MOSCOW. Dec 30 (Interfax-AVN) - Over RUB100m (USD3.42m) will be assigned for combat training and development and maintenance of training facilities in professional units of the Land Forces in 2004, Colonel Yakov Firsov, chief of the Land Forces press service, said on Tuesday.
"Several units of the Land Forces will start transition to professional service on January 1. That is why priority goals were discussed at the Land Forces Council session today. It was noted that over RUB100m will be assigned in 2004 for combat training and development and maintenance of training facilities in Land Forces units that will be in the process of transition to contract service," Firsov told Interfax-Military News Agency.
Army General Nikolai Kormiltsev, Land Forces commander-in- chief and deputy defense minister, Colonel General Alexander Skorodumov, chief of the Armed Forces Combat Training Directorate, and Colonel General Alexander Morozov, Land Forces chief-of-staff, addressed the session, he said.
Land Forces units stationed in the North Caucasus will be the first to switch over to professional service, Firsov went on. In particular, seven units of the 42nd motorized rifle division stationed permanently in Chechnya will become professional before the end of 2004.
"Over 6,000 people will be required to replace all active- duty servicemen of the division with contracted personnel," he said.
Professionals will be primarily recruited among active-duty privates and sergeants. Military commissioner's officers will be responsible for recruiting professionals among reserve servicemen.
"The council session stressed that each professional soldier is to take additional three-month training in the profession that he/she chooses in a training center or directly in his military unit," Firsov said.
Proposals aimed at setting up bodies responsible for work with contracted personnel in military units and military commissioner's offices will be worked out in January.
"The commander-in-chief noted that a system of personal responsibility of officials who screen applicants for professional service and train them must be set up in military control bodies. According to him, there should be no spoilage in this issue," Firsov said.
He stressed that priority attention will be paid to the selection of professionals for the positions of sergeants. "According to the commander-in-chief, they must be totally different sergeants, who will be, in fact, a reserve of junior officers," Firsov noted.