MOSCOW. Nov 13 (Interfax-AVN) - There will be no warrant officers in the Russian Armed Forces, General Staff Chairman Gen. Nikolai Makarov said on Thursday in comments on the State Duma in-camera defense hearing.
"The institution of warrant officers will be abolished within several years," Makarov said in reply to an Interfax-AVN question.
In his words, the abolition process will be gradual.
"No one is going to dismiss them immediately," he said.
"The institution of warrant officers will cease to exist only when it is replaced by the institution of contract sergeants," Makarov said.
There are about 140,000 warrant officers in the Russian Armed Forces at present, he said.