Russian army told to forage for food

["Ulhas Joglekar" <joglekarulhas@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

The Hindu

Thursday, May 23, 2002

Russian army told to forage for food

By Vladimir Radyuhin

Moscow MAY 22 . Despairing of getting any financing from the empty state
coffers the Russian Defence Ministry has advised its servicemen to take the
matter of their survival into their own hands — to fish, hunt, farm and
gather mushrooms in order not to die of starvation before the federal
government accumulates enough cash to pay military wage arrears.
A Defence Ministry directive carried by the Moskovsky Komsomolets daily
instructed all deputy commanders of the military units in charge of
discipline and morale are currently scrambling to organise "collective trips
of military servicemen and their family members for gathering mushrooms and
berries, and canning them.'' The servicemen are also advised to fish, as
well as grow vegetables and fruit on whatever vacant plots of land they
find. General Nikolai Byrbyga of the Defence Ministry's education
department, who signed the directive, said it was sent out to military units
across Russia.
He stressed that the directive was "not an order, but just a "piece of
advice'' that should be acted upon only in a serviceman's free time, after
he had fulfilled his daily duties. ``People really need this to survive
somehow, we are trying to help,'' the General said, citing the fact that
most Defence Ministry servicemen have already gone for four months without
pay. Moreover, most of Russian officers have not been paid their food
compensations that account for some 20 percent of their pay package, for
more than a year.
Military training in many units has ground to a halt, as the army struggles
with the problem of physical survival. At the end of June the federal
budget's debt to the military stood at 40 billion roubles ($6.5 billion) or
nearly 50 per cent of the annual allocations. Since then the arrears have
increased — in July the armed forces did not receive a single rouble of
financing, as the federal government scrambled to ward off financial
collapse. However, last week it admitted defeat, effectively devaluing the
rouble and defaulting on its debt obligations.
In units deployed near big cities the practice of moonlighting has been
common among officers for years. They haul goods, do repairs and work as
security guards.

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