#8
Putin OK's plan to cancel conscription

MOSCOW, Nov. 21 (UPI) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin marked the beginning of a new stage in Russia's military overhaul he endorsed Wednesday the government's plan to gradually abolish conscription and create a professional army.

Putin's spokesman Alexei Gromov said the decision was taken during the president's meeting with Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov in the Kremlin.

Gromov failed to specify the time frame of the proposed measure, but Interfax news agency on Wednesday quoted sources in the Russian government as saying the gradual switch to professional army would take "at least 10 years."

According to the government plan, the sources added, a number of army units will undergo an experiment in the foreseeable future that will help determine the chief parameters of the effectiveness of the switch.

Under the experiment, these units will be fully staffed by the servicemen hired on contracts.

Each year, the number of such units will be increasing, at the same time reducing the number of conscripted servicemen.

Today, around 100,000 soldiers serve on a contract basis and the figures keep rising steadily.

The endorsed plan is part of the reform proposed last November by Russia's influential Security Council.

The reform also provides for substantial troop cutbacks that aim to reduce the number of servicemen from the current 1.2 million to 850,000 by 2005.

Additionally, the reform will also include purchases of new weaponry, a bigger role for Russia's conventional forces, better training and application of more modern military technologies.

Currently, young Russian men aged 18 to 27 are obliged to complete a compulsory, two-year service in the army.

The draft is largely dodged as many conscripts fear abuse by older servicemen, bad living conditions and scarce food.

Moreover, most of them are frightened of being drafted, trained and then sent to fight in breakaway Chechnya.

The Chief of the Russian army's General Staff, Col. Gen. Anatoly Kvashnin, said Wednesday, "Russia is not completely rejecting the conscription."

However, said the general, "Contract servicemen should serve in the 'hot spots'," referring to the flashpoints of armed conflicts such as Chechnya or other areas of the former Soviet Union where separatist wars were fought during the 1990s.

In order to execute the change, Kvashnin added, Russia would need to have a "sufficient social base, (ability to pay) sufficient salaries that would make the contractual service attractive."

Kvashnin spoke in Brussels where he was participating in the work of the Russia-NATO joint standing military committee.

A major advocate of the army turning professional, Russia's liberal Union of Rightist Forces, or SPS, welcomed the news from the Kremlin.

Party Chairman Boris Nemtsov called Putin's decision "extremely important" and added that the switch to professional army "is a fundamental part of the SPS' program of a military reform."

Besides this, SPS also pushes for a reduction of the military service to six months.

According to the plan, a soldier completing six months of compulsory training would have a choice to quit and be listed in the army reserve or opt to sign a contract and continue serving for a salary.

This week, Moscow's independent Ekho Moskvy radio conducted a poll asking listeners whether they approved of the concept of the military reform proposed by SPS.

Among the 2,480 respondents who called during a 5-minute phone in session, 84 percent supported the plan, while the remaining 16 percent were against it.

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