MOSCOW, July 26. /TASS/. Women in Russia can make successful careers in the military without doing regular army service as conscripts, the Defense Ministry said on Wednesday commenting on a claim by the Russian President’s ombudsperson for human rights, Tatiana Moskalkova, that young women in this country are deprived of an opportunity to active-duty service by conscription.
Moskalkova voiced regret over the absence of service by conscription for women recently as she spoke to participants in a young people’s forum.
"Debates on the necessity of a mandatory conscription of women for military service go on for many long years in this country," a spokesperson for the Defense Ministry said. "On the face of it, there are no restrictions on women’s rights to doing active-duty service in the Armed Forces."
He recalled that service by conscription is a civic duty, not right, for all the male population of the country in the age bracket of eighteen to twenty-seven years old.
"Any woman can exercise her rights to a successful military service on contract without any impediments today and the number of female contract servicemen in the Russian Armed Forces continues growing from one year to another," the spokesperson said.
"All the positions and ranks - from a soldier up to a general - are open for women today," he indicated.
At present, more than 45,000 women are doing army service. Most of them are on the tables of organization in the signals corps, logistics units, medical service corps, and at military colleges and universities.
As Tatiana Moskalkova answered questions from participants in the ‘Territory of Notions on the Klyazma River’ young people’s forum on Wednesday, she the Russian Armed Forces had become more powerful but the training of conscripts "still leaves much to be desired."
She stressed her conviction young Russian women were deprived of the right to do army service as conscript soldiers.