"One of our major problems is where to get people from to defend ourselves. There are not many of us in Russia, according to forecasts within 10 to 15 years, our population will fall behind those of Pakistan and Iran," Ivanov told the Komsomolskaya Pravda daily.

Ivanov has proposed setting up a small but fully professional force as the backbone of the country's defenses by 2007 while leaving the highly unpopular conscription process almost completely intact.

In September last year, the army launched a pilot scheme with the 76th parachute division, based in the northwestern town of Pskov, to recruit 3,000 volunteer soldiers by the middle of this year.

But generals have warned that attempts to overhaul the ailing and chronically underfunded armed forces into an effective fighting force are progressing slowly because of a problem in recruiting sergeants and soldiers put off by low salaries.

"In principle we have decided to enlist volunteers from the CIS," the grouping of 12 former Soviet republics, said Ivanov.

"They will be motivated to serve better than Russian citizens, because one mistake and they will be kicked out. And if they stay on, they'll get a Russian passport in three years," he added.

"If you consider that they will mainly be Russian-speakers or ethnic Russians, we can form good units, much healthier than what we have at the moment. Many Ukrainians, Belarussians, Moldovans are interested," Ivanov said.

The difficulties in enlisting volunteers come as increasing numbers of Russians avoid the draft, by paying bribes and on health grounds, scared off by brutal hazing and appalling conditions in the ranks.

"There's no one to call up in the big Russian cities, they all pull strings or are in bad health," noted Ivanov.

The 1.1-million-strong Russian armed forces are due to draft 175,000 concripts in the spring call-up from April 1 till June 30 this year but military officials admit that they will fail far short of that target.

SPACE.WIRE