GGeneral Zavarzin agreed with his colleague on the Duma defense committee, General Sobolev, that soldiers should look neat. “The Russian army has always been valuable for the neat appearance, posture of a serviceman,” he says
Viktor Zavarzin
Colonel-General Viktor Zavarzin, a member of the Defense Committee of the State Duma, commented on the dispute about the beards of the military. Earlier, Lieutenant General Viktor Sobolev, also a member of the Defense Committee of the State Duma, said that shaving for soldiers is an “elementary requirement of military discipline,” but Wagner’s founder Yevgeny Prigozhin and the head of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov did not agree with this point of view.
“The goal is not to shave or not to shave the beard, but to observe hygiene whenever possible during respites [in combat]. To do this, the commanders must create all the conditions. You can also wear a beard, but everything should be neat,” Zavarzin told RBC. According to him, now the Ministry of Defense “takes very serious measures within the framework of logistics” and monitors the nutrition and hygiene of military personnel.
“The Russian army has always been valuable for its neat appearance, posture of a serviceman and the like. This also affects the inner state of a person, a Russian warrior. The individual internal state of each warrior certainly affects the overall discipline,” Zavarzin added and noted that the commanders in this case “should set an example.”
In a conversation with RBC, Lieutenant General Viktor Sobolev stated that a soldier “should be a model”. “I don’t think that with any of the most intense combat activity there aren’t 15–20 minutes to get your appearance in order,” he said. Evgeny Prigozhin, the founder of Wagner’s PMCs, reacted to his words, calling such demands “archaic”. He pointed out that in the combat zone