Russian Put Down Continental Defense Strategy

The US defense industry magazine ‘Defense News’ reported on May 7th that Russia will introduce a new strategy for a regional defense, giving up the current strategy which was established on the premise that the Russian ground army participate in wars in Eurasia continent.

Defense News quoted, ``The Russian ground army will not engage in a war against the world, rather it will strengthen the fighting power in major strategic areas.`` An officer in command added, ``The Russian army will re-deploy 45 infantries currently divided in 7 military districts, which have been deployed in the areas where military conflicts were expected.``

The Russian army will deploy more ground forces in the central Asia and the Northwest border area where the security has been threaten by the Muslim fundamentalists.

The President of Russia Vladimir Putin promoted Kormilchev, then commander of Siberian district army, to the commander of the Ground army and order him to establish a new strategy and the reorganization plan of the Ground army.

Since his inauguration, Putin has emphasized that ``The main purpose of the army is to protect the security of the nation from civil wars and terrorist attacks and to improve its mobility and fighting power in case of local wars such as the war in Chechen.``

The strategic change of the Russian ground army seems to originate in the urgent need of the strategic change according to the end of cold war.

As a result of military reformation since 1997, the totality of Russian armed forces has reduced to about one million and the ground troops has downsized to only 350 thousands, which is virtually impossible to protect the largest country (1708 km 2 ) in the world.

In addition, it has been pointed that the new strategy was in response to the increasing possibility of regional wars, compared to the reduced possibility of all-out wars after the end of the cold war.

Traditionally, the continental nation of Russia regarded the ground army important. However, the need of the strategic change has been increased in accordance with the recent Russian’s strengthening of the naval forces and the air forces.

kimkihy@donga.com