enacted in a more logical fashion - assembling of a small number of "permanent readiness" divisions was started, it was tried to integrate all components of strategic deterrence under one command and to reduce the number of military districts.

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