MOSCOW. March 30 (Interfax-AVN) - Alexei Arbatov, former deputy chairman of the State Duma Defense Committee and now member of the Foreign and Military Police Council has said that a professional corps of sergeants is the key to the modernization of the Russian army.
"We think that to create a full-fledged corps of sergeants, whatever humble this task might seem, is the key to the modernization of the Armed Forces and other armed formations at this stage of military development," Arbatov told a Tuesday news conference in Moscow.
He said that fully professional units to be set up this year should first of all be filled by specially trained professional sergeants.
"Only when these units are filled by professional volunteer sergeants can subordinate enlisted men come in. Meanwhile, currently, as far as I can judge, privates and sergeants are appointed alongside," he said.
He suggested that the Armed Forces should take effort to fill all platoon sergeant positions with professionals in three years.
"Then they can begin professionally training volunteer sergeants, and this will take 10 to 15 years. The Defense Ministry-planned transfer of 50.7 percent of sergeant positions to the volunteer basis means that at this rate all sergeants will become professionals not until 2012," the expert said.