DUSHANBE, March 10, 2009, Asia-Plus — Russia’s Ministry of Defense (MoD) has offered foreign migrants that have lost their jobs in Russia to join the Russian national army on contractual basis, according to the Russian newspaper
Trud
.
Deputy Defense Minister, Colonel-General Nikolai Pankov noted that under the Russian legislation, foreign citizens had the right to serve in the Russian army on contractual basis. “There are no any quotas for foreign citizens and all those interested will be recruited,” the deputy minister was cited as saying. According to him, foreign citizens staying in the Russian Federation legally, having good health and knowing Russian well may serve in the Russian army on the contractual basis.
Theoretically, any foreign national aged 18 to 30 staying in Russia legally may use this right, while the military registration and enlistment offices have received unofficial instruction to accept only citizens of the CIS and Baltic nations and preference is given to ethnic Russians, the newspaper noted.
According to official data provided by a MoD, mainly nationals of Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Moldova, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Ukraine currently serve in the Russian army,
Trud
said.
Russian general noted that foreigners should be sent to serve outside Russia. 36 such facilities are now based outside the Russia — in Tajikistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Moldova, and Ukraine.
According to
Trud
, 308 foreigners, including 67 Tajiks, 61 Uzbeks, 5 to 10 nationals of Kazakhstan, Moldova, Armenia and Azerbaijan, as well as two Germans, two Latvians and one Israeli, now serve in the Russian army on contractual basis.
