Russian Defense Minister Refutes Media Reports on Radical Military Forces Reform
Russian Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov has denied plans to radically reform the command of the country’s armed forces, local media reported.

The Moscow-based “Nezavisimaya gazeta” daily on Dec. 13 quoted unidentified Defense Ministry officials as saying the top military leadership was planning a radical reorganization of Russia’s army command. The report said the reform envisioned replacing the current four fleets and six military districts with three large regional command centers — Far Eastern, Central Asian, and West European. It said the changes were planned to start next year and were expected to take several years to implement.

Ivanov, while denying plans to scrap military districts, said he was not against setting up regional command centers. But he said the cost of the operation should be first evaluated carefully.

“We do not plan to abolish military districts, fleets or the armed forces’ central command centers either today or in the future,” Ivanov was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying.

“Steps to create regional command centers need to take account of the burden on the federal budget and avoid creating a mess in organizational and personnel matters,” he said.

Ivanov also reported that the military wants the defense budget to be split evenly between maintaining operations of the military and developing the military before 2011. By 2017, 70 per cent of the defense budget should be spent on developing the military and 30 per cent on maintaining its operations.