MOSCOW. April 15 (Interfax-AVN) - Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said that Russia's permanent readiness units will have been staffed with contract servicemen by 2007. The process will begin in 2004, he said.
"Permanent readiness units - ground troops, paratroopers and marines, that is, those units that should be ready to fulfil any task at any moment, will be staffed with contract servicemen in 2004-2007," Ivanov said while meeting with the leaders of centrist factions in Moscow on Tuesday.
The Defense Ministry has practically completed work on the draft of the federal program for staffing the army with contract servicemen, Ivanov said. "The government will discuss the main elements of this program on April 24," he said.
"The federal program will be submitted to the government before June 1. Simultaneously, a draft version of the federal law "On Changes and Amendments to Individual Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation" will be submitted to the government," Ivanov said.