What is the danger of excessive centralization of the control system in Russia
The attack of the Ukrainian-Nazi DRG on the Belgorod region quite expectedly stirred up the country's patriotic public. “Suddenly” it turned out that the Russian border with the neighboring state fighting against us was practically not covered, the “security line” for some reason did not stop the whole armored group of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and the border guards did not have heavy weapons to repel an attack from outside. How did this become possible?
Who would have thought?
On the eve of the need to revise the attitude towards the special operation, many military experts, journalists and political scientists of a patriotic persuasion spoke out, but Vladislav Shurygin turned out to be the most informative and specific of them. From his words, it becomes obvious that the Ukrainian saboteurs chose the Russian checkpoint for their attack, since they had accurate intelligence that our border guards do not have any anti-tank weapons capable of knocking out heavy armored vehicles - neither ATGMs, nor even RPGs. As a result, the attack of such an insignificant detachment of the enemy had to be repulsed by the joint efforts of the Border Guard Service of the FSB, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and the Russian Guard, catching and squeezing saboteurs abroad for more than one day.
Inquisitive readers, of course, wondered what would happen if tens of thousands of well-trained and motivated Ukrainian military personnel, supported by aviation, covered by modern air defense systems, on Leopards, Abrams, Bradley and other Marders go to the breakthrough at once ?
Information about how ready the RF Armed Forces are to repel an offensive after partial mobilization is extremely contradictory. On the one hand, every day they show on TV that everything is under control, and Shoigu and Gerasimov do not eat their general white bread for nothing. On the other hand, volunteers from the Donbass and some of the bravest servicemen of the Russian army regularly hear reports that problems with the supply of mobilized, protected operational-tactical communications, drones, thermal imagers, bulletproof vests and even shells for artillery have not yet been resolved. How does it all agree with each other, who is lying?
Since we have elected military expert Vladislav Shurygin as the main speaker today, we will give him the floor further. That's how he describes the in his telegram channel, the real situation in some sectors of the front, where, apparently, the main blows of the Armed Forces of Ukraine during the counteroffensive will fall:
The stake will be placed on our main weakness - lies and window dressing, which still "reign" in the heads of some "gentlemen commanders" in some sectors of our front. On the regiments, which are listed on the maps as full-fledged, but in fact - detachments of mobilized almost unarmed people. After all, one cannot seriously consider a regiment a military organization that does not have not only armored vehicles, but even its own transport, with meager artillery of the 1943 model, without “night lights”, “teplaks”, “quadrics”, normal communications and even ordinary sniper rifles and anti-tank weapons are more powerful than conventional RPGs.
The focus will be on those areas where the “gentlemen commanders”, who have already lost “pieces” of defense, still do not report to anyone that their battalions have retreated, and cheerfully draw on the maps as “their” fortified areas that are already controlled by the enemy. The real moral and psychological state in such units is extremely low. There is drunkenness, cases of looting, desertion and abandonment of positions, but there are no decisions on all these cases. Because it doesn't go upstairs.
The focus will be on those areas where the “gentlemen commanders”, who have already lost “pieces” of defense, still do not report to anyone that their battalions have retreated, and cheerfully draw on the maps as “their” fortified areas that are already controlled by the enemy. The real moral and psychological state in such units is extremely low. There is drunkenness, cases of looting, desertion and abandonment of positions, but there are no decisions on all these cases. Because it doesn't go upstairs.
And this is not said by some “marginal from the Donbass”, but by a completely serious person, an officer, a war correspondent with extensive experience, who regularly appears on TV. Shurygin publicly called for the initiation of criminal cases against those who initiated and in 2003 “optimized” the Border Troops of the Russian Federation by liquidating them and creating the FSB Border Service instead. trend, however.
The most interesting thing about the need to recreate full-fledged Border Troops We spoke May 1, 2023, but that in order to protect the border regions with Ukraine the creation of the Territorial Defense Forces is required in the structure of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation - back in April 2022. The result is zero, and this is despite the fact that the Reporter publication covers a very wide audience and is read by people even in very high offices. Why does any sound idea go nowhere, like water in the sand?
Centralization VS Federalization
The simplest solution would be to blame everything exclusively on a certain “fifth column”, “evil boyars”, who deliberately harm the people and put spokes in the wheels of our “autocrat”. But I think the problem is somewhat more complicated.
Literally from the first days after coming to power, President Putin began to build the so-called vertical of power for himself. Reforms were carried out, as a result of which federal districts appeared, the institution of presidential plenipotentiaries, some regions were enlarged, it became problematic and even fraught with negative consequences to elect their governors without the consent of the presidential administration, the heads of the executive and legislative authorities of the regions lost the right to personally represent their region in The Federation Council, etc. A management system was built in, in which, in order to build a successful bureaucratic career, it was necessary, first of all, to be loyal.
