MOSCOW (Reuters) - Once enemies divided by the Iron Curtain, Russia and NATO are now working together to prepare Russian military officers for civilian life and to convert military bases into hotels, shopping malls and airports.
Though still on a modest level the talks, which received a fresh boost from the creation of a new NATO-Russia Council in May, are the latest sign of the improving relationship between the erstwhile Cold War foes.
NATO's top economist Patrick Hardouin said in an interview Wednesday that NATO was offering advice on military re-organization, as Russia slashes its armed forces by 200,000 to 1 million by year's end.
"We have identified three main areas of discussion and cooperation -- starting with retraining personnel and converting military sites, bases. So there have been very concrete elements." Macro-economic issues and administration were the other areas selected, he added.
Projects could include redeveloping military bases into hotels, shopping malls or civilian airports, schemes which Hardouin said had worked in other large countries like Ukraine.
NATO has also offered to work with Russia on macro-economic issues such as the place of defense within the national economy, and administration of the armed forces, notably accounting, transparency and civilian control.
Relations between NATO and Russia have improved significantly since President Vladimir Putin's arrival in the Kremlin two years ago, and were transformed after the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.
"Essentially, the new reality is that we are in many ways in the same boat as the Russians, in terms of threats to our security," Hardouin said.
"So the successful transformation of the Russian armed forces is a common interest, and the development of the Russian economy is important to Western Europe and the United States."
MILITARY OVERHAUL
Hardouin, who heads NATO's economics directorate, was in Moscow for talks with senior Russian officials, including Deputy Defense Minister Lyubov Kudelina.
The first woman to hold such an influential post in a ministry traditionally dominated by men in uniform, Kudelina was brought in by Putin to throw light on the military's Byzantine finances, seen as key to reforming Russia's chronically cash-strapped armed forces.
Unusually, NATO itself is providing the $190,000 annual funding for a NATO-Russia Center for retraining officers leaving the armed forces.
The seven-strong office, run by a three-star general, Leonid Mayorov, has the job of training 100 professionals to give advice to officers quitting the armed forces on their legal rights, social entitlements and training opportunities.
The trainers will work in the Perm, Novosibirsk, Yaroslavl, Krasnodar and Moscow regions and will not be short of work.
Putin wants the military to be cut to 850,000 and to channel savings from staff reductions and greater efficiency into higher wages, as well as a gradual switch to a fully volunteer force and the scrapping of the hated conscription system.
An elite paratroop division this week began the first tentative experiment in increasing the number of volunteers, eventually to about 80 percent of the unit. If successful, this could provide a model for the rest of the armed forces.