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Campaign to recruit women from universities to the Russian Army launched in Siberia

By The Siberian Times reporter

02 February 2014

Women want to serve their country, says deputy defence minister Nikolai Pankov.

Students of various Siberian universities at Miss Kemerovo 2013 beauty contest. Picture: Yevgeny Zolotukhin

Women want to serve their country, says deputy defence minister Nikolai Pankov. The aim is to recruit more women as professional soldiers, he told a meeting of students from Siberian universities in Novosibirsk.

'My personal opinion is that we should see more women in the military ranks serving as officers, generals, sergeants, and privates,' he said, according to RIA Novosti. Some 200 women became cadets at various military education establishments in Russia last year, and their number was expected to grow in 2014.

Women are now admitted to the Ryazan Higher Airborne Command School with an 'enormous' number of applications, he said.

'This goes to show that there is demand for the military profession among women and we should not ignore it.'

Around 11,000 women are currently doing military service under contract, down from 30,000 five years ago due to army staff cuts under ongoing military reforms.

'They serve as officers and petty officers mainly in staff positions, including as specialists in medical and financial services, or in communications units,' explained RIA Novosti.

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for me its good idea, woman will be good soilder, they can do as a soilder man.

wilber, peru

09/02/2014 03:57

I'd say that is a bad idea. It is simply not prudent to send women to war. It's a sign of desperation. The men will not be good soldiers next to women. They will want to protect them, not advance. They'll be completely demoralized when they see women dying on the field, guts hanging out etc. And there will be large increases of jealousy which is also bad for morale and comradery when love comes in the mix. When one soldier gets to go to bed with a female and the others do not... And women are needed to populate Russia with new children. It is worse if they die than if men die, in the grand scheme of things.

Erik, Sweden

02/02/2014 00:30