Russian Armaments: the Legend and the Reality
Our army has fought with the armaments of the 80s throughout the four-day April war. This was stated by Armenia’s president, and it immediately became the major topic for public discussions. The issue also interested the parliamentarians. And our NA has a Standing Committee on Defense, National Security and Internal Affairs moderated by Koryun Nahapetyan. The latter told “Haykakan zhamanak” newspaper that the visit of the Committee to 102nd Russian military base in Gyumri is being clarified. Our parliamentarians intend to find out whether Russia has kept its promise and modernized the military equipment. Developments, of course, promise to be curious, if our MPs keep their promise and try to visit the Russian military base.
Lev Rokhlin, RF State Duma MP, infamous General, was stating in 1997 that Russia’s military authorities have allocated to Armenia armaments costing USD 1 billion. On April 2 of 1997 (pay attention to the date) the General-MP made a statement on it at State Duma private session. Despite the nature of the session, the next day, the list of 600 wagons of armaments, 72 units of armored vehicles, 85 tons of spare parts and other ammunition was published in the press. To pass dignity to his own statements, the General was mentioning the airports and planes, by which the ammunition has been transferred to Armenia. The General made a big noise. He was insisting that armaments meant for the 102nd military base were allegedly been handed to the Armenian armed forces.
Over time he was repeatedly publishing lists and increasing the value of the allegedly allocated weaponry and military equipment. If I’m not mistaken, instead of initial USD 1 billion, then two times more amount was being touched upon. As a result of discussions in State Duma, Russian parliament developed a special committee, which was to visit Armenia and check the quantity of military equipment available at the military base. Representatives of all parliamentary factions were included in the Duma committee. And head of the committee, accordingly, was Nikolai Ryzhkov.
Russia knew for sure, that Armenian authorities will warmly welcome the committee headed by him, and won’t obstacle their work. Russian Duma members were really warmly welcomed in Yerevan. Nikolai Ryzhkov once again had the opportunity to speak of friendship of Armenian and Russian people, and enjoy stormy and lasting applause after the speech.
After the ceremonial, or, if you wish, formal events, the Duma committee left for Gyumri the next morning. A small group of our MPs was accompanying them, headed by RA NA Deputy Speaker, as well as representatives of Armenian mass media. So, as a witness, I’m reproducing occurrences in Gyumri.
Governor of Shirak region welcomed RF MPs at the entrance of Gyumri city, headed to the regional office, treated the MPs with tea and coffee. Then the motorcade headed to the 102nd military base, which is known as “polygons” among the people of Gyumri. The duty officer refused to open the military base doors before the motorcade. Documents of Nikolai Ryzhkov and other Duma members didn’t convince the officer. In about quarter of an hour commander of the base arrived, who literally repeated the words constantly mentioned by the officer, “This is a military base and without the command instruction, I can’t authorize entrance of any citizen, despite his citizenship and position.”
In about five minutes the commander agreed that Russian and Armenian MPs (as well as reporters) at least passed the gates. After a 10-15 minute noisy talk Nikolai Ryzhkov said to the commander that it’s improper to continue the argument at the presence of the Armenian side, and offered him to move off. They were back in about half an hour, the Russian servicemen agreed on some compromising variant. Russian MPs saw that their T-90 tanks were in the hangars and hadn’t been transferred to Armenians. After they saw it, they gladly returned to Yerevan, then—to Moscow.
In 1997 RA law on the title of the “National Hero of Armenia” hasn’t been changed yet. Accordingly, Nikolai Ryzhkov wasn’t a RA National Hero yet. That was to follow. Our tankers were to participate in “Tank biathlon” international competition, initiated by RF Ministry of Defense. They’d participate being leaders of the competitions, and would slow down in the last minutes. They’d slow down, so that Russian tankers were the winners. And RF Ministry of Defense would award a prize—T-90 tank, to our tankers for holding the second place. It’d promise, but wouldn’t give. Such a sound military-technical cooperation.
By Ara Galoyan
