From the speech of Colonel-General Valery MANILOV, First Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces

Today, we all have the same goal and main task: to ensure that our country overcomes the crisis, enters the path of revival, and then flourishes, so that it enjoys the authority worthy of a great power in the international arena. A necessary component of such authority is military power, respected and powerful Armed Forces that can, as they say, cool down any hot head.

So we have only one vector of application of forces: the interests of the Fatherland, which we serve.

In this regard, we must first of all strive to ensure that a unified system of information support for military reform is developed and improved in the Armed Forces during their active transformation, and then in the entire military organization. Unified - in the sense of unity of principles, goals, unity of understanding of the tasks that it faces, and unity of overall results.

Why is this especially important now?

First of all, because an unprecedented information expansion has been launched against the Armed Forces. Its sharp edge is aimed at our basic moral values and guidelines, especially those that have always been one of the strongest sides of the Russian Army and the Russian army: camaraderie, combat brotherhood, collectivism. This work is carried out through a variety of information channels, not only through the media. It is veiled, and often carefully disguised, but it always means replacing the collectivist principle, the collectivist life position with an atomic, individualistic one, forming a disregard for the past, for the traditions of heroism, selflessness, dignity and honor, devaluing respect for military service and military duty.

In terms of information, our overriding task is to stop this process by all means, including those inherent in the military press, to overcome the crisis of public consciousness, returning it to the bosom of true values created by many, many generations of defenders of our Fatherland.

Unfortunately, for various reasons, the military media is very much inferior to civilian publications and electronic media. Both in appearance and in the sense of using modern telecommunications and information technologies. We must eliminate this gap as soon as possible. How? The main headache is weak funding. But there are ways to solve this problem. Here we can fully count on extra-budgetary funds, which should be found, of course, within the framework of laws, to help those who care about the fate of the state and its Armed Forces.

As for the central body of the Ministry of Defense - the newspaper "Krasnaya Zvezda", district newspapers - here, first of all, it is necessary to talk about improving the professionalism of military journalists. The catchiness of headings, their topicality, the quality of materials published under these headings, the content of publications that can not only attract attention, but also skillfully bring and consolidate the main idea of a journalistic work in the reader's mind, an idea based on the age - old moral values of the Russian Army-these are the vectors of true professionalism of a military journalist.

All this is extrapolated to our software installation, which is reflected in all the fundamental documents of the Ministry of Defense. We are talking about preserving and strengthening the officer corps, which today we are simply losing. All our reforms, all our efforts in the field of military construction will be meaningless if officers are dismissed and the morale of the troops decreases. If there are no officers-commanders and other specialists who are called upon to ensure the continuity of the cause of serving the Fatherland, prepare people to perform combat tasks, preserve and develop the best traditions of the Russian army, organize the practical performance of military duty by personnel, there will be neither modern Armed Forces, nor a prosperous, sovereign, powerful Russia.

Today it is clear that all our work should be focused precisely on reviving the authority, respect, and self-esteem of the officer corps as a whole and of each officer in particular as a statesman who devoted his life to a difficult, often thankless, but extremely necessary profession for both the people and the state. This is the first task of all military media and those who write on the army topic in other publications.

The next most important area on which we should focus our efforts is to raise the prestige of the soldier, the military man, and the military service. Peter I at one time emphasized that "soldier" is a common name, famous, since "soldier" is both the first general and the last private. Therefore, when we talk about respect for the soldier, we mean the revival of respect for military service as such. This task, of course, is not an easy one. The former positions are lost here, as well as the special respect for a person in a military uniform. And the role of military media in solving this problem at the national level is not just great. It is dominant.

The next socially significant cross-section is our "rear": mothers, sisters and wives of military personnel. We somehow began to forget about the great role of our glorious military friends, who, together with their husbands, stoically endure all the hardships and hardships of military service, often losing their professions, even their health. They are our mainstay in the most difficult days. Publications about their role in ensuring the normal service of our soldiers, sergeants, warrant officers and officers should also be regular, and not just on the day of March 8. Especially during this difficult period for the Armed Forces.

The leadership of the Ministry of Defense and the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation attaches great importance to the work of those who, I will not be afraid of this word, are fighting not just at the front , but at the forefront of the information struggle, are its subject and carrier of information weapons, solving with its help the tasks that life The struggle for dominance in the information sphere is now more acute than ever. In addition, it is necessary to realize that the means of information influence are reaching the highest level today, being able to influence public consciousness, the moral and psychological climate, state management systems, military control systems, and weapons control systems.

This should be taken into account in their work by all those who work in the military media that develop military issues, remembering that the share of means, methods and forms, including specific ones, of information warfare is constantly increasing. And the souls and hearts of our soldiers and officers are, as the poet figuratively said, the very "heights that cannot be given away".

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