Translated material
Lieutenant's set
Students who want to serve their homeland will spend three years in the army
The President decided to support the Ministry of Defense in its desire to improve the quality of officer training. As a result, the good wishes of the authorities gave rise to rumors that seriously worried students and their parents. On Monday, Vladimir Putin signed a decree amending the Regulations on the Procedure for Military Service, adopted nine years ago. The essence of the changes is as follows : young people who have entered into an agreement to study at military training centers at civilian institutes, universities and academies must sign a contract for military service the next day after completing their education at the university. Having received lieutenant's shoulder straps, a former student must serve for three years.The presidential decree is not talking about traditional military departments at universities, but about newly created educational centers (it is this confusion that has become a cause for concern). As Deputy Chief of the General Staff Vasily Smirnov explained to journalists yesterday, the procedure for training at military departments remains the same: after studying at a university that has such a department, a young man is automatically transferred to the reserve. He, of course, can serve as an officer, but only “if he personally wishes.” Another thing is that the Ministry of Defense kept its promise and reduced the number of military departments by three times - they are retained only in 68 Russian universities.
It is no secret that the army leadership, to put it mildly, is not satisfied with the level of training of lieutenants who were graduated from “civilian” educational institutions. In December 2005, First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov, then still head of the Ministry of Defense, said: “Those students who are studying in military departments today will graduate from them. It is planned to eliminate military departments in most civilian universities in 2008-2009.”
Military training centers (MTC), as the Ministry of Defense hopes, should become a help for military schools and academies. “Maybe someone dreams of becoming a marshal, but the school did not accept him due to his health. And this ambitious young man thinks: how about I get into our armed forces through the military training center,” this is how Valentina Melnikova, executive secretary of the Union of Soldiers’ Mothers’ Committees, commented on the army initiative in a conversation with Vremya Novostey.
According to the head of the Duma Defense Committee, Colonel General Viktor Zavarzin, 37 new training centers will be created, including four at medical universities. “And in this case we are talking about the country’s leading universities, which are guaranteed to provide high quality training for specialists in the humanities and technical fields,” the deputy told the Interfax agency. For example, such a training center can be created on the basis of the Faculty of Military Education of Moscow State Technical University. Bauman. Mr. Zavarzin emphasized that students will be paid an increased scholarship at the expense of the Ministry of Defense, one and a half times higher than the usual one. Let us note that three years ago, representatives of the defense department made more tempting promises: it was argued that students who signed a contract to study at the UVC would receive a scholarship four to five times more than their classmates who did not sign such an agreement.
“If a student went to this military training center, it means he wants to become a career officer - let him become one,” Ms. Melnikova emphasizes. “It is understood that there is no obligation - people should go there as voluntarily as they would to any extreme driving course.” Students who refuse to study at the UVC face the risk of serving as privates, but given that many students may be rejected for health reasons, the percentage of those who end up in the army is unlikely to be large, according to the Union of Committees of Soldiers' Mothers.
According to the head of the Central Military Medical Commission of the Ministry of Defense Valery Kulikov, the number of those fit for military service is steadily declining: if in 2006 1 million 31 thousand people were registered for military service, then during the current conscription this figure will drop to 870 thousand, and in 2010 it will be no more than 660 thousand.
True, according to Ms. Melnikova, the emergence of training centers can hardly solve the problem of recruiting the armed forces. “There are not enough young officers in the troops, and these gaps need to be plugged, because there is no one to occupy the positions of platoon or company commanders, no one to work with soldiers,” states Vremya Novostey’s interlocutor.