Russia’s military top brass have an old trick that is so effective it never ceases to amaze me. The moment things start going badly for the army, they convince political leaders of the existence of a miracle formula that can magically turn the situation around. As soon as problems arise in the armed forces, the generals announce that everything will improve just as soon as they receive the new military doctrine. And when talk turns to a decline in discipline, the top brass immediately propose creating a military police force. For the past 20 years, this has happened every time a high-profile crime has been committed by military personnel. And once the public uproar blows over, everyone forgets the military police force.
But now, Interfax, citing an unidentified Defense Ministry source, reports that a military police force will be formed next year to prevent all violations of discipline, including the notorious problem of hazing. A special military department dealing with the new force will be established as early as December — even though there has been no widely publicized crime in the military recently. I suspect that Defense Ministry officials are just trying to stay ahead of the game. A few months back, generals made the risky decision to have enlisted men and contract soldiers serve together in the same units. Considering that many contract soldiers started out as short-term enlisted men but were tricked or forced into signing three-year contracts of duty, it is not difficult to imagine that they will be releasing all of their pent-up anger on the fresh crop of enlistees who, according to the new rules, must serve for only 12 months.
Whatever the reason behind it, the creation of a military police force is once again on the agenda. Debating whether the armed forces need a police force is a little like asking if a doctor needs to own an enema bag. Of course he does. But imagine the tragedy if he were to try to treat every single illness with it. The same thing can be said of a military police force. It can be a highly effective tool for maintaining order in the army but only if it is a part — albeit, a very important one — of the overall law enforcement system. That system assumes that most people are law abiding and not interested in committing crimes. A current argument about whether the proposed military police force should answer to the Defense Ministry or to the Prosecutor General’s Office seems somewhat superfluous as a result.
It is more important to understand that the impossibility of creating a proper military police force when civilian police have essentially organized themselves into armed gangs who use their guns and badges as a license for extortion. If that practice carries over into the military — and there is no reason to believe that it won’t —every military police officer of every rank will start running a racket.
It also will be impossible to create a proper military police force when the very thing that could maintain discipline in the ranks is effectively absent from the Russian army — the institution of noncommissioned officers. How can an effective military police force be established when most officers are more worried about whether they will be given apartments, money or nothing at all when they retire than about preparing soldiers for battle?
Also, it will be necessary to train the military policemen in special academies that inculcate an unwavering respect for the law.
In short, the conditions in which a military police force might do at least some good simply don’t exist in Russia — not in the government, not in the army and not in society. It would be better if the force were planned for a future date when a special military police academy could be created at the same time as a professional corps of noncommissioned officers, trained at the renowned Airborne Troops Academy in Ryazan, could be established. Soldiers could be trained together with lieutenants who have graduated from one of the 10 scientific-academic centers, cultivating a new type of officer.
But if anyone believes that pinning police badges on 5,000 inadequately trained soldiers will increase discipline in the armed forces, they are sorely mistaken. And, of course, any police force will only have meaning as long as Defense Ministry officials have no hidden agenda to discredit the whole idea before it even gets started.
Alexander Golts is deputy editor of the online newspaper Yezhednevny Zhurnal.
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