MOSCOW. June 18 (Interfax-AVN) - The Armed Forces should not be involved in political speculations, prominent lawmaker Vyacheslav Vododin said in an interview with the Trud newspaper published on Wednesday.
"Those who wanted to make the issue (of the army reform - Interfax-AVN) as politicized as possible have already done it. Let me exemplify by the recent public demands of the defense minister's resignation and the abortive collection of signatures under a petition to this effect. In fact, these are dangerous political speculations. I wound not like to see the army involved in these processes," said Volodin, who is a member of the Unified Russia party's general council and the leader of the Fatherland - All Russia faction in the State Duma lower house of parliament.
Initiatives of some political parties in the sphere of military reform have a lot to do with populism, he said.
"We have made sure once again that the transition to the professional armed forces is not only a matter of professional servicemen's salaries. At the same time, our opponents from the Union of Right-wing Forces believe that Russia will have a professional army as soon as volunteers are paid good money. This has a lot to do with populism and nothing with a real concern over the strengthening of Russia's defense capacity," Volodin noted.
According to him, the situation is much more complicated.
"Problems of transition to professional service in our Armed Forces should be dealt with as a whole. Decent payment for the labor of professional servicemen is indeed very important. At present it is fixed at about RUB6,000 (USD197.5) a month. This is complemented by an entire system of bonuses, because living conditions and the poverty line are different in various regions. If the level is 50 percent higher in Moscow than Russia's average level, then the military serving in the capital should be paid 50 percent more," Volodin said.
The poverty level is the key for determining the salary of professional servicemen. If it grows, the salaries will grow as well, the lawmaker said.
"There can be no other way," he stressed.