WASHINGTON, June 9 (UPI) -- Russia's defense minister and the nation's new armed forces chief of staff want to dramatically improve the living conditions of Russian servicemen to fulfill a vital policy plank for Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov last week rocked Russia's traditionally set-in-its-ways and monolithic defense establishment by squeezing out veteran Armed Forces Chief of Army Gen. Yury Baluyevsky -- who officially "resigned" -- and replacing him with fellow four-star Army Gen. Nikolai Makarov.

Makarov is another highly respected commander, but he is also into "soft" social issues in the military such as educating soldiers in ways that Baluyevsky and his allies in the Russian defense establishment were not.

Current Prime Minister and former President Vladimir Putin, on the very day he took over as premier, pledged as one of his priority policy goals to improve the living standards of Russian servicemen and their families.

Financial resources, the usual bugbear of military establishments when they are fighting for better conditions for their troops, are not the problem. Russia is awash in oil and gas money. As respected Russian military analyst Pavel Felgenhauer noted in an analysis for the Jamestown Foundation in Washington last week, "Under Putin, the defense budget has multiplied as petrodollars have poured into the country. In 2000 it was $6 billion; this year it has been approved at $42 billion and may increase to $50 billion by year's end."