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| Caucasus |
| Troshev's staff under the gun... |
| 2002-12-22 |
| Military counter-intelligence organs in the North-Caucasian Military District have been ordered to reinforce control over the officers from Col. General Gennady Troshev’s entourage. On Wednesday Vladimir Putin dismissed the refractory general from his post as head of the federal forces in Chechnya. "Reinforcing control" means that they're going to be given the hairy eyeball. Some are going to be tossed, some are going to find themselves commanding prison guards at Perm and never seeing another promotion, and a few are going to welcome their new commander and serve him loyally. Loyalty in the Russian forces is not to the commander, but to the state. And that's a good thing. Gennady Troshev’s dismissal resulted from the general’s public statement made a day earlier in Makhachkala. At a news conference in the Dagestani capital Troshev bluntly rejected the Defence Ministry’s offer to swap posts with the chief commander of the Siberian Military District. The form and tone in which the statement was made left no doubts that Troshev was deliberately displaying a lack of respect for the Defence Minister. "This is my foot. Want to see me shoot it?" ''The Defence Minister has asked me to head the Siberian Military District. It is for the minister to decide, but I have refused that offer. I have been the head of the North Caucasus Military Distinct for three years. There are no complaints about the District and there are no complaints about me as a commander. Therefore, I don't understand the reason for this move,'' Troshev said. Now there are complaints, aren't there? Officers who bitch publicly are canned publicly. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |
| #3 Tsk. In the old days, when they sent you to Siberia, you damn well went to Siberia. |
| Posted by: Tripartite 2002-12-23 10:20:16 |
| #2 Don't forget the American tradition, from Custer to MacArthur. Reading your newspaper clippings can be detrimental to your army career. |
| Posted by: Chuck 2002-12-23 09:23:22 |
| #1 How'd somebody so stupid become a Colonel-General? And what part of "shut the fuck up and soldier" didn't he get? A transfer like that may be phrased as a request for politeness, but it is an order none the less. |
| Posted by: mojo 2002-12-22 16:06:16 |