MOSCOW. July 29 (Interfax-AVN) - The Defense Ministry believes that about RUB14.9bn (USD492.32m) will be required from the state budget to increase combat readiness of the units that are being switched over to professional service.
"Combat readiness improvement in the units that are being switched over to the contract manning pattern will cost about RUB14.9bn," Lieutenant General Viktor Storonin, head of the Defense Ministry's department for military economic analysis and expert examinations, told Interfax-Military News Agency on Tuesday.
This sphere is a priority in the implementation of the program of transition to professional service, he stressed.
"Recruitment of a professional is not the program's goal. If a person puts on a white coat, it does not mean that he becomes a doctor. The goal of the reform is to increase combat efficiency of permanent-readiness units," Storonin noted.
"It has become absolutely obvious that the combat training system and approaches to a serviceman's education must be changed as soon as possible. The issues will be tackled in the framework of the program," he said.
"I would like to refute the myth that has been widely circulated in the press by opponents of the military reform: they claim that the new program is worked out by generals and does not take interests of rank-and-file servicemen into account. This is a blatant lie. The program is a result of serious and hard work of a large and professional team that included officials of all law-enforcement ministries and departments, as well as experts of the Economic Development Ministry and Finance Ministry," Storonin said.
He recalled that various institutes of the Russian Academy of Sciences, public and research organizations were involved in drafting the program. "By the way, estimation of expenses on the program, which is the most widely criticized aspect, was done in accordance with the methods worked out by a St. Petersburg-based institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and there are no grounds to accuse generals of miscalculation or overestimating the required expenses," he said.
Storonin said that the draft program estimated the expenses for its implementation at RUB139bn (USD4.59bn). However, the version that was eventually passed reduced the sum to RUB79.1bn (USD2.61bn).
"The thing is that the expenses initially submitted for the government's consideration were calculated with absolute precision. However, having considered the program, the government decided to reassign some of the expenses to other programs," he said.
Storonin said he referred to the service housing construction program, 10-year-long state armament program, and some other programs that have already been launched or will be launched within the next few years. Some of the expenses that the interdepartmental working group considered necessary for the transition were reassigned to other programs together with the funds allocated to cover them.
"This does not mean that we abandoned the plans contained in the initial version of our program. We will implement them in the framework of other programs," Storonin concluded.