Russian Army to reject footwraps

According to the Press Service and Information Directorate of the Russian Ministry of Defense,

According to the Press Service and Information Directorate of the Russian Ministry of Defense,

Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation and General of the Army Sergei Shoigu organized a video conference on the problems of the development of the Russian Armed Forces.

Deputy Ministers of Defense , heads of federal services and agencies under the jurisdiction of the Russian Ministry of Defense, Commanders-in-Chief of different branches of the Armed Forces, combat arms commanders, commanders of troops, fleet commanders and other military officials took part in the conference.

In his opening speech the Minister of Defense said that such meetings would be held on a regular basis monthly. They will touch on all Armed Forces activities such as organization of combat training, troop housing, service of the new equipment, military education and medical care.

Army General Sergei Shoigu drew attention of all officials to personal responsibility for the solution of the problems related to the energy supply, heat supply in the military towns. As a negative illustration Shoigu reminded of the situation when for the whole day there was minimum amount of fuel in more than 150 boiler stations at the end of last year.

He also drew attention to the cold - related illnesses of military men, to the cases of pneumonia deaths. The Ministry of Defense in collaboration with the Military prosecutor's office investigates these cases.

In the course of the meeting a number of operational objectives were set before the heads of the military administration.

First of all, a schedule of phase-by-phase supply of clothing and equipment for the Armed Forces should be prepared. “We will supply the models that were approved just three weeks ago”, Sergey Shoigu said.

It is important to pay special attention to the provision of winter clothing for the military men who do military service in the Far North region, Siberia and the Far East region. Shoigu announced that by the end of 2013 “we should forget the word “portyanki” (foot wraps)”.

It is also important to solve the housing and money problems. The tusks in these fields were set before Deputy Defense Ministers Ruslan Tsalikov and Tatyana Shevtsova.

In 2013 we should take steps to provide certain military personnel classes with the permanent accommodation. This year we will create a regulatory and legal framework for payment of the non-recurrent money rewards for the military men starting from 2014.

The Defense Minister reminded that significant reforms in the army and fleet command structure, creation of mixed force groupings in strategic directions, military towns quantity reduction, subunit strength optimization had been introduced lately”. “ This work should be completed by 2018 ”, Sergei Shoigu said.