Only 7 of 10

Nezavisimoye voyennoye obozreniye published its (Viktor Myasnikov’s) list of the 10 main military events of 2013 on Friday.

Number 7 is “RF Ministry of Defense:  Working on Mistakes.”  Myasnikov describes its importance this way:

“The RF Ministry of Defense leadership headed by Sergey Shoygu reestablished the combat readiness of the Armed Force in the course of 2013.  Active construction, modernization and repair of military towns, bases, airfields, including in the Arctic zone, is on-going.  A number of orders of the previous RF MOD leadership [Serdyukov] were cancelled.  The most important innovation was the conduct of surprise inspections, which transformed into large-scale military exercises.  All services and troop branches take part in them in coordination with other power structures — MVD, including Internal Troops, FSB, MChS, local government organs.  In the course of the inspections, combat training deficiencies are revealed, and coordination of actions is developed, raising the level of combat readiness.”

The complete list reads:

1. The War in Syria
2. Mali:  Operation “Serval”
3. Threat of Nuclear War on the Korean Peninsula
4. The “Snowden Affair”
5. The Elimination of Syria’s Chemical Weapons
6. Agreement with Iran
7. RF Ministry of Defense:  Working on Mistakes
8. Boston Marathon Explosions
9. Civil War in Southern Sudan
10. Civil War in CAR [Central African Republic]

Still expect to see more “story of the year” lists for comparison with NVO’s.