MOSCOW. Feb 4 (Interfax-AVN) - Andrei Nikolayev, chairman of the defense committee in the State Duma lower house of Russian parliament, has suggests revision of all decisions related to the Armed Forces development.
"In fact, changes related to so-called military reform have failed. The main result of the changes in the Armed Forces is a reduction in their capabilities to guarantee Russia's defense," Nikolayev said in an interview published by the Nezavisimaya Gazeta newspaper on Monday.
According to him, "this country is far behind progressive countries including the United States" in the military sphere including the military theory. "We continue teaching our army and its higher command the things that are unlikely to be needed in a future war, such as actions on territorial and oceanic theaters of operations, general mobilization, etc. However, the era of such wars is over," Nikolayev said.
He underlined that "the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces did not accomplish its main mission, which is to shape an image of a future war." "This is not its fault, rather its trouble. The General Staff finds itself in a situation where an enormous intellectual potential of military teachers, military practitioners and commanders is not needed by anybody. The defense industry is not capable of designing arms when there is no image of a future war. As a result the principle of the state defense order formation is absolutely unclear."
"We consider that the military reform must take 15 years and have four stages to be over by 2015. The stages are linked to terms of the president, executive and legislative bodies," Nikolayev pointed out. Nuclear containment is guaranteed at all stages on the level that rules out infliction of a nuclear strike on Russia by any country possessing nuclear weapons or a coalition of such countries.
"I have introduced my proposals on the issue of nuclear containment to the commander-in-chief of the Russian Armed Forces and they have been taken into account. Vladimir Putin needs to go back to the discussion of above-mentioned issues, as the strategic situation has changed," the lawmaker stressed.