Russia’s new defence minister, a former tax bureaucrat, has gone back to school for a crash course on the country’s massive military machine at an elite defence academy, the Izvestia newspaper reported on Tuesday.
Anatoly Serdyukov, who once worked as a furniture salesman, faces a barrage of intensive classes to swot up on the Russian military, which includes the world’s second largest nuclear arsenal.
His specially prepared lectures will focus on defence strategies, organisation and management of the armed forces — which number more than one million personnel — Izvestia said.
Most cadets at the academy will face a two-year stint, but the minister will graduate after just one month, based around three lengthy sessions each week, the paper said.
President Vladimir Putin appointed Serdyukov, who served in the military for less than two years, as defence minister in a surprise reshuffle in February.
Since then Serdyukov has kept a low profile, in contrast to his predecessor, Sergey Ivanov, who is considered as one of the frontrunners to replace Putin.
As the chief of Russia’s tax service, Serdyukov helped the Kremlin’s dismantle Yukos, once Russia’s biggest oil company. He has two degrees, in economics and law.
The role of defence minister in Russia is sometimes seen as a poisoned chalice. Critics slammed Ivanov for bullying cases, which lead to the death of dozens of conscripts each year.
Russia is reducing the size of its giant armed forces and boosting defence spending to revamp the military after the chaos of the 1990s when it suffered chronic under-funding and loss of status after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. — Reuters