From Mon Jun 30 17:37:19 1997
>Date: Mon, 30 Jun 1997 17:37:03 -0700
>From: Mike Potter
>Reply-To: mike.potter@artecon.com
>Organization: Artecon, Inc.
>X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.01Gold (WinNT; I)
>To: mahan@microworks.net
>Subject: Russian military warns of mutiny
>Precendence: bulk
>Sender: mahan-owner@microworks.net
>
>Russian military warns of mutiny over troop cuts
>________________________________________________
>
>Copyright (c) 1997 Nando.net
>Copyright (c) 1997 Times of London
>
>MOSCOW (June 30, 1997 7:03 p.m. EDT) — The Russian military
>establishment has given President Boris Yeltsin a warning that he faces
>the first mutiny in the armed forces for nearly two centuries if he goes
>ahead with unpopular reforms to slash the number of men in uniform.
>
>Threatened with the loss of 600,000 troops under plans currently being
>drawn up by Gen. Igor Sergeyev, the newly-appointed Defense Minister,
>several retired generals have urged serving officers to “take the matter
>into their own hands.”
>
>The issue came to the surface last week when Gen. Lev Rokhlin, a popular
>former combat officer who now heads the parliamentary defense committee,
>issued a damning seven-page open letter to Yeltsin blaming him for the
>destruction of the armed forces.
>
>Gen. Rokhlin, who commanded Russian troops during the bloody capture of
>Grozny, the Chechen capital, before running for parliament in a
>pro-Yeltsin faction, said he had been forced to act to prevent the
>collapse of the armed forces.
>
>”You fooled the nation and the military, failing to fulfill your
>pre-election promises,” said Rokhlin, whose outburst may cost him his
>position in the Our Home is Russia faction. “You have destined the armed
>forces to destruction.”
>
>In the letter, Rokhlin predicted that if the military was weakened any
>further, Russia would lose control of the Far East and Siberia in the
>next century. He said Russia’s future as a nuclear power was also under
>threat, and blamed Yeltsin personally for the disastrous military
>campaign in Chechnya.
>
>By far his most inflammatory remarks were addressed to serving officers.
>He advised them to mobilize and issue the Kremlin with demands. “Unite,
>elect your leaders and demand that your legitimate rights be exercised,”
>he said. “Do not hope that someone else will do this for you. Our unity
>in resisting the disintegration of the army is the guarantee of our
>success.”
>
>Not surprisingly, the comments sent a chill through the Kremlin.
>Although there has not been a military insurrection since the Decembrist
>uprising of 1825, the present lamentable state of the armed forces could
>provide a fertile ground for mutiny.
>
>Gen. Sergeyev, whose plans to reduce the armed forces from 1.8 million
>to 1.2 million must be completed by July 25, on Sunday denounced the
>letter as incitement “to revolt.”
>
>”We now have to choose between a large but insufficiently capable army,
>or a smaller but combat-ready army,” he said, defending his plans, which
>propose radical measures such as merging the army and navy . “I think
>the choice is clear.”
>
>However, the military establishment has yet to be persuaded. Most
>commentators believe that Gen. Rokhlin was prompted to take action at
>the behest of powerful senior officers in the military, who may be among
>the first to be sacked under the reform plan.
>
>Top figures in politics and the military have been eager to line up
>alongside Gen. Rokhlin. He has won the backing of Gen. Aleksandr Lebed,
>the former paratrooper and presidential candidate, Vladimir Zhirinovsky,
>the ultra-nationalist leader, and leading communists, like Viktor
>Ilyukhin, the chairman of the parliamentary security committee.
>
>”Rokhlin is right, the army is going to pieces,” Gen. Lebed said. “This
>is clear even to those who are far from the army. It is clear that the
>Commander-in-Chief (Yeltsin) is not competent.”
>
>Although in the past there has been talk of rebellion in the armed
>forces, there is so far no evidence of any serious conspiracy, despite
>unpaid wages, low morale, and a sharp rise in the number of suicides
>among both soldiers and officers.
>
>Nevertheless, the Kremlin cannot afford to be complacent after the
>rabble-rousing remarks by General Rokhlin.
>
>Viktor Chernomyrdin, the Prime Minister, vowed to press ahead with
>military reform. He told military academy graduates at a Kremlin
>ceremony that he had been instructed by Yeltsin to pay all debts to the
>forces over the next two months. He did not say where the money was
>coming from.
>
>By RICHARD BEESTON, The Times of London
>
>-= END OF MESSAGE =-
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