MOSCOW. Feb 8 (Interfax-AVN) - The General Staff of the Armed Forces is not satisfied with the situation when only 12 percent of Russian citizens liable for military service are actually recruited for active-duty service.
The upcoming law on alternative civil service is expected to improve the situation, Lieutenant General Vasily Smirnov, deputy head of the General Staff main mobilization department, told Interfax-Military News Agency on Friday.
The Defense Ministry believes that the law must contain the following provisions: a person gets the right for alternative service if he provides proof of his convictions running contrary to military service, the alternative service is twice longer than the military service, and the person how opts for alternative service will be sent to a different region of the country to undergo it.
"Taking into account the labor inputs of an active duty serviceman an a citizen undergoing alternative service, we came to the conclusion that the alternative service must last five years. However we decided to fix the term at four years," Smirnov said.
The positions to be filled with persons opting for alternative service will be listed in a separate resolution of the Russian government. "The army will find jobs for alternative servicemen, too, they can work at medical or rear facilities or in military state farms," Smirnov said.
The persons undergoing alternative service will be separated from recruits. They will live in separate facilities, the general said.
The Defense Ministry supports adoption of the bill on alternative civil service that is being elaborated jointly by "an enormous number of governing institutions, including the Justice Ministry, Finance Ministry, state legal department under the Russian president and the Defense Ministry itself," Smirnov said.
"We support the bill that goes in line with interests of Russia and its citizens," he concluded.