Russian Border Service Will Be Professional From 2008 – Pronichev
The Federal Security Service's border troops will change over to recruiting professionals, not conscripts from 2008, FSB First Deputy Director and border service chief Vladimir Pronichev said.

"By the end of 2008 the border services will have switched over to the professional system of manning," Pronichev said in an address on the occasion of the Border-Guards Day, marked Sunday.

"The emerging threats to Russia's security have prompted us to seek new approaches to organizing the border service. The Federal Security Service is developing a new system of protecting the state border and forming a modern border service, manned, organized and equipped to keep the borders securely protected," the general said.