MOSCOW, July 13 (AVN) - The Defence Ministry board on Wednesday failed to come to an agreement concerning further reform of the Armed Forces and, in particular, reorganisation of the Strategic Missile Forces (SMF), a high ranking official of the ministry told the Military News Agency.
The board session, that was to end by 15.00 Moscow time (1100 GMT), lasted until late in the evening. Its participants, in general, agreed with the assessment of the current state of the army and navy made by Chief-of-Staff Anatoly Kvashnin. Air Force Commander Anatoly Kornukov, SMF Commander Vladimir Yakovlev, Navy chief Vladimir Kuroyedov and defence committee chairman of the State Duma lower house of parliament Andrei Nikolayev admitted in their speeches that the state of the Armed Forces does not comply with the demands made to them at the present stage of the army reform and development.
The board generally approved the proposals to strengthen general-purpose forces, set up military groups in the Russian South-west and Central Asia and restore the Land Forces Command, the official said. The Moscow district commander, Colonel-General Igor Puzanov, is one of the main candidates for the post of Land Forces chief.
The toughest and longest debates were stirred by Kvashnin's proposal to gradually adopt the three-service structure of the Armed Forces, where aerospace, sea and ground are to be controlled by one service each. Kvashnin started by saying that the SMF had been the most combat-ready armed service in the past few years, but then effectively proposed their disbandment with the following transfer under central command or inclusion in the Air Force.
The chief-of-staff also urged to reduce the SMF from 22 down to two missile divisions and its armament to the level far below the limits of START treaties.
According to the official, such ideas were strongly opposed by Defence Minister Igor Sergeyev and the SMF commander, Vladimir Yakovlev. As a result, the board did not adopt Kvashnin's proposals.
Officials of the Defence Ministry expect the relations between Sergeyev and Kvashnin to deteriorate completely after the session. The main reason behind such development is the struggle for power in the army, not principal differences in their stances. The two groups of commanders and theoreticians, one represented by Sergeyev and Yakovlev and the other by Kvashnin, have been engaged in this struggle for a long time, and the SMF has become its frontline.
The resolution passed by the board envisages several variants of the Armed Forces restructuring. In addition to Kvashnin's radical model, it contains a scheme which aims to unify all strategic nuclear forces of the Russian Federation (ground-, sea- and air-based) under a single command.
The final decision of the further army reform will be made by the Russian Security Council and President Vladimir Putin, the official said.