Shoigu and the Federation Council: interesting figures
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu delivered a report to the Federation Council on the state and prospects of the Russian armed forces.
The Minister stressed that high-precision long-range ground, sea and air-based non-nuclear deterrence weapons are rapidly entering the troops. “Last year alone, formations and military units received 40 high-precision weapon carriers and 180 long-range cruise missiles,” the general said. He noted that these revenues increased the capabilities of the Russian Armed Forces by a third.
According to S. Shoigu, modern fifth-generation T-50 fighters (PAK FA) will enter the Russian Armed Forces in 2019, and the latest S-500 anti-aircraft missile systems in 2020. This will increase "the effectiveness of the fight against modern means of aerospace attack." In addition, according to S. Shoigu, the implementation of these plans will not only create a barrier to the enemy’s instant strike, but will also ensure “non-nuclear deterrence of any aggressor,” no matter how high-tech it is.
S. Shoigu also noted that for the first time in modern Russian history, the country's borders are completely covered by the radar field of the missile attack warning system. The system is able to track possible enemy launches in all strategic aerospace directions and for ballistic missiles with any type of flight trajectories.
Answering the question of how the Russian Aerospace Forces can counteract the threat from the United States from outer space, S. Shoigu said: "I can assure you: we are not sleeping."
The head of the Defense Ministry added that at the moment 99% of the launchers in the strategic missile forces are in a state of combat readiness. At the same time, 96% of them are able to launch immediately. The share of modern weapons in the Aerospace Forces of the Russian Federation is 66%.
As part of the re-equipment of the Strategic Missile Forces, nine regiments of the Russian Armed Forces are equipped with modern Yars missile systems. The general explained that the Yars complexes have enhanced capabilities to overcome the enemy's anti-missile defense. By 2021, 17 missile regiments of ground-based strategic nuclear forces will be armed with Yars complexes.
In addition, according to S. Shoigu, it is planned to increase the number of anti-aircraft missile regiments equipped with the S-400 Triumph system to 13. The ground forces should be fully re-equipped with modern Iskander-M missile systems by the end of 2020.
The head of the Defense Ministry said that the systematic re-equipment of Russia's naval nuclear forces with the latest Borey-class nuclear submarines is also underway. The general also said that in order to increase the effectiveness of command and control, coastal troops are switching to the organizational structure of army corps: three corps have already been formed in the Northern (SF), Baltic (BF) and Black Sea Fleets (BSF).
At the same time, the head of the Russian Defense Ministry noted that in Russia spending on the military is 11 times less than in the United States, and three times less than in China. Thus, in Russia 54,000 dollars are spent on the maintenance of one soldier, in the USA - 510,000, in Great Britain - 377,000, and in China - 170,000 dollars.
Also, during his speech in the Federation Council, S. Shoigu listed countries that are strategically important for Russia: “Close cooperation between the Ministry of Defense and the relevant committees of the Federation Council contributes to the prompt resolution of problematic issues in the defense sector and improving the quality of the army and navy. This is especially true today, when tensions in the world are growing, primarily in such strategically important areas for Russia as Ukraine, Syria and the Korean Peninsula.” Leisure in Ufa Departure, apartments
“A comparative analysis of the results of actions in Syria by the aviation of Russia and the international coalition shows that our Aerospace Forces, having several times fewer aircraft, carried out three times more sorties and delivered four times more missile and bomb strikes,” the minister said. According to the head of the defense department, during the operation in Syria, 86% of the flight personnel of the Russian Aerospace Forces received combat experience.
S. Shoigu also noted that thanks to the efforts of the Russian military, it was possible to inflict significant damage on the terrorists, with their assistance, the Syrian government troops liberated 705 settlements, an area of 17 thousand square meters. km, to which more than 100 thousand refugees returned.
The head of the Russian Defense Ministry urged not to trust the reports on the use of chemical weapons in Syria due to the fact that most of them are staged. “Some argue without evidence that this [chemical weapon] is used by the Syrian authorities, others say that this is not the government. And we have already reached the point where today we are absolutely convinced that most of the films and reports are staged, before that they were also staged,” the head of the military department emphasized. S. Shoigu noted that such films are becoming an information weapon that is used for political purposes. “It started, you remember, from Iraq, when various kinds of test tubes, bubbles were shown, but it turned out that there was nothing, and the country was destroyed,” he recalled, noting that Syria was next.
