MOSCOW, Oct. 11 Federation Council at a meeting in Wednesday elected the former head of the Federal Customs Service (FCS) Vladimir Bulavin as chairman of the defense committee.
In this post, he replaced the ex-commander-in-chief of the Aerospace Forces Viktor Bondarev. In turn, Bondarev was elected first deputy head of the Federation Council Committee on Defense.
Bondarev represents the Kirov region in the Federation Council, and served as head of the defense committee for six years. The senator spoke in favor of increasing the conscription period to two years. At the same time, during the discussion of the bill on raising the draft age, he advocated maintaining the original boundaries proposed by the Ministry of Defense — from 21 to 30 years. Then he changed his position when the Federation Council voted in support of the law on conscription into the RF Armed Forces from 18 to 30 years.
Speaker of the Federation Council Valentina Matvienko noted that Bondarev is “a very honored, respected person.” The Speaker of the Federation Council also highly appreciated Bulavin's professional qualities, recalling his work in such an important area as the customs service.
Previously, the Chairman of the Federation Council Committee on Regulations, Vyacheslav Timchenko, explained the change of leadership in the Defense and Security Committee as a normal rotation.