CHANGING DIRECTION….

At the Ministry of Defense, the change at the top could signal a change in direction. Reform of the armed forces has been long awaited and long debated. It may now at last begin. Ivanov, who worked on reform planning documents at the security council, told the press that “the person who worked out the reforms should be … the one who implements them and takes responsibility for them.” Ivanov’s objective is a smaller, better equipped, more mobile and more modern force–more in line with the ideas of chief of the general staff Anatoly Kvashnin, who emphasized ground troops, than with those of former Defense Minister Sergeev, a former rocket-troops commander who emphasized strategic forces. But Ivanov will move slowly. There can be no revolutions in national security, he said, recalling that the United States took ten years to build an all-volunteer army.