MOSCOW. Feb 6 (Interfax-AVN) - The Defense Ministry and General Staff of the Armed Forces will take extremely tough measures to prevent desertion of active-duty servicemen with arms from military units, Airborne Commander Georgy Shpak said on Wednesday.
The persons whose negligence made it possible for two servicemen of the 31st separate airborne brigade to go AWOL with arms and to murder innocent people will be severely punished, Shpak told Interfax-Military News Agency.
The commander just returned from the Ulyanovsk region, where the brigade is headquartered.
A commission of the General Staff that included officials of the Airborne Staff exposed gross shortcomings in the performance of duties by several officers of the 99th separate battalion under command of Lieutenant Colonel Gennady Kuzmin, as well as in the storage of arms and ammo in the battalion's second battery under command of Captain Dmitry Sokolov, Shpak said.
"A complex of those factors, as well as personal motives of the desertion's organizer, Junior Sergeant Almaz Shageyev, resulted in the death of 10 innocent people and injury of another two," the general stressed.
The commission will submit a written report to Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov and Chief-of-Staff Anatoly Kvashnin on Wednesday. Ivanov and Kvashnin will then decide what measures to take in relation to the incident.
"Apparently, an order will be issued to the Armed Forces analyzing causes of desertion in airborne units and in the army in general," Shpak said.
Speaking about the Airborne Troops, they were ordered to take additional measures on control over everyday life in units on the day of the two paratroopers' desertion. Control of commanders of all ranks over accomplishment of duty and 24-hour patrol missions was strengthened, the commander added.