MOSCOW, July 21. /TASS/. The duration of compulsory military service in Russia will remain one year as there is no need for conscripts to serve a two-year hitch, State Duma Defense Committee Chairman Andrey Kartapolov told journalists.

"There is absolutely no need to serve for two years. Currently, in our country, a contemporary youth is capable of mastering any military specialization in six months maximum," he noted.

Kartapolov added that military training in the army is designed "in such a way that it has a six-month cycle." According to him, during the first six months a conscript should obtain his [military] specialization and then focus on "fine-tuning the skills necessary for applying it."

Earlier on Friday, the State Duma Defense Committee approved amendments in the second reading of a draft bill for raising the conscription age ceiling for compulsory military service in Russia. As Kartapolov noted, the key amendment is that the conscription age bracket will be 18 to 30 years old. That said, the new rules for raising the maximum conscription age to 30 will not affect new troops called up in the fall of 2023.

The bill was initially submitted in March by a coalition of lawmakers led by Kartapolov, and the Duma passed it in the first reading last month. Originally, it had proposed a gradual change in the compulsory conscription age bracket: first to 19-30 years old in 2024, then to 20-30 years old in 2025, and finally to 21-30 years old in 2026.