MOSCOW, Dec 22 - RIA Novosti. The Russian armed forces are staffed by contract servicemen by almost 100%, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said.
"We continue to form a professional army. Today, the staffing of officers has been brought to 96%, and military personnel under contract of other formations - up to 99.4%. Their number is more than twice the number of conscripts," Shoigu said at a plenary session of the Public Council under the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation.
He noted that social issues of servicemen and their family members are being successfully resolved. "This year, the monetary allowance is indexed by 3.7%. It is planned to increase it by another 4% next year. Housing obligations for almost 111 thousand servicemen have been fulfilled," the minister said.
He informed the participants of the meeting that "in order to improve the system of military training of students, it was decided to create military training centers at eight more civilian universities." "We do not forget about the pupils of pre-university organizations of the Ministry of Defense. By the beginning of the academic year, a new complex of buildings for the Omsk Cadet Military Corps has been commissioned," Shoigu said.
According to him, the Unarmia movement is actively developing, in December the millionth Unarmee was accepted into its ranks. "Work has intensified on the creation of the Avangard military-patriotic education centers in the regions. Today there are already 42 such centers. Since the beginning of the year, 447 shifts have been carried out, over 58 thousand people have been trained," the Defense Minister said.
