MOSCOW. Dec 6 (Interfax-AVN) - The term of active-duty service may be reduced in Russia after 50-60 or more percent of military units are switched to professional service, Lieutenant General Vasily Smirnov, head of the General Staff main mobilization department, said on Friday.
"When 50-60 or more percent of military units are switched to professional service, we will consider the reduction of the active-duty service term," Smirnov told reporters.
It is too early to say when this will happen, he noted.
"This will largely depend on the progress in switching units to professional service before 2007," Smirnov stressed.
According to him, a regiment of the 76th airborne division, where the experiment on transition to professional service is underway, is manned by professionals by 90 percent. "They started regular combat training on December 1 this year," Smirnov said.
The 76th division headquartered in Pskov will be filly professional by May 2003, he went on.
"This is an experiment. Solution of problems exposed during the experiment will determine further progress in the transition to professional service in the Russian Armed Forces," Smirnov said.
"I mean monetary allowance and housing problems, because this is citizens' voluntary choice, and the military profession must be prestigious. I also mean the problems of privileges, social security and legal backing of the army's transition to professional manning," he said.
All of that will be taken into account during the experiment, the general concluded.