Russian military salaries soar
Russian authorities have boosted military salaries to unprecedented levels. Military servicemen in Murmansk now earn twice as much as others.
Lieutenants working on submarines in the Northern Fleet have had their salaries more than doubled lately and now get paid more than 90.000 rubles (app. €2254) per month. This is more than twice the average salary in the region.
In the Pacific Fleet the salaries are even higher – Lieutenants in the submarine fleet get more than 100.000 rubles per month, RIA Novosti reports.
The wage boost was predicted by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in September last year. In a speech on the key points in the state budget for 2012 he said that wages for police and military servicemen would grow by over 100 percent.
The issue has been widely discussed in social media in the Murmansk region lately. “In all other armies in the world a newly qualified officer gets a salary that is on the level with the rest of society. But here he immediately gets twice the average, which induces a considerable imbalance to the salaries professors, teachers, doctors and other people get”, Blogger51 writes.
“Everyone with access to weapons in this country has to be happy and grateful for the regime. I don’t see any other explanation. Teachers don’t approach the Kremlin on tanks”, another commentator writes.
