MOSCOW, December 21 (Itar-Tass) – Russian women have an opportunity to sign up for service in the Armed Forces by contract already now, the Russian Defense Ministry said Friday in a comment on proposals to draft women for army service by conscription that have been mulled in the State Duma in recent days.
As Itar-Tass reported earlier, MP Tatiana Moskalkova /A Just Russia party/ said a few days ago she was drafting a bill on women’s service in the Armed Forces by conscription, while the deputy chairman of the Duma committee for defense, Franc Klinciewicz, voiced support for the idea and proposed to put it up for a broad public discussion.
The Defense Ministry recalled in this connection that “throughout the entire history of Russia military service by conscription has traditionally been related to men as a duty and moral obligation.”
“As an exception from this rule, one can cite only the initial period of the Great Patriotic War when hundreds of thousands of women were called up and sent to combat units on the frontline, as well as to the rear units,” the ministry’s department for information said.
“Russian women have an opportunity already now to do army service,” the commentary said. “At present, there are about 50,000 female servicemen in all the branches of the Armed Forces. Of that number, about 3,000 women are officers, including 28 colonels and one woman in the rank of the Major-General.”
“All these women are serving in the Armed Forces on contract,” the ministry said.