#14
Vremya MN
January 30, 2003
WHERE CAN RUSSIA FIND CONTRACT SERVICEMEN?
The military reforms may be stalled by a shortage of personnel
Author: Viktor Myasnikov
[from WPS Monitoring Agency, www.wps.ru/e_index.html]

DESPITE SKEPTICISM, THE DEFENSE MINISTRY IS PRESSING ON WITH THE TRANSITION FROM CONSRIPTION TO SERVICE BY CONTRACT. HOWEVER, THE NUMBER OF CONTRACT PERSONNEL IN THE ARMED FORCES HAS ACTUALLY FALLEN OVER THE PAST TWO YEARS. ONE MAJOR PROBLEM IS LOW SALARY LEVELS.

The military reforms should be integrated and broad-ranging. So far, they have been restricted to sweeping cuts and amalgamations of the branches of service. The public has its own ideas on the military reforms, and these ideas do not venture beyond service by contract. For some reasons, politicians and taxpayers are convinced that citizens of the Russian Federation are eager to sign up. In consequence, they blame the generals for a reluctance to accept volunteers. The experiment with transition of the Pskov Airborne Division to service by contract is generally viewed as an act of sabotage aimed at inflating expenses out of proportion and thus discredit the idea as such.

Generals cannot be trusted, that much is clear. Only facts are to be trusted. And the facts are as follows. Supreme Commander-in-Chief and President Vladimir Putin outlined the task last December: the important units - space forces, missile forces, nuclear-powered submarines and surface warships, Airborne Troops, and special forces - should receive priority in recruitment. Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov recently described preparations for transferring part of the Armed Forces to service by contract as a priority for 2003. A draft federal program for transition to staffing the troops mostly with contract servicemen is expected from the Defense Ministry by June 1.

Airborne Troops Commander-in-Chief Colonel General Georgy Shpak gave the order to transfer the Stavropol Assault Regiment to service by contract by the end of the year (the unit has all necessary facilities including a decent canteen and hostels with rooms for four). The 42nd Motorized Infantry Division stationed in Chechnya is to be staffed with contract servicemen by the middle of the year. The same is expected of the Internal Troops brigade stationed in Chechnya and the majority of special forces of the Airborne Troops. On the other hand, all these units do include a lot of contract servicemen already. The Federal Border Guards Service is the leader in this respect. According to its Director Colonel General Konstantin Totsky, 44% of its personnel are contract servicemen already.

All submarines of the Northern Fleet, nuclear and diesel submarines, will be manned with professionals by January 1, 2004. It takes a year to train an enlisted man for service on a submarine, and service by contract is to be restricted to a single fleet for the time being. Volunteers from the Baltic Fleet are supposed to move north.

The Russian Armed Forces have 1,162,000 military personnel and 860,000 civilian staff. Servicemen by contract number just over 100,000. Unfortunately, their numbers have been in decline even despite the Pskov experiment, falling by 20,000 contract servicemen in the last two years. Low salaries are the main problem. Economic growth in Russia is making civilian jobs more attractive. Two-thirds of contract servicemen nowadays are former conscripts who signed up in the hope of spending the next two years in more comfort. No one can say what they will do when their contracts are up. No one can say whether contracts will be terminated when units staffed with contract servicemen are assigned to hotspots. The military reforms may be stalled by a shortage of personnel...

(Translated by A. Ignatkin)

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