MOSCOW. Dec 27 (Interfax-AVN) - Russia will stick to the mixed pattern of manning its Armed Forces and other military formations in the next few years, Andrei Nikolayev, defense committee chairman in the State Duma lower house of Russian parliament, said on Friday.
"We cannot speak about complete transition to professional service at the moment. The work we have done has brought no positive results. According to data provided to the State Duma by the General Staff of the Armed Forces, the number of professional privates and sergeants in the Armed Forces declined by 15,000 persons in 2001 and by another 5,000 persons in the first nine months of this year," Nikolayev told Interfax-Military News Agency.
The Defense Ministry wants the transition to professional service to go alongside with preservation of conscription, he said.
"This position is shared by other federal executive bodies where military service is authorized by law. All of them are planning a gradual increase in the share of professional service with obligatory adjustment of the terms and scale of reforms to the state's economic capabilities," Nikolayev said.
Many lawmakers share this position as well, he noted.
"The Duma defense committee fully supports the stance of the country's president and government that boils down to extending the transition to a new manning system over several years," the committee chairman said.
The arms of service and military branches where the share of professionals is already high should be the first to adopt fully professional service. Among them are the Space Forces, the Strategic Missile Forces, and the nuclear submarine fleet, Nikolayev added.