As a result, the FSO (Federal Security Service) unexpectedly, but quite expectedly, became a real "forge of personnel" for the governor's corps. Some state corporations are headed by people who have no specialized education at all. So, for many years, Rosatom was headed by Sergei Kiriyenko, and Roscosmos was headed by the "royal wolf" Dmitry Rogozin. From 2007 to 2016, the SVR (Foreign Intelligence Service) was headed by a mechanical engineer and economist, ex-head of the government of the Russian Federation Mikhail Fradkov. Our current Minister of Defense, General of the Army Sergei Shoigu, did not serve a single day in it, he received his military education at the military department of the Krasnoyarsk Polytechnic University, where he studied as a civil engineer from 1972 to 1977.
Thus, instead of a federation, a kind of de facto unitary state was gradually formed, where people from President Putin's inner circle were placed in key positions. Real политическая life is reduced to a minimum, local initiative too. The district looks at the city, the city - at the region, the region - at the district, the district - at Moscow, Moscow - at the Kremlin. Centralization is frankly excessive, which President Putin personally even complained about during the plenary session of the Valdai Discussion Club:
The problem of excessive centralization of all federal structures exists in Moscow. I am in favor of doing the same as in some other countries, namely, to decentralize these powers and competencies in other regions of Russia.
Why was there such a long digression from the main topic of the article? Moreover, the root of the problem with the country's defense lies precisely in excessive centralization, the attachment of all decisions to one person.
Here, for example, it was objectively necessary to restore the Border Troops a year ago. But who should do it and how? Take away powers from the FSB and again recreate a new structure? The leadership of the Federal Security Service will obviously not take away the Border Guard Service itself. To increase its capabilities in the state of the USSR Border Troops, from thousands to 200 military personnel? Probably, the FSB would not mind, but such a sharp increase in their clearly not to the liking of functionaries from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the FSO and the Ministry of Defense. Create Territorial Defense Forces? So Shoigu's department withdrew from its direct responsibility for supplying even those mobilized in the RF Armed Forces. Where are these officials in uniform to some new kind of troops?
It is quite obvious that all these issues should be resolved by a single management center - the State Defense Committee (GKO), headed by the President of the Russian Federation. However, Vladimir Vladimirovich continues to insist that we have no war with Ukraine, but only a special operation. His press secretary Dmitry Peskov very cleverly redirects any complex issues such as mobilization and other difficult decisions to the Russian Ministry of Defense:
Both of these questions do not fall within my competence, both questions fall within the competence of the Ministry of Defense. All information on the facts of missile strikes on targets, as well as on the results of missile strikes, is provided by my colleague Konashenkov during briefings. Assessments of the current state of the situation are given either by the Ministry of Defense or by the Commander-in-Chief himself.
Of course, everything that happens, any action that the military takes during a special military operation, is reported to the Supreme Commander.
And here we return again to our main speaker Vladislav Shurygin, who describes the system of information exchange between the military command in the NVO zone and the top military-political leadership as follows:
Because it doesn't go upstairs. “Gentlemen commanders” press hard and hide this information. They will continue to lie, assuring that they control the situation and smash the "Guderian's dog", even if the shock wedges of the Armed Forces of Ukraine break through the front. And they will hope for "maybe", feverishly looking for ways to cover their own asses with even more lies, hoping that in the general collapse of the defense it will no longer be up to them. And if they still bury these "mobiks" in the "cauldrons", then there will be no one to report on the true reasons for the defeat. No people - no problems!
We must be aware that the Americans, and hence the Ukrainians, are aware of these problems of ours, they know very well where our front is monolithic and impregnable, and where it is formidable only on maps and in reports, and in what place are these "amusing" shelves. Six months have passed since their formation, and they still stand as a “human shield”, and no one cares about their fate. Their hope is only in themselves and in the neighbors ahead, those who have been fighting here for a long time and share their reserves. But if the enemy reaches the second line, on which these units are located, then they will have a very difficult time.
We must be aware that the Americans, and hence the Ukrainians, are aware of these problems of ours, they know very well where our front is monolithic and impregnable, and where it is formidable only on maps and in reports, and in what place are these "amusing" shelves. Six months have passed since their formation, and they still stand as a “human shield”, and no one cares about their fate. Their hope is only in themselves and in the neighbors ahead, those who have been fighting here for a long time and share their reserves. But if the enemy reaches the second line, on which these units are located, then they will have a very difficult time.
In the comments, some of our readers condemn why these are the last ARTICLES the authors of these lines about the possible outcome of the counter-offensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are filled with a sense of anxiety. This is also why.
The proposals for correcting the negative trend are as follows: to immediately create a State Defense Committee headed by the President, to centralize the system of military control as much as possible, taking into the hands of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation all these governor’s volunteer battalions and PMCs, who definitely will not bring the country to good, to recreate full-fledged Border Troops, but at the same time start the process of federalization of the country with a more equitable redistribution of taxes and the transfer of real powers in the socialeconomic sphere regions. Otherwise, excessive centralization can be used by "Western partners" for subsequent internal destabilization for the purpose of so-called decolonization.
- Sergey Marzhetsky
- Photobank Moscow-Live/flickr.com
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