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DEFENCE MINISTER RODIONOV GOES ON THE WARPATH
(Izvestia, December 27. In full.)
Izvestia's Konstantin EGGERT

A great power needs enemies, no matter what. Otherwise the entire world may begin to doubt its grandeur.

Russian Defense Minister Igor Rodionov has at long last listed our new Russia's potential adversaries at a science-and-practical conference in Moscow. His statement can cause panic even among the most militaristic generals.

The list of our potential adversaries apparently includes the United States of America, NATO, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, Japan and China. But the thing is that Russia, which is now experiencing an economic crisis and whose dilapidated Armed Forces have already become a proverb and a byword, will have a lot of trouble, as it tries to confront so many countries of the world. People will inevitably ask the following question: Where will the Defense Minister obtain money for confronting so many well-equipped and well-trained enemies? One is inclined to think that ordinary tax-payers will have to pay the bill once again.

This contradictory list could well have been compiled by USSR Marshals Malinovsky, Grechko or Ustinov. In Rodionov's opinion, this country now faces the same enemies as the USSR had done in the times of Leonid Brezhnev. Therefore one gets the impression that Rodionov deliberately ignores all domestic and global changes that had taken place over the last ten years. The concept, which has been advanced by Russia's first civilian Defense Minister, rolls this country back to the Cold-War era. In this connection, one would be interested to learn whether this approach is shared by the Kremlin and the nation's Foreign Ministry; or whether we are witnessing yet another attempt to conduct an independent foreign policy on the Defense Ministry's part. In that case, one would like to learn what our President and Foreign Minister think about Rodionov's statements.

The list of our potential enemies includes two countries, e.g. China and Iran, which cooperate with Moscow in line with bilateral military-technical cooperation agreements. But why do we keep supplying weapons to China and Iran and regularly quarrelling with the West on this issue?

According to Rodionov, Turkey is seen as yet another potential source of military threats. Consequently, the Rosvooruzheniye state-run company should immediately break off all arms-sale negotiations with the Turkish brass hats. By the way, all assertions to the effect that Russian and Turkish interests are bound to clash don't sound very convincing because Moscow and Ankara also have many common economic and political interests.

The Russian Defense Minister has unveiled the main points of his concept at a conference dealing with the development of the intra-CIS strategic partnership and military-political integration. Judging by the first comments, Russia's CIS partners are in no hurry to fight the entire world under Igor Rodionov's command. This serves to prove once again that the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces lives in a world of its own ideas, which often have nothing in common with real life.