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Liberals
Seek Referendum to End the Draft
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, September 20, 2004
Among other things, advocates must collect at least
2 million signatures, with no more than 50,000 signatures
from any single Russian region, using only registered
signature collectors of whom there can be at most
100 in any region.
Army
Should Be Put Under Civil Control
By Andrei Makarov, Komsomolskaya Pravda, November
20, 2003
According to Deputy Head of the YABLOKO faction Alexei
Arbatov, some tacit agreement has developed between
the military departments, the executive and to a large
extent the legislative authorities.
The
Defence Minister Surrounded by Generals
Interview with Alexei Arbatov, Deputy Chairman of
the Defence Committee of the State Duma by Irina Gordyenko,
Novaya Gazeta, October 20, 2003
Nobody needs such a huge army in peace time. The US
Army is 1.3 million men strong, and that is too much
for the Americans, even though their economy is ten
times the size of Russia's economy and military budget
is twenty times that of Russia's
Until
the Election the Duma Will Not Allow the Next Generation
to Get into Formation.
Novaya Gazeta, October 13, 2003
Alexei Arbatov: The General Staff has drawn the following
conclusion: the deferral of military service should
be abolished to ensure that everyone is recruited
to the army.
Duma
Backs Army Training in Schools
By New York Times Service, The Moscow Times, October
13, 2003
The vote was 338-42. Only two liberal parties, Yabloko
and the Union of Right Forces, opposed the law, which
must go through two more readings before it is passed.
Yabloko
Party Vice Chairman Alexei Arbatov: General Staff
Preparing for Global Nuclear War
Rosbalt, October 3, 2003
Arbatov said that it was evident from the statements
that as in the past the US and NATO are considered
to represent the main threat to Russia.
One
War Is Not Enough
By Alexei Nikolsky, Vedomosti, October 3, 2003
Alexei Arbatov (Yabloko), deputy chairman of the Duma
Defense Committee, says this document is far too controversial
to be regarded as a military doctrine.
Stagnation
and Profanation
By Natalia Rozhkova, Vremya Novostei, June 23, 2003
The Yabloko thinks it is possible to combine conscription
with contractors for only one or two years while the
reform is being carried out.
Grigory
Yavlinsky on the reform of the armed forces in Russia
KM-Novosti, June 2, 2003
The Russian army should be cut by one third. This
statement was made today by Grigory
Yavlinsky in Rostov-Don.
Russia
reexamining its military
By David Filipov, Boston Globe, May 9, 2003
... the generals have resisted rapid change, and the
Russian Army today is merely a stripped down, impoverished
version of what it has been for decades -- a massive,
unwieldy conscript force built for 20th century battles
on the plains of Europe, with too many generals and
not enough battle-ready troops.
U.S.
Victory Highlights Russian Weakness
By Vladimir Isachenkov, The Associated Press, April
21, 2003
The quick defeat of Saddam Hussein's military, which
was modeled on the rigid Soviet war machine, at the
hands of a motivated high-tech adversary has thrown
a spotlight on the weakness of Russia's own crumbling
armed forces and strengthened the hand of proponents
of radical military reform.
Russia's
military reforms
Progress amid chaos?
There are signs that the Kremlin may at last start
overhauling Russia's army
The Economist (UK), November 16-22, 2002
COULD the hostage crisis in a Moscow theatre two weeks
ago have produced good news? Boris Nemtsov certainly
thinks so. Three days after the rescue that killed
not only most of the Chechen separatists but also
around 120 of their hostages, President Vladimir Putin
spoke of a new role for Russia's army in the fight
against terrorism. Some read that as a sign that he
would step up the war in Chechnya. But Mr Nemtsov,
leader of the opposition Union of Right Forces, thinks
the opposite: that by drawing attention to the army's
failure in Chechnya, Mr Putin will press the generals
harder for a sorely-needed military reform.
Political
Bills Win Far Less Praise
By Gregory Feifer. The Moscow Times, July 2, 2002.
In contrast to the economic legislation passed in
the State Duma's spring session, the political and
social legislation gave deputies less reason to crow
as they headed out for the summer Monday.
The most notable bills, all controversial,
were those to fight political extremism, allow a limited
alternative service to the military draft and make
it more difficult to become a Russian citizen.
On
adoption of the law on alternative civilian service
by the State Duma
Ekho Moskvi Radio Station. June 28, 2002
Moderator - Varfolameyv
Moderator:
Today the State Duma has finally (in the third reading)
adopted the law on alternative civilian service; according
to our correspondent Inessa Zemler 237 deputies voted
for the law.
Alternative
Service Bill Approved
By Oksana Yablokova. The Moscow Times, June 20, 2002.
After four hours of heated debate, the State Duma
approved the government-backed bill on alternative
military service in a crucial second reading Wednesday,
tweaking it only slightly despite a protest from liberal
lawmakers that it remained draconian. About 300 amendments
-- mostly from the liberals -- have been submitted
to the Duma since the bill was passed in the first
reading in April. However, the four pro-Kremlin centrist
factions that form the Duma's majority blocked the
passage of most of them.
Spring
army conscription
By Zarina Khisamova, Expert,
April 29, 2002
The authorities and the media continue
vehement battles about alternative civil service,
the terms of army service, and cancellation of student
conscription deferral. The heaviest of the spring
campaigns is under way, spring conscription. Military
enlistment registration offices and the police are
chasing young men who are avoiding their "sacred
duty". Simultaneously, operations to round up
deserters - those whom enlistment offices manage to
force to don a uniform and take up an automatic weapon
- are being carried out in different places. Now,
these young men have something to fight with the authorities.
Torn
Duma Passes Alternative Service
By Oksana Yablokova Staff Writer,
The Moscow Times, April 18, 2002
The State Duma narrowly approved on
first reading Wednesday thegovernment's billon alternative
military service that allows young people ofdraft
age to carry out civilservice if they put in twice
as much time as in the army and canprove they are
pacifistsat heart
YABLOKO
called the government's draft law on alternative service
"discriminatory"
Gazeta.ru, April 17, 2002
Chairman of the Civil Control Committee
of the YABLOKO party Valeri Borschyov said that YABLOKO
oppose the government's government's draft law on
alternative service prepared by the Ministry of Defence.
In his view, the draft virtually blocks the formation
of the institution of alternative army service.
Russian
parliament debates bill providing for alternative
military service
By Judith Ingram, Associated Press
Writer, April 17, 2002
MOSCOW - Russia's lower house of parliament
launched debate Wednesday on a law strengthening the
constitutional provision of alternative service with
guarantees that would remove conscientious objectors
from legal limbo.
YABLOKO
opposes the draft military reform proposed by the
Union of Right-Wing Forces
Nezavisimaya Gazeta, January 25, 2002
A big scandal is imminent in relations between the
Union of Right-Wing Forces (SPS) and YABLOKO. The
military reforms lobbied by the SPS would appear to
be the cause of serious contention between the two
political structures, which intended to begin drawing
up a joint electoral list for the Duma less than a
year ago. Grigory Yavlinsky's party officially announced
that the military reform proposed by the SPS, providing
for the transition to a six-month term of service
was "counterproductive politically and generally
groundless.”
Temporary
Friendship or Eternal Union?
 Obschaya
Gazeta, January 24, 2002
Our party has from the outset ultimately backed the
position expressed by President Vladimir Putin in
his television address to the nation on September
11, 2001, - solidarity with the US in the fight against
international terrorism, a course towards rapprochement
with the West and the establishment of a partnership
and preferably an alliance.
Lieutenant-Colonel
Konstantinov’s Law
By Elena Afanasyeva, Novaya Gazeta, June
4, 2001
On May 31, 2001, a military helicopter was shot down
off Ingushetia. Deputies of the State Duma, Alexei
Arbatov (Yabloko) and Evgeny Zelyenov (Regions of
Russia Group) on board the helicopter. They were returning
from a working trip to Chechnya.
The
Russian military in the 21st century
Dr. Alexei G. Arbatov
In April 1997, the U.S. Army War College held its
Eighth Annual Strategy Conference, the topic of which
was "Russia's Future as a World Power." Most of the
speakers discussed various aspects of the many crises
besetting Russia, and there were differing views on
whether Russia would be able to surmount those crises
and make the transition to a politically stable democracy
and a market economy.
Dr. Alexei G. Arbatov, the Deputy
Chair of the Defense Committee of the Duma, delivered
the banquet address and provided the Strategic Studies
Institute with the following monograph. In his remarks,
Dr. Arbatov stated that political and economic reform
had largely failed, and that we could reasonably fear
further turmoil in the Russian economy and accompanying
political and military structures. The very fact that
a freely elected member of the Duma, representing
one of four primary political parties, was speaking
to an assembly at the U.S. Army War College indicates
the distance Russia already has traveled in this decade.
Nonetheless, Dr. Arbatov's remarks made clear how
difficult Russia's near-term future will be. |
