Russian Nuclear Weapons: Past, Present, and Future - Strategic ...

ficers compared with society and those whom they
lead, and the formulation of a codified document in
Russia will no doubt set a benchmark against which
officer standards can be outlined and measured,
though the longer-term task is to encourage a constant
striving for excellence among officers through a variety
of mechanisms including incentives. 26 As these
issues are examined by Russian officers, all too often
they regard society simply as a source of problems for
the military, failing to appreciate just how much Russian
society has changed over the past 20 years. This
institutional myopia will likely persist until an effort
is made to adapt any agreed officer model to reflect
societal realities.
An analysis of the reform in the period 2009-10
highlights numerous obstacles and ongoing challenges:
• The downsizing of the Russian officer corps,
planned well in advance of the current reforms,
is being ruthlessly implemented. Its unintended
consequence has been to reduce officer morale
and place additional burdens on those serving.
• Senior defense and military officials have
avoided offering precise detail on how the
downsizing is being conducted, and consequently
official statements and figures are often
misleading and contradictory.
• Senior level officer rotations, dismissals, or retirements
since the reform began reveal a systematic
campaign to avoid the emergence of
any coherent and organized anti-reform movement.
• The officer cuts were driven by the need to
enhance C 2 , and improve the efficiency of the
manning system and were rooted in a Russian
analysis of the structure of western militaries.
42