For the first time in Russia’s post-Soviet history, the Defense Ministry has asked the president not to raise wages in the armed forces as the Duma requested.

The move comes alongside radical changes in relations between the military, the legislative and the executive branches of power, bringing both promises of better pay for Russia’s armed forces and fears that the cash will be given with one hand and snatched away with the other.

Just a couple of years ago, the annual battle for the defense budget followed completely different tactics. The budgets drawn up by the government never even allocated the Defense Ministry the minimum it needed just to keep the armed forces afloat.

The defense minister and his deputies at that time didn’t want to risk protesting publicly. Instead, they would take the battle to the Duma, which would add a few dozen billion rubles to the government draft budget. Once the budget was approved, Defense Ministry officials would spend much of their time at the Finance Ministry trying to get hold of the money they’d been promised.

But now the situation has totally reversed, and the defense budget is being scrupulously executed. Speaking recently to the command of the Black Sea Fleet, Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said that for the year to June, the armed forces had already received 45 percent of the 2001 defense budget.

Even better for defense officials, the government draft budget for 2002 promises to increase defense spending from 231 billion rubles to 262 billion rubles. President Vladimir Putin has also proposed his own draft law on the status of servicemen, which could double military wages.

But despite this positively rosy-looking picture, the military is far from happy. Many sources say that representatives of the different security agencies in Russia have set aside their endless rivalry and joined forces to sink the government and Kremlin plans. The Duma’s Defense Committee, decidedly against the plans of the government, will form the nucleus of this opposition.

This is because the specialists in the Duma Defense Committee think that rather than improving the financial lot of officers, half of whom live with their families under the poverty line, the increase in the defense budget will be followed by vigorous cuts in the cost of maintaining the armed forces.

The Duma recently approved amendments to the law on the status of servicemen, seeking to bring military wages in line with those of public servants. The government calculated that this would require an extra 60 billion rubles. It also proposed making the increase in two stages, the first in mid-2002 and the second only in 2004. What is most amazing here is that the officials behind this government proposal were Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov and his deputy, Lyubov Kudelina, a former deputy finance minister.

Military officials fear that along with the first wage increase, the government will abolish benefits for the military. At the moment, servicemen don’t pay taxes, have free use of public transport and pay considerably less than civilians for telephone and utilities. If the government abolishes these benefits, even with the wage increase military incomes will fall over the next two years. Added to this is inflation, which is around 20 percent at the moment.

The Defense Ministry looks like it intends to spend money on buying new military equipment rather than to pay its soldiers. The government plans to allocate an extra 40 billion rubles to buying equipment in the 2002 budget (the defense budget overall will increase by only 31 billion rubles).

This represents an attempt by the Defense Ministry to rectify the abnormal situation in the defense budget over the last 10 years. Currently, more than 70 percent of all defense spending goes on maintaining the armed forces, so that soldiers are fed and clothed but have little to fight with.

Some generals worry, however, that the latest plans could lead to the inverse situation where there will be new tanks and planes, but no one to use them. At the moment, a lieutenant commanding a military unit earns 1,600 rubles a month.

If this situation doesn’t improve soon, the Army will face a flood of junior officers leaving its ranks. As it is today, some units are already commanded by civilians drafted into the Army for two years, and these soldiers often don’t have the professional expertise required.

But the Defense Ministry seems to have decided to rely on administrative measures to keep officers in the armed forces. Garrison commanders are being ordered to do everything they can to prevent officers from leaving.

Unexpected support for the officers has come from Duma deputies. The Duma Defense Committee is examining a draft law that would allow officers to leave the armed forces without losing pension rights if the state violates the conditions of their contract.

Something like abolishing benefits would constitute just such a violation. If this law passes, garrison commanders could well find themselves swamped by officers’ notifications of intention to leave the armed forces.

Meanwhile, servicemen in general, especially middle-rank and junior officers, have less and less trust in the people running the Defense Ministry.