The Hindu : Russian army told to forage for food

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, May 23, 2002

International

International

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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