MOSCOW. March 13 (Interfax-AVN) - The number of young men called up for military service this spring will not be increased, deputy chief of staff of the Russian Armed Forces Colonel General Vasily Smirnov has said.
"The Defense Ministry proposals on the size of the military draft for spring 2007, which will see conscripts called up for 18 months for the first time, are comparable to the figures for last autumn and stand at about 130,000 persons," he told a Tuesday briefing in Moscow.
Smirnov said there is currently no need to increase the number of conscripts. "As conscripts will start serving for periods of 12 months only starting from January 2008, we see no need to increase the draft," he said.
He said the springtime draft is being planned. "Documents have been drafted for reporting to the Cabinet and the president with figures concerning agencies in which military service is defined by law," he said.