MOSCOW. April 19 (Interfax-AVN)- Russian Defense Ministry Sergei Ivanov said on Friday it would take a few years and significant financing from the state to transfer the armed forces to a contract basis.
"There is no doubt that it will take at least several years," Ivanov told reporters.
He stressed that the armed forces transfer to a contract bases would "require huge expenses from the state, including on development of social infrastructure."
In response to questions, Ivanov quoted the president's message to the Russian Federal Assembly on Thursday as saying that "in general, reforms for the armed forces have already been determined, including their switching to a contract basis."
"All our previous attempts at transition to professional military service have failed because they were not calculated," he said.
Ivanov announced that the Defense Ministry and other law- enforcement bodies launched experiments on switching several military units to a contract bases in 2002. "By autumn 2003 we must determine the volume of expenses and elaborate a list of require," he said.
Social security of professional servicemen will be a problem, the minister went on. "A professional serviceman will not live in a 100-bed barrack. In addition, we would like to hold competition among those willing to join the army, not recruit everybody we can find. If professional servicemen retire in a year or two, it is like trying to spoon out a sea," he noted.
Ivanov said a serious incentive was necessary to keep professional servicemen in the Armed Forces. A possibility to get a good civilian education can work as an incentive, he stressed. "It is very difficult to get enrolled in a prestigious university or academy, that is why a possibility to get a good civil education could be a good incentive for professional servicemen," he said.
Ivanov recalled the Soviet times when "a certain number of retired servicemen was enrolled" in prestigious higher educational establishments, including the Moscow State Institute of International Relations. "Such practice worked quite well," he said.