MOSCOW. Oct 16 (Interfax-AVN) - About 375,000 officers have retired early from the Russian Armed Forces in the past decade, a competent source in the Defense Ministry told Interfax-Military News Agency on Thursday.
"About 500,000 officers have quit the Russian army in the past decade, and 75 percent of them retired early," the source said.
Young men aged under 30 account for a fair share of officers who retire before their due term in service expires, he stressed.
"Mass refusal of officers to renew the first contract after five years in service made the Russian government to extend the validity term of the document. Future officers are now suggested a contract for 10 years, not for five. But these measures will hardly be sufficient to stop the flood of officers who retire early," the source noted.
According to him, another inefficient measure is reactivation of a sub-clause in the law "Concerning Veterans" which entitles veterans of military service to beneficial subsidies for acquiring and building apartments and private houses and arranging backyards and farms.
"Moreover, some measures that have lately been taken by the government will further boost the drain of officers from the army," the source said. In particular, the government suggests depriving the servicemen who serve in trouble spots the right to free sanatorium treatment and compensations for it through amending the law "Concerning Additional Guarantees and Compensations for Servicemen who Serve on the Territories of Transcaucasia, the Baltic States and Tajikistan and Accomplish Missions under the State of Emergency and in Armed Conflicts."
"Officers are not getting more optimistic after analyzing an article of the draft budget for 2004 that allocates funds for law- enforcement agencies reform," the source said.
Allocations for the Military Reform section in the budget will be reduced by more than 50 percent as compared to those of 2003 if the draft budget is passed, he noted. This year, the allocations amount to about RUB15.8bn (USD524.74m), but next year, the figure will drop to RUB7.2bn (USD239.12m). The Defense Ministry will get the lion's share of the funds amounting to RUB6.37m (USD211.42m), he said.
"The article was used for funding the implementation of the State Housing Certificates program, for paying the severance pays to retiring soldiers and for reimbursing servicemen for trips to permanent service areas," the source stressed.
"As an argument, Russian government officials claim that the reduction in spending is caused by a decline in the number of events related to law-enforcement agencies reform," he added.