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Putin Confirms Military Reforms Needed
April 18, 2002
By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV

MOSCOW (AP) - President Vladimir Putin on Thursday reaffirmed his pledge to gradually transform the underfunded Russian military from a conscript to an all-volunteer force but said it was not clear how long the reform would take.

``The transfer to a professional army, along with a reduction of the length of conscript service, is a clear priority,'' Putin said in his state of the nation address. But, he added, ``the reduction of conscript service cannot be accomplished in one year.''

Putin has ordered the military to trim its ranks and draw up a plan for phasing out the draft, but top military officials want to preserve the bulky Soviet-era military structure and have been slow to work out specific guidelines.

Col.-Gen. Vladislav Putilin, the Defense Ministry's top mobilization official, said Thursday the military must switch Russia's air force, air defense, navy, missile forces, special forces and permanent readiness units of the ground forces to full volunteer staffing by 2010.

The transition will cost $5.7 billion with the minimum monthly wage of a contract soldier $177, Putilin said, according to the Interfax-Military News Agency.

Putilin said the military must speed up the transfer to a professional army because the nation's poor demographic and health situation will cause the number of conscripts to drop by half after 2005.

Putin said in his Kremlin speech Thursday that the military would make some units fully professional this year as a pilot project.

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