MOSCOW. July 25 (Interfax-AVN) - The Russian army can be switched over to professional service within two years if its personnel is reduced to 800,000 people, Alexei Arbatov, deputy chairman of the defense committee in the State Duma lower house of parliament, said on Friday.
"The Yabloko party has its own views on the army reform. We believe that the entire army can be switched over to professional service for RUB60bn (USD1.98m) if its personnel is reduced to about 800,000 servicemen. The process will require only two years," Arbatov told Interfax-Military News Agency.
The current personnel of the Russian Armed Forces numbers 1.2 million people.
According to the lawmaker, the federal program of transition to professional service that has recently been approved by the Russian authorities is much cry and little wool.
"The Russian army has 110,000 professional servicemen at the moment. They amount to about 20 percent of the privates and sergeants in service with the Armed Forces. Under the program, the number will grow to 146,000 in four years, which will amount to about 25 percent of the privates and sergeants. At present professional privates and sergeants mostly hold non-combat positions, I mean those not related to combat operations and combat duty. But spending RUB80bn (USD2.64m) just on a slight increase in the number of professionals and their transition to combat positions is too much. This does not change anything and is, in fact, a profanation, not a military reform," Arbatov said.
The same amount of money could help to solve another real problem, for instance, "to provide housing to all officers," the lawmaker said.