#11
Russia having trouble recruiting for new professional army: general

MOSCOW, Nov 28 (AFP) - Russia's attempt at converting its ailing armed forces into a modernized professional force is progressing slowly, the country's airborne troop commander said Thursday.

"The process is advancing slowly," Georgy Shpak was quoted by ITAR-TASS as saying. "The biggest problem is recruiting sergeants and soldiers."

President Vladimir Putin has made modernizing Russia's chronically underfunded armed forces one of his main projects, despite resistance from an old guard fearful of restructuring.

In September, Shpak's 76th parachute division, based in the northwestern town of Pskov, launched a program to recruit 3,000 soldiers by next summer.

Recruiting is difficult because of "low salaries, poor social benefits, and the lack of incentives to prolong one's service, particularly for their families," Shpak said.

Shpak also lamented the soldiers' living conditions, saying that soldiers and non-commissioned officers (NCOs) who just signed up to serve the 104th regiment "essentially live in dormitories housing 80 to 100 men."

The army recently built new housing for Pskov-based soldiers, but the division's officers do not have access to the dorms, which should house two to three soldiers to a room, Shpak said.

Last week, Russia admitted that Putin's plan to do away with conscription would be too expensive to carry by the end of the decade, as the Russian leader had originally promised.

Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov instead presented a proposal to set up a small but fully professional force as the backbone of the country's defenses by 2007 while leaving the highly unpopular conscription process almost completely intact.

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