Soldiers Mothers regret Serdyukov had no chance to bring military reform to logical end
MOSCOW. Nov 6 (Interfax) - Human rights activists regret the dismissal of Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov and hope that new Minister Sergei Shoigu would carry on the military reform, including the eventual shift to contract service.
"We have no serious claims to Serdyukov. He did what he could; he did the maximum. The way he held the reform made impossible the recoiling to the Soviet era. He had one last step to take - to shift to contact service of privates and sergeants. That intention encountered the most serious resistance, and then Serdyukov was dismissed," Executive Secretary of the Union of Soldiers Mothers' Committees Valentina Melnikova told Interfax on Tuesday.
The organization is an independent monitor of servicemen's rights.
"We regret that he had no chance to bring the reform to the logical end, to the creation of the new Armed Forces," Melnikova said.
The Union of Soldiers Mothers' Committees is ready to interact with the new defense minister, which had been the emergency situations minister for years and was the Moscow regional governor until recently.
Melnikova does not think that the appointment of Shoigu is a sign of the "short candidate list" of the president.
