President of Russia Vladimir Putin said that he has signed a document allowing young men, which should be involved in the work of the military-industrial sector, to do an alternative service in “production squadrons”, Interfax reports.
“Yesterday me and Sergey Kuzhugetovich (Shoygu) agreed, and I signed the document, which allows young men we need to work at defense enterprises to do an alternative service at these enterprises in “production squadrons”,” Putin said following the results of a meeting dedicated to development of Russian armed forces. The president also noted that the military education must be upgraded by means of introducing state-of-the-art IT technologies and other solutions.
“It is obvious that we need to implement automated data exchange systems connecting higher education institutions (technical universities), scientific research institutes and military units. This will help use educational and scientific information, educational and scientific potential more efficiently and allow developing programs for continuous remote training of service members,” Putin said. Moreover, the President added that the education system would use real-life experience, gained by military units during military exercises and training. Two years ago The Russian Rectors’ Union suggested the idea of allowing students of technical universities to do alternative service at defense enterprises.
“The graduates of technical universities must work at defense enterprises in accordance with their specialties,” Secretary General of the Russian Rectors’ Union Olga Kashirina said at inter-regional online meeting of rectors of higher education institutions and heads of enterprises of the military-industrial sector, which was held on May 14th 2013 in Tula.
According to her, army recruits working at defense enterprises must also get the complete benefits package. “It is a serious motivation for them,” Kashirina said. Preliminarily, the duration of alternate service at defense enterprises may be around 5 years, she added.
In March 2015 Prime Minister of Russia Dmitry Medvedev instructed the Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Industry and Trade and other agencies involved to consider the possibility of making changes in laws related to compulsory military service following the results of a meeting dedicated to staffing support of the military-industrial sector.
In particular, the ministries must consider the possibility of “creating production squadrons similar to scientific squadrons, responsible for assuring operation of complicated weapons, military and special-purpose vehicles by military units, for example, by navy, or repairing these vehicles and weapons (including ship-building industry); the squadrons will allow the employees to do the compulsory military service at their enterprises”.
In addition, the possibility of “granting an occupational deferment to graduates working in organizations of the military-industrial sector in a full-time capacity in accordance with the specialty received after graduation from technical universities (for those who graduated with distinction or with A and B marks only, or the ones who studied on the basis of employer-sponsored education) for the period of working at the enterprise, but not more than 5 years”.
The ministries must also consider the possibility of allowing “graduates of higher education institutions, who does not have an occupational deferment and was employed by a defense enterprise (in accordance with his specialty) specializing in development or production of weapons, military and special-purpose vehicles, to do military service in military units operating these types of weapons and vehicles”. The ministries must report the results to Russian government by November 2015.