KHANKALA, September 1 (AVN) - The Defence Ministry main personnel department is considering 20 servicemen of the unified federal group in the North Caucasus put forward to the title of Heroes of Russia, a source in the group's headquarters told the Military News Agency.
The officers of the regular army units have openly protested against the ministry for not awarding the servicemen put for awards for courage displayed in the Chechnya campaign and for changing the awards for other ones. Moscow decided to award 30 servicemen that were put forward to the title of the Hero of Russia by the unified federal command with Orders of Courage.
According to the data of the group's awarding department, a total of 131 soldiers and officers were conferred the title of the Hero of Russia during anti-guerrilla operation in Chechnya. 69 of them received the title posthumously.
Most recently the title was conferred upon Captain Mikhail Churkin, Sergeant Dmitri Shektayev from the Ural military district and Lieutenant Pyotr Zakharov from the Moscow military district. All three of them posthumously.
At present the ministry and the RF president's commission for state awards are considering the candidatures of 35 soldiers and officers of the group put forward to the awards. The number includes Lieutenant-General Sergei Makarov, former commander of the eastern federal group, who is now the commander of the 22nd Voronezh combined army.