MOSCOW. April 18 (Interfax-AVN) - Three commissions of the Russian Defense Ministry are checking the arrangement of the spring conscription campaign, Major General Vladimir Konstantinov, head of the manning department in the General Staff Mobilization Directorate, said on Wednesday.
"The Defense Ministry and General Staff have been engaged in round-the-clock monitoring of the spring conscription campaign since April 1. The duration of active-duty service is 1.5 years at the moment. The Defense Ministry has set up three permanent commissions for this purpose, and they control all stages of preparations for and arrangement of the current conscription campaign," Konstantinov told Interfax-AVN.
Two commissions of the General Staff are working in the east and the west of the country to monitor all issues related to readiness of military commissioner's offices for accepting conscripts, he went on.
"The commissions supervised by Lieutenant General Sergei Pribytkov and Major General Ivan Borodinchik are working in the Moscow and Far Eastern military districts. They check readiness of military commandant's offices, assembly points, acceptance and transit points at airfields for accepting conscripts and dispatching them to military units," he said.
According to Konstantinov, first teams of conscripts will start leaving for military units on Friday.
"The teams have been set up, and their departure will begin on April 20. Conscripts will join the presidential regiment of the Federal Bodyguard Service, special-purpose units of the Armed Forces, and other special-purpose forces. Mass dispatch of conscripts for the army and navy will begin after May 10," the general stressed.
He noted that civil control over the conscription campaign has been tightened as well.
"This spring, the work of draft boards of all levels for the first time involves representatives of parent committees recently set up in the army. In addition, civil control over active-duty service conditions is already exercised by the Public Council under the Defense Ministry," he said.
Konstantinov stressed that all conscripts will still get military uniforms at assembly points. "Conscripts and their parents will be notified on the exact locations of future service," he said.
The general recalled that the spring conscription campaign takes place from April 1 to June 30 under a presidential degree. Its goal is to draft 135,500 people to the Armed Forces and other law-enforcement agencies.