The murder of Dmitry Kholodov, military correspondent for the tabloid-style Moskovsky Komsomolets, last week set off something of a crisis in the Russian Army. A number of influential democratically minded politicians directly accused the military leadership of being involved in the murder. In every issue all last week, Moskovsky Komsomolets called for the resignation of Defense Minister Pavel Grachev. In addition, the Communist faction in the Duma joined with the "democrats," announcing that they also would seek Grachev's resignation along with those of Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev, privatization chief Anatoly Chubais and others.


President Boris Yeltsin has backed up Grachev, calling him "the best defense minister of the last decade." It is clear that Yeltsin intends to do everything possible to keep Grachev on as defense minister. For his part, Grachev will remain faithful to Yeltsin personally no matter what happens, inasmuch has he does not have the support of any part of Russia's current political spectrum.


Nonetheless, the political pressure on Yeltsin may become so intense that he will be compelled to accept Grachev's resignation. In the past, we have seen how Yeltsin has abandoned several loyal supporters when it became politically expedient for him to do so. The idea of political gratitude is generally not characteristic of Russia's Byzantine political culture.


For now, Moscow's politicians are struggling for control over the defense ministry which in unstable political circumstances becomes the main source of legitimacy for any government. Meanwhile, a completely unexpected process is unfolding within the army itself. More and more officers are beginning to sympathize with Grachev.


Grachev has never been popular in military circles, even among the paratroop units where he served for so long. This has been demonstrated repeatedly by opinion polls. However, in recent days many officers who never supported Grachev before -- including some highly visible generals who have publicly criticized Grachev in the past -- have been expressing sympathy in personal conversations. The military is closing ranks.


Moskovsky Komsomolets still has not published any serious evidence of wrong-doing against Grachev. The last article by Kholodov appeared on the front page in September and claimed that someone in the former Western Army Group has arranged the secret sale of 16,000 tanks to Turkey. This report, though, is obviously untrue, as any professional can tell you. Not only does mountainous Turkey not have enough level territory to use so many tanks, but such a number of armored vehicles cannot be "secretly" transfered anywhere. For comparison, Saddam Hussein had only 4,000 tanks when he attacked Kuwait in 1990.


General Vladimir Kosarev, the head of the Defense Ministry's information section, told me that the ministry has been inundated with telegrams of support from army units throughout the country. There have also been a number of telegrams from provincial governors.


The most troubling process that is currently going on in the army is that highly placed professional soldiers are becoming still further disenchanted with the principles of freedom of expression, of open government and of civilian control over the military.


Of course, our generals never really had much faith in democratic institutions. But what is happening today is effecting younger officers as well. One major I know who before had never had a good word to say for Grachev told me: "The recent public statements by the leaders of Russia's Choice have revealed their true attitude toward the army. They look on us like wild animals, capable of anything."





Pavel Felgenhauer is defense and national security editor for Segodnya.