OVER 80% OF OFFICERS DISSATISFIED WITH THE BENEFITS LAW
RIA Novosti
MOSCOW, April 13 (RIA Novosti) - According to public opinion polls conducted among officers early this year and in March, over 80% of respondents are dissatisfied with the law on the substitution of monetary compensations for benefits in kind. The research was classified by the Russian defense ministry.
Under pressure from Vladimir Putin, on the eve of the Day of the Defenders of the Fatherland - February 23, the government urgently took measures to localize dissatisfaction. Compensations for the abolition of the right to use transport free were allocated to officers and the size of bonuses was increased on March 1. However, even then, the share of those satisfied with the benefits law grew only to 24% (against 15% during the first poll) and only among junior officers.
Commenting on the sociological research, major-general Nikolai Bezborodov, a member of the State Duma committee for defense, said that he knows what the level of servicemen's loyalty is even without polls: they just hate lawmakers. The problem of classified polls also lies in the fact that, in Bezborodov's opinion, such information may not be closed because the most important thing - the possibility to see what is really happening in troops - is lost. He also believes that all "the latest novelties" which emasculated the law on the status of servicemen altogether and deprived offices of practically all privileges determined by their hard labor are already telling on Russia's national security: an unprecedented outflow of officers from the army is being observed.
Little wonder that dissatisfaction is mounting in the army. The attraction of Cossacks to military service, which the State Duma is examining on the presentation of the President, may testify to the fact that the authorities are looking for a new force to rely on.
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