As one of the eight pillars of the Kremlin who will be around Putin in the future, Chemezov will serve as the first general manager of Rosoboronexport in 2004, in charge of Russia's arms business. Russia's arms export business is almost a towering, ownerless cash cow, even on par with natural gas exports, becoming Russia's double-headed eagle.
Prior to this, Chemezov was a graduate of the advanced training course of the General Staff of the Russian Federation Armed Forces. From 1975 to 1976, he worked at the Institute of Rare and Nonferrous Metals, but later resigned to join the national security department. From 1980 to 1988, he worked at the Soviet Union's "Sunshine" Nonferrous Metals Industry Group, and was later sent by the group to Dresden, East Germany as chief representative. In other words, he was once a KGB agent.
After returning to the Soviet Union in 1988, he has been serving as the general manager of the Soviet International Sports Company. It was Yanayev who recognized his talent and promoted him from that position to his side without giving him any specific position. However, Chemezov never complained because Yanayev said to him before transferring him to the Kremlin, "Comrade Chemezov, I will not let you hold any important position while you are by my side. This is the first thing I want to say to you. The second thing is that the position you will hold in the future will be more important than the ones I can give you now, so do you understand?"
Yanayev did not force the other party to understand his ideas 100%, until two weeks ago when he went to see Chemezov and said to him, "In two weeks I need to see a construction plan for the military multinational group that I told you about before. Please be serious and rigorous, because this is your first opportunity to step onto the stage."
Chemezov, who was familiar with company operations and had a keen political eye, realized that this was a good opportunity, so he spent two weeks writing a plan, which Yanaev reviewed and then explained to senior military officials today.
Yanayev first explained to everyone, "The disarmament plan will be divided into three steps, and the three-step plan will be completed before December next year. In the first stage, we will lay off 60,000 people in advance, and then observe the impact on the army and regional balance. After stability, we will conduct the second stage of speculation, and we will lay off 160,000 people. In the third stage, we will lay off 200,000 people. In other words, there will be only 250,000 troops left in Asia to defend against our Far Eastern neighbors."
"This is also equivalent to sending a goodwill signal to our southern neighbors. China and the Soviet Union are no longer willing to confront each other. We hope to restore the friendly relations we had before, and our neighbors who are undergoing economic reforms will also be a political force that cannot be ignored in the future. It is already difficult for us to deal with Europe and the United States. There is really no need to create a powerful enemy and bring trouble upon ourselves. Sorry, to put it bluntly, we have begun to decline. If we still want to deal with the threat from the West, we can only unite with others to deal with the bald eagle."
Yanayev's words are undoubtedly a nightmare for those who are crazy about maintaining a strong Soviet army. But Yanayev would never joke about the future of the entire country in order to satisfy a small number of military supremacists who want to defend the country. In fact, a simple large-scale armored cluster charge is already behind the times. The Gulf War brought shock and reflection to all countries. Information warfare and coordinated strikes by sea, land and air will be the main mode of future wars.
"What should we do with the large number of T72 tanks that have been disbanded? Arkhipov once complained to me that maintaining the daily maintenance of these tank armored forces is a nightmare to fill the gaps," said Varennikov.
"If we sell it abroad, the effect may not be good." Feeling that it was hopeless to prevent disarmament, Chechevatov took the initiative to show goodwill to Yanayev to avoid being laid off as well. "For well-known reasons, the poor performance of the T72 in the Gulf War has become a matter of public witness to the whole world. How could anyone be willing to buy such a bad tank? Of course, those people in the Warsaw Pact don't want to be fooled again."
"Excuse me, everyone here." Chemezov smiled slightly, "Who said we are going to sell T72 tanks? The export version we sell is the T90 tank, okay?"
"T90 tank? A new project?" No one knew what Chemezov was talking about, and some people present thought it was a new tank project developed by a design bureau.
"No, we will change the name of T72 and continue to sell it for foreign trade. Moreover, these second-hand tanks can be sold to third world countries such as Iran, India, Egypt, etc. at a low discount. If the conditions are right, it is not impossible to sell six and get one free. In addition, we will provide personnel training, daily maintenance of tanks, and export equipment parts if necessary. For countries like India, whose industrial level is not so... perfect, they can only rely on imports when they cannot produce artillery and parts by themselves. Of course, we will set up a new multinational company to sell these things."
Chemezov's military weapons delivery group can be said to have great power, after all, it was authorized by President Yanaev himself. Arms dealer Viktor Bout traveled around the world to show his talent for selling weapons, while Chemezov coordinated the overall situation and maintained close contact with the top military officials in Moscow in order to obtain more inventory.
"I want to get 500 tanks first and try to export them to the Third World at a very low discount. Oh, and those Hind attack helicopters, if possible, more than 200 of them. Of course, for every attack helicopter or T72 tank sold, 5% of the profit will be returned to the original military region as a payment for stabilizing the laid-off personnel. What do you think?"
Selling dismantled arms is tantamount to getting something for nothing, and Chemezov has no cost risk to consider.
The arms business is just like ordinary business, with a price agreed upon, a time set, and money and goods exchanged. However, the arms sales that Chemezov was in charge of were more in the gray area. Although Yanayev emphasized that the money was used to improve the lives of the people, it was not supervised by any state agency. In other words, the money was Yanayev's private property.
"I am willing to accept this condition." Since he could still make back his losses, Chechevatov of course nodded and agreed. "But what about those soldiers who are being laid off? They need to be given a job after they are no longer in the army. Otherwise, the influx of more than 400,000 unemployed people into society will have a great impact on social stability."
"Of course, we have taken all of this into consideration. Not all countries need weapons, especially when a region is at peace, arms sales become more difficult. We also need large-scale multinational corporations to maintain a balance of arms sales around the world. In short, we help an organization overthrow a government in a region and create conflicts. We then sell arms to ignite the powder keg of war, and finally pretend to be an interest coordinator to intervene in the conflict, maintain stability, and help them rebuild their homes."
Chemezov's words were despicable, but from a national strategic perspective, they were understandable. Varennikov coughed and asked, "Do you want to use this company to solve the problem of resettlement of most personnel after disarmament?"
Chemezov became more and more excited as he spoke. He supported himself on the table with both hands and smiled, "That's right. And when it comes to war, who can rival our Soviet Red Army? Moreover, the salaries of the staff are paid in US dollars. Even if they die in a foreign country, according to the international exchange rate, the compensation their families receive will be much higher than that of other domestic soldiers."
"In this case, we need weapons training personnel, contract soldiers, construction workers, etc., and we have a strong country as our backing. No small country dares to target us. In addition, the company also has the military strength to overthrow the regime of a small African country. Of course, those who intervene in the war will not intervene in the name of the country. They need another name that is less controversial."
Although Chemezov did not understand Yanaev's order that the company's paramilitary personnel were not allowed to wear camouflage uniforms and could only wear civilian clothes issued by the company, he still faithfully implemented Yanaev's instructions, including the names of those who went out on the action had already been chosen, "They are called private military contractors, not illegal mercenaries, but legal war contractors."