MOSCOW, December 18 (Itar-Tass) —— The command of a foreign language will be a must for an officer of the airborne troops of Russia, Colonel-General Vladimir Shamanov, the airborne troops commander, told reporters on Tuesday.
“Confrontation now becomes an unseen war,” he said. “To know an enemy, it is necessary to penetrate its local and multifunctional computer network. For this purpose our officers should know a foreign language, better two. This is something we will aim for,” he said.
“Applicants to the Ryazan higher airborne command school will take an examination in a foreign language next year,” Shamanov said. “A graduate must know at least one foreign language,” he said.
“We select the professor and teaching staff,” Shamanov said. “Teachers should be able to read their subject in a foreign language to cadets in the fourth and fifth courses,” Shamanov noted.
He said servicemen of Russian airborne troops this year had many opportunities to communicate with foreign colleagues at various exercises and training sessions outside Russia. Reply visits of servicemen of airborne troops of Ukraine, France, Germany, and US are expected in Russia in 2013.