A new bill introduced to the Russian State Duma on Monday will give the Russian National Guard Service the right to have military equipment, including heavy armoured vehicles and tanks.
The bill proposes amendments to the federal law “On the troops of the National Guard of the Russian Federation”. Its authors include Alexander Khinshtein, chairman of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy; Andrey Kartapolov, chairman of the State Duma Committee on Defence, and Vasily Piskarev, head of the Committee on Security.
The amendments suggest replacing the term “weapons” with “armaments” and the term combat equipment” with “military equipment”. As the explanatory note to the bill says, the latter refers to “various technical means with which troops are equipped for combat and everyday activities (combat equipment, technical means of controlling troops, technical means of combat, technical and logistics support, etc.)”.
The note adds that the Guard Service already has transport aircraft, combat helicopters, and armoured personnel carriers in service, but these are defined as “combat equipment” rather than “military equipment”.
The authors of the bill argue that the law will bring the current legal norms “in line with reality” and eliminate existing gaps.
Days after PMC Wagner’s armed rebellion, National Guard chief Viktor Zolotov said that his troops will receive tanks and other heavy equipment, adding the matter had been discussed with Vladimir Putin.