The minister also said that Russia is seeking the creation of an objective multilateral commission that would be engaged in establishing the truth. “When you don't know the truth, you don't know what to fight,” S. Shoigu concluded.
At the same time, the head of the Ministry of Defense said that the department has data on which groups in Syria have chemical weapons components.
In addition, S. Shoigu said that the Ministry of Defense is completing an investigation into the crash of a Tu-154 military transport aircraft that crashed into the Black Sea off the coast of Sochi in December 2016. He said that work to find all the necessary parts in the Black Sea, where the plane crashed were completed "just a few weeks ago". “Today, there is 99% certainty that we already have a version of the causes of this disaster. But this 1% is still necessary in order to be absolutely confident and honest with everyone, ”said the head of the military department. Shoigu reproached those who had previously voiced false information about the alleged establishment of the causes of the plane crash, forgetting that "tens, and sometimes hundreds of people are behind this." “We will soon receive the latest data and announce the final version,” the Minister of Defense promised.
Unexpected personnel changes in the defense committee of the upper house of the federal parliament are somehow connected with Khakassia. The day before, the federal media issued a sensational message: Senator Viktor Ozerov decided to step down as head of the defense and security committee of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of Russia.
This news was followed by a message: until September, Yevgeny Serebrennikov will most likely be the interim head of the Federation Council Committee on Defense. After the September elections, Viktor Bondarev, Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Aerospace Forces, may take this post.
Evgeny Serebrennikov, being the first deputy chairman of the Defense Committee, represents the legislative body of Khakassia in the Federation Council. The current head of the committee, Viktor Ozerov, is also connected with the republic by an equally important circumstance. Viktor Alekseevich was born and raised in Abakan, studied at the first school.
Moreover, with his working visit to Khakassia in the fall of 2015, the head of the defense parliamentary committee puzzled the political elite of the region.
“United Russia has decided to nominate Deputy Head of the Russian Emergencies Ministry, Colonel-General Yevgeny Serebrennikov as a candidate for senators from Khakassia. According to Kommersant, citing its sources in the parliament of Khakassia, Federation Council Speaker Sergei Mironov tried to lobby "his man" for this post, but who exactly is not specified.
The Federal Political Council of United Russia approved Serebrennikov's candidacy on July 11, and it was lobbied by one of the leaders of the party, Minister for Emergency Situations Sergei Shoigu.
Taiga info gives this news with the headline “General of the Ministry of Emergency Situations Evgeny Serebrennikov became a senator from Khakassia”, Another online publication reports “Shoigu sent his deputy to the senators from Khakassia, Nezavisimaya Gazeta spoke even more frankly about this personnel reshuffling - “Shoigu landed his deputy to Khakassia". While noting some important details.
“Thus, the practice of seating people from the federal authorities, and not people from those regions whose interests they are obliged to protect, into the upper house of the Federal Assembly continues successfully ...
Yevgeny Serebrennikov was offered to local parliamentarians immediately after Arkady Sargsyan himself asked to cancel his senatorial status. However, even after a three-month processing of the Khakass deputies, a unanimous vote did not work out: out of 75 people, only 42 supported Serebrennikov, and 22 opposed. Voting was carried out not secretly with the help of ballots, but through an electronic system. From the ranks of the deputies who disagreed with the candidacy of the new senator, they immediately commented that this also reduced the number of those who spoke out against, since not everyone was sure that the result of their expression of will would remain a secret.
Yevgeny Serebrennikov did not become the first high-ranking official of the central apparatus of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, who was delegated to the representative bodies of power at the federal level. In 2003, Sergei Shoigu sent to the State Duma, of course, on the lists of the United Russia party, two of his then deputies - Valery Vostrotin, who worked as a simple deputy, and Alexander Moskalets, who served in the rank of state secretary of the ministry. The press service of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, to which NG asked to name any other nominees from the “Shoigu nest”, except for the two above-mentioned deputies, could not remember anyone else. But on the other hand, NG discovered a much more curious situation: in addition to simply seating their people in representative bodies of power, it seems like on an incentive pension, real bureaucratic dynasties are already beginning to form in the Ministry of Emergency Situations. For example, the first deputy of Sergei Shoigu, Yuri Vorobyov, first put his son Andrei into the Federation Council for a year and a half before the last Duma elections, and then put him into the current Duma. And already there he grew up from a simple deputy chairman of one of the committees of the chamber, though along the party line, to the whole head of the federal executive committee of the United Russia party.
