Alexander Golts: Military Historians Will Applaud Medvedev
Alexander Golts is deputy editor of the online newspaper Yezhednevny Zhurnal.
President Dmitry Medvedev has held his last meeting with the Defense Ministry collegium in his capacity as president, and I suspect that Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov will not continue long in his post either. Both Medvedev and Serdyukov stated that military reforms are "practically" complete — finally calling the reform process by its proper name and not speaking in euphemisms such as "optimization" and "giving the armed forces a new look." In all sincerity, I believe that those reforms are these two men's single great service to the country and to every Russian citizen.
Medvedev has rarely been the focus of praise during his four years as president. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's spin doctors jealously reserved all of the accolades for their boss. The liberal public has a long list of grievances with Medvedev over his unfulfilled promises to introduce greater freedoms, battle corruption and modernize the country. Serdyukov's reputation is no better. Any leader of an organization who has fired 200,000 employees cannot, by definition, be especially well-liked. What's more, Serdyukov is clearly reluctant to promote himself and is firm, if not plain rude, with subordinates.
Yet Medvedev and Serdyukov truly deserve the gratitude of the people for implementing the most radical military reforms of the past century. It seems to me that both men understand that the reforms, more than anything else, might earn them an honorable mention in the history books. At their last Defense Ministry collegium, both men rushed to claim the right to be considered reformers. Medvedev noted that "the armed forces personnel and leadership have demonstrated their ability to solve tactical and strategic objectives." The commander-in-chief summed up his remarks by saying: "Overall, as a result of the reform, we have new armed forces that are more up to date and able to respond to potential threats."
The truth is that the reforms indicate that Russia has abandoned the idea of a mass mobilization army and that it no longer plans to defend the country by mobilizing millions of reservists...