Russian Military Reform From Perestroika to Putin

<p>In the last 15 years the size of the Russian armed forces has dropped 76 percent from 5.32 million men down to 1.37 million men; the level of Russian defense spending has followed a similar slide. In 1989 the Soviet military was one of the most feared on earth. By 1994 the Russian armed forces suffered a major setback when they took on rebel fighters in Chechnya and by 1998 tanks were parked from lack of fuel and officers were working second jobs during duty hours to make ends meet. Aircraft could not fly due to lack of spare parts and ships sat rusting at their piers. In 2000 the submarine Kursk sank in a preventable accident with the loss of 118 lives. How did the Russian military come to be in such dire straits? What efforts were made to reform the Russian military as these problems became apparent? Have those reforms been well planned and executed or poorly done? Are things getting better? What are the future prospects for the Russian military</p><p>This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore you will see the original copyright references library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world) and other notations in the work.</p><p>This work is in the public domain in the United States of America and possibly other nations. Within the United States you may freely copy and distribute this work as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.</p><p>As a reproduction of a historical artifact this work may contain missing or blurred pages poor pictures errant marks etc. Scholars believe and we concur that this work is important enough to be preserved reproduced and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.</p><br>