The Russians are frightened to death of this prospect. At least now, with the Draft, they can get Ethnic Russians in the Army at greater numbers than they would otherwise.
China will own half of Russian in 50 years without firing a shot. The other half will be controlled by Radical Muslims.
The bureaucacy never went away.
They are cutting the army by 25 percent by 2012.
And at the same time eliminating the senior NCO ranks (Warrants).
Plus eliminating the proffesional mid-range enlisted and technical.
They are reverting back to a mob that cannot function without officers. Which means kill the officers and you have won.
At the same time China is increasing its professional cadre.
It takes two years to train a soldier. The draft is for only 18 months in Russia. And they are eliminating the senior enlisted that should be there to train them at the same time.
This is a cost cutting measure. Nothing more. Draftees cost less. That is because they are nothing more than cannon fodder that barely know which way the bullet goes...
By comparison, the US still has selective service if needed.
And we have the professional, experienced cadre to train and lead them in a mobilization.
Do you know why the US Army has twice as many officers per troop than the USMC? Mobilization cadre. In a full mobilization each army/reserve/Guard division is cadre for two divisions with the draftees filling them out.
Plus their are additional divisions in the reserve/guard that are designated as cadre. They are ment to be filled out with draftees in an emergency.
Draftees are easy. Building the leadership and training cadre for that force is the expensive, hard, and time consuming part.
Without that cadre, who cares how many you can draft? They will have no leadership or trainers and will be ineffective.
The Russians are throwing out the baby and keeping the dirty bathwater...