ABSTRACT
At perhaps no time in Russia's history has the urgency of modernisation and military reform been greater. Yet, as clear as this fact may be to observers, the path toward implementing real military reform has been cyclical and has witnessed near gridlock. The level of poverty, for instance, among Russian troops during the 1990s reached record levels and the problem of military debt contributed, among other factors, to the weakening of military prestige within Russian society.2 This was one issue that Vladimir Putin promised to address when he came to power at the turn of the millennium. His success in doing so, however, has been increasingly questioned within Russia.
