First Successes, Many Hurdles
Russia’s Military Reform
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
After the war with Georgia, Russia started a new military reform project. It represented a serious effort to transform the obsolete mass mobilisation army into a modern deployable army. The first successes are to be detected, but there are still many hurdles to overcome. Financial resources are lacking, the arms industry suffers from a stand-still in innovation, and the demographic crisis is reinforcing the recruitment problem. In addition, there is resistance to the reform within the military. Unlike the situation under Russian President Dmitrii Medvedev’s predecessors, the country’s political and top military leadership this time has the will to lead the reform to a successful end.
(Osteuropa 6/2010, pp. 83–98)