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Russia to press on with professionalising army: Putin

MOSCOW, Dec 19 (AFP) - Russia will press on with introducing fully professional units into its armed forces, in Chechnya as well as in the rest of the country, President Vladimir Putin told Russian television Thursday.

"The second stage of the transition to a professional army will be implemented in the 42nd division in Chechnya and in an interior ministry brigade" also serving in the breakaway republic, Putin said during a live phone-in question-and-answer session on national television.

"I think the task will be completed by the spring or the summer of 2004," he said, adding that the army's special forces in the breakaway republic already had 80 percent of contract soldiers.

Putin also announced a raise in military wages of around 20 percent next year, starting with an 11 percent raise in March 2003.

"Considering that inflation should rise by 12 percent next year, the wage raise in real terms is not bad," he said.

Next year's budget will also for the first time include specific credits for building housing for the military, Putin added.

Russian forces are massively deployed in Chechnya to put down a separatist insurgency.

The Russian military took its first steps towards creating a professional army in the northwestern city of Pskov in September, creating a professional parachute division, although a senior officer said last month that the experiment was being hampered by financial shortages.

Airborne troop commander Georgy Shpak said last month that recruiting was difficult because of "low salaries, poor social benefits, and the lack of incentives to extend military service, particularly for their families."

Monthly wages for professional soldiers usually do not exceed 125 dollars (euros).

Last month military officials said that Putin's plan to do away with conscription would be too expensive to carry by the end of the decade, as he had originally pledged.

Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov 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.

There are currently some 1.1 million men and women in the Russian armed forces.

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