Another curious touch was highlighted by the publication “Khakassia will send a senator for money”:
“As chairman of the parliament Vladimir Shtygashev said at a meeting with journalists, the option that the parliament will not approve Serebrennikov's candidacy still exists. Partly because many deputies of the Supreme Council feel insulted by the actions of the authorities in May-June, when the deputies were forced to remove Sargsyan without explaining the reasons. In addition, Vladislav Torosov, an influential deputy and head of the Council of Elders of the Khakass clans, is against a senator not from Khakassia, a “Varangian”. Speaker Shtygashev told reporters what he expects from the new senator: “If he is elected, for example, I would like him to work on the budget committee. Because there are issues that need to be more substantively addressed in the Republic of Khakassia. Now the republic needs a representative who is able to negotiate with the federal authorities on increasing federal subsidies to the republic. According to him, Khakassia annually lacks 400-500 million rubles to progressively develop the economy.
The dreams of the speaker of the Khakassian parliament were not destined to come true, since the desire of Vladimir Shtygashev did not coincide with the intention of Sergei Shoigu.
According to Kommersant, the fact that the Commander-in-Chief of the Aerospace Forces Viktor Bondarev can replace Viktor Ozerov as head of the Federation Council Committee on Defense, said a source close to the leadership of the Russian Defense Ministry. His candidacy was agreed with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and "approved in principle" by the speaker of the chamber, Valentina Matviyenko. Thus, the relevant committees of the upper and lower houses of parliament will be given to the former commander of the Airborne Forces, Colonel-General Vladimir Shamanov and Viktor Bondarev.
Why the current head of the defense committee leaves is not known for certain.
Viktor Ozerov has been working in the upper house for more than 20 years: since 1996, he has been a member of the Federation Council ex officio, as chairman of the Khabarovsk Legislative Assembly. The senator's term expires in September 2019. About the reason for his leaving the post of head of the committee, Viktor Ozerov answered Kommersant:
“Anything is possible. We're not forever."
The transition of Viktor Bondarev to the Federation Council will be made possible thanks to a law that abolished the residency requirement (the need for permanent residence in the region for five years before being nominated or for 20 years in total) for candidates for senators who have the military rank of a senior officer or commanding staff.
Senators Andrei Klishas and Andrei Kutepov submitted it to the State Duma on June 1, and yesterday the document was approved by the upper house. Senator Anton Belyakov noted that this is not the first time such amendments have been adopted "for a specific person", and the law "should be the same" for everyone. “If you know the last name (of the person for whom the amendment is being adopted. -“ Kommersant ”), share the secret, please. To be honest, I don't know,” the speaker said.
If we sum up all the past and current publications on the topic of the listed personnel reshuffles, then a really powerful figure of Sergei Shoigu emerges. You can't argue with the head of Khakassia Viktor Zimin about this. Sergei Kuzhugetovich has moved away from public participation in the personnel policy of the ruling party, but remains, it seems, the most influential and significant player.
MOSCOW, October 11 - RIA Novosti. The Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation, General of the Army Sergei Shoigu, introduced the members of the defense committees of the State Duma and the Federation Council to the leadership of the Ministry of Defense.
“Today, members of the Federation Council Committee on Defense and Security and the State Duma Committee on Defense are participating in our work. These are the key committees of the Russian parliament, on the work of which the effectiveness of state policy in the field of military construction and development of the Armed Forces depends,” Shoigu said at the meeting. He recalled that after the elections to the State Duma, new appointments were made.
"I represent Shamanov Vladimir Anatolyevich, chairman of the State Duma Committee on Defense. The Committee of the Federation Council is still headed by Ozerov Viktor Alekseevich," Shoigu said. He expressed confidence that the joint work of the committees and the Ministry of Defense, "as before, will contribute to strengthening the authority of the Russian Army, increasing its combat readiness, as well as solving social problems of servicemen, citizens discharged from military service, as well as members of their families."
At the meeting, the leadership of the Ministry of Defense was represented by 16 members of the Defense and Security Committee of the Federation Council and 14 deputies who were included in the State Duma Defense Committee. “We know most of the members of the committee on defense and security of the Federation Council. In any case, I am quite familiar with many of them,” Shoigu said after introducing the members of the committee on defense and security of the Federation Council.
"With Teimuraz Dzambekovich (Mamsurov), back in 1992, they created peacekeeping forces to enter South Ossetia. It was 24 years ago, but it was, perhaps, the first peacekeeping operation of young Russia. Successful, successful. And from then until 2008 there no one fired,” the minister said. “After that, there were many different events in North Ossetia and South Ossetia, but all the time we worked quite fruitfully and closely, hand in hand,” Shoigu continued.
He also spoke about his work with a member of the new committee, Vyacheslav Shtyrov. "As they say, there are no former. As for the former president of Yakutia (Vyacheslav Shtyrov), one would like to call him General Shtyrov. In 2002-2003, we restored Yakutia, when it was subjected to a severe, destructive flood, when a huge number of settlements were destroyed houses," the minister said.
According to him, then, on behalf of the President of the Russian Federation, almost 400,000 square meters of housing were built in a short period of time, in fact, in 100 days. “Until today, in my opinion, this has never been possible before,” he said.
Shoigu stressed that he has something to tell about each of the members of the committees. In particular, he thanked Svetlana Savitskaya, a member of the State Duma Defense Committee, for her previous years of work, "her perseverance and patience."
The Russian operation in Syria and the rearmament of the army - Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu told members of the Federation Council about this on Wednesday during a government hour. Senators were pleased with what they heard. There was no closed part: the parliamentarians asked ten questions, and the rest were sent to the military in advance and received answers to most of them in writing even before the start of the event.
One of the key topics of the minister’s speech was the actions of the Russian military in Syria, which “drastically changed the strategic alignment of forces in the region”: financial support and the system of resource support for militants were disrupted. According to him, the Russian Aerospace Forces carried out three times more sorties and inflicted four times more missile and bomb strikes on militants than representatives of the international coalition. “86% of the flight crew, including 75% of long-range crews, 79% of operational-tactical, 88% of military transport and 89% of army aviation, received combat experience,” the minister reported. “The success of government troops would not have been possible without the help of our military advisers who carry out operations planning and command and control in the most important areas.
He recalled that a memorandum on the creation of de-escalation zones in Syria came into force, where hostilities between the army of Bashar al-Assad and the opposition would not be conducted. The most extensive zone is located in the province of Idlib, and also covers the northeastern regions of Latakia bordering it, the western regions of Aleppo and the northern regions of Hama (see Kommersant of May 6). “The implementation of the memorandum will allow stopping the hostilities of the conflicting parties and actually stopping the civil war,” the minister stressed, noting that the main achievement of 2016 is the liberation of the second largest Syrian city, Aleppo. In general, according to him, the Syrian government received 705 settlements during the operation of the Russian Federation. Aleksey Pushkov, a member of the Federation Council Committee on Defense, assured Kommersant that he saw in the Syrian part of Sergei Shoigu’s speech a restrained, but still “optimistic assessment given at a time when the conflict entered a pessimistic phase.” According to Mr. Pushkov, the Minister of Defense made it clear that there is a serious opportunity to improve the situation in the republic.
The second topic was the rearmament of the army. Sergei Shoigu said that the nuclear triad (strategic missile systems, air and sea-based missile carriers) is 60% equipped with modern models. In total, according to the minister, since 2012, the troops have received more than 30,000 weapons and military equipment (including over 50 warships, 1,300 aircraft, 4,700 tanks and armored vehicles). The prospects are even brighter: by 2021, 17 missile regiments of the Yars complex will be put on combat duty of the Strategic Missile Forces, 13 strategic submarines will enter the Navy (seven of them of the Borey class with the Bulava missile system), and after 2021 serial production of the Tu-160M2 strategic missile carrier.
After the Minister of Defense's speech, the senators had the opportunity to ask him questions, but only ten had time to say aloud. According to Kommersant's information, the previously planned closed part of the meeting did not take place, but a few days before the government hour with Sergei Shoigu, the senators sent questions of interest to the Minister of Defense in writing. There were 39 of them, and they mainly concerned the Syrian campaign and the readiness of the Russian Federation to counter the means of the US missile and space attack.
Alexandra Djordjevic, Ivan Safronov
