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Russian deputy minister explains how NATO is helping with military reform
ITAR-TASS

Rome, 10 October, ITAR-TASS correspondent Aleksey Bukalov: The experience of NATO countries is needed for the reform of the Russian armed forces, according to Russian Deputy Defence Minister Lyubov Kudelina, who heads the Russian delegation to the NATO-Russia conference on military reform in Rome.

"Cooperation with our NATO partners acquires especial importance in the context of military reform in Russia," she told ITAR-TASS today.

Kudelina considers retraining of service personnel discharged from the army and their acquisition of civilian skills to be important prerequisites of the success of the reforms. She said that a joint Russia-NATO programme to tackle this is already being implemented. NATO experts have helped set up a training centre on the basis of the Moscow state university of economics, statistics and information technology, where courses and seminars on social adaptation are being held. Similar centres will be set up in other regions too.

Kudelina stressed that new approaches had been taken into account in the Russian federal budget, in particular, provision of housing in the form of state housing certificates for those discharged into the reserve has been envisaged.

Kudelina said "the conversion of the defence industry, the creation of new areas for weapons storage, environmental safety, material provision for taking arms off alert status, transporting and recycling them, and introducing a system of civilian monitoring of the use of armed forces' financial resources" were important components of military reform.

Kudelina drew especial attention to future recruitment on a contractual basis. However, she stressed that "voluntary entry will not be the only way of making up the army and navy". It is planned to reduce the conscription term. And the size of spending necessary for these innovations is currently being determined, Kudelina said.

In this regard she noted the importance of the experiment currently under way at the Airborne Troops base near Pskov. However, according to Kudelina, "there is too much speculation by the press and politicians on the subject of that experiment, maybe because of the forthcoming parliamentary election in Russia".

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