Russian Military Reform and Russia's New Security Environment

The most well-known Russian military reform was undertaken by Peter the Great three hundred years ago. Many attempts have been made since then. The last attempt to reform the Russian military forces is basically the result of the end of the Cold War and the demise of the USSR, and the reform has been on the agenda of the two Russian presidents since then. While President Yeltsin was not likely to succeed, President Putin might just be the type of President to do so. This anthology is about the military reform effort under Putin and the new security environment in which the reform is being staged. A modest beginning of the reform attempt was seen in 2002 and 2003, when an elite conscription paratrooper division was transformed into a voluntary and professional one. This transformation of one division, to be followed by more divisions in the second and third stages of the reform, will in the end (if it succeeds) turn the entire Russian armed forces into professionalized armed forces: much smaller but much better forces. The basic rationale for reforming the Russian military is the new type of threats that Russia is facing, and the new type of wars she will have to fight in the future. This anthology deals both with the rational for military reform and with the problems encountered in its initial phase Libris URL: http://libris.kb.se/bib/9322656