#14
Kommersant
April 10, 2003
RUSSIAN ARMY HALVED
An update on the Russian Armed Forces
Author: Interfax - Military News Agency
[from WPS Monitoring Agency, www.wps.ru/e_index.html]

THE TROOP STRENGTH OF THE RUSSIAN ARMED FORCES HAS BEEN MORE THAN HALVED OVER THE LAST ELEVEN YEARS, FROM 2.88 MILLION TO 1.162 MILLION. OVER HALF OF MILITARY PERSONNEL ARE CONSCRIPTS, BUT THERE ARE ALMOST 130,000 CONTRACT SOLDIERS AND SERGEANTS IN THE ARMED FORCES NOWADAYS.

The troop strength of the Russian Armed Forces has been more than halved over the last eleven years.

Lieutenant General Vasily Smirnov, Chief of the Main Directorate of Organization and Mobilization with the General Staff, told Echo of Moscow radio yesterday: "The current troop strength of the Russian Armed Forces is 1.162 million, compared to 2.88 million in 1992. Optimization has more than halved the armed forces." According to Smirnov, over half of military personnel are conscripts (soldiers and sergeants). "We plan to call up over 175,000 young men aged 18-27," Smirnov said. "This amounts to only 10% of all draft-age citizens of the Russian Federation. All the rest have deferments under existing legislation, or are not liable to be drafted at all."

According to Smirnov, there are almost 130,000 contract soldiers and sergeants in the Armed Forces nowadays, with the figure set to expand. "The federal program of transition to service by contract, which we are now working on, stipulates that conscripts will not be assigned to hot-spots," Smirnov explained, adding that 1 million personnel was the necessary minimum. "After all, we should bear in mind the real threats to national security." Defense Ministry doesn't fear alternative civilian service

Between 3,000 and 20,000 young men may be assigned to alternative civilian service in 2004, said a source in the Defense Ministry. "The law on alternative civilian service comes into effect on January 1. We do not anticipate a dramatic rise in the numbers of those who will apply for alternative civilian service. We have consulted specialists, whose estimates varied between 3,000 and 20,000," the source said. "We do not doubt that the majority of conscripts will prefer two years in the Army and Navy. The alternative civilian service requires three- and-a-half years, under the law..."

BACK TO THE TOP    #252 CONTENTS    NEXT ARTICLE