MOSCOW. Aug 6 (Interfax-AVN) - Over 200 officers and warrant officers from Russia who have served in Tajikistan for two years will be replaced in the framework of an upcoming rotation in the 201st motorized rifle division that is under command of Colonel Yuri Perminov and headquartered in Dushanbe, a competent source in the Russian Defense Ministry said on Tuesday.
The rotation will start in the first half of August and end in late September, the spokesman told Interfax-Military News Agency.
"A total of 200 officers and warrant officers whose two-year tem of service in Tajikistan has expired will be replaced in the framework of the rotation. Several officers and warrant officers agreed to join the 42nd motorized rifle division that is permanently stationed in Chechnya or other units of the 58th joint- arms army located in the North Caucasus, but most of the officers and warrant officers said they were willing to serve in the Moscow, Leningrad or Volga-Ural military districts," the spokesman said.
Servicemen of the 201st division are replaced in accordance with a directive of the Russian armed forces chief-of-staff and defense minister issued in 1993. A planned rotation takes place every two years, the latest event of that kind was held in 2000.