section_path: History/1991–2000
section_name: 1991–2000
paragraph_text: 1991–2000
  
  In 1993 and 1994 Deynekin announced that a Frontal Aviation Command (Moscow, under General-lieutenant of Aviation Nikolay Antoshkin) and a Reserves and Cadres Training Command (Samara, under Colonel-General Leonid Stepanyuk) were to be established. But little more was heard of these commands.
  
  During the 1990s, the financial stringency was felt throughout the armed forces made its mark on the VVS as well. Pilots and other personnel could sometimes not get their wages for months, and on occasion resorted to desperate measures: four MiG-31 pilots at Yelizovo in the Far East went on hunger strike in 1996 to demand back pay which was several months overdue, and the problem was only resolved by diverting unit money intended for other tasks. As a result of the cutbacks, infrastructure became degraded as well, and in 1998, 40% of military airfields needed repair.
  
  The former Soviet Air Defence Forces remained independent for several years under Russian control, only merging with the Air Forces in 1998. The decree merging the two forces was issued by President Boris Yeltsin on 16 July 1997. During 1998 altogether 580 units and formations were disbanded, 134 reorganised, and over 600 were given a new jurisdiction.
  
  There were initially four such armies with headquarters in St.Petersburg (Leningrad Military District), Rostov-on-Don (North Caucasus Military District), Khabarovsk (Far East Military District), and Chita (Siberian Military District). Two military districts had separate Air and Air Defence Corps. When the Transbaikal Military District and Siberian Military District were merged, the 14th Air and Air Defence Forces Army was formed to serve as the air force formation in the area.
  
  The number of servicemen in the Air Force was reduced to about 185,000 from the former combined number of 318,000. 123,500 positions were abolished, including almost 1,000 colonel positions. The resignation of 3000 other servicemen included 46 generals of which 15 were colonel generals. On 29 December 1998 Colonel General Anatoly Kornukov, a former Air Defence Forces officer and new commander-in-chief of the merged force succeeding Deynekin, reported to the Russian defense minister that the task had 'in principle been achieved'. General Kornukov established the new headquarters of the force in Zarya, near Balashikha, 20 km east of the center of Moscow, in the former PVO central command post, where the CIS common air defense system is directed from.