Russian Guard Now has 50 Percent More Soldiers than Russian Ground Forces Do, Reflecting Putin’s Fears and Priorities, Malgin Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, February 3 – Like his Belarusian counterpart Alyaksandr Lukashenka, Vladimir Putin is firmly convinced that as long as he has loyal and obedient internal troops ready to defend his regime, he can do anything he wants to the population with impunity and even gain in power, Andrey Malgin says.

            That is why the ranks of the Russian Guard, a force explicitly directed at protecting the regime from dissent, now numbers 430,000 effectives, “one and a half times more than the number of all land forces” of the Russian military not to speak of the FSB and the 18 other Russian force agencies (svoboda.org/a/31078963.html).

            Some sadists may be attracted to such work, especially given how they will have the chance to play out their impulses. But most are simply opportunists who see that the state promises those in the Russian Guard high incomes, good medical care and the chance to retire far earlier than others at 40 or 45.

            These material advantages, Malgin continues, explain most of the desire of people to join the Russian Guard and obey orders not a commitment to dictatorship as such. Their bosses may want to repress the population, but those in organizations like the Russian Guard simply want to do what they have to do for a good life.

            And that needs to be remembered especially now, he suggests, because “the path Putin has chosen for struggle with the opposition and the strengthening of his personal power in fact is strengthening the opposition, expanding is circle of support, and convincing them of the rightness of their cause.”

            “In fact,” he concludes, this path is destroying the state setting the stage for its collapse,” however large and well-paid the Russian Guard may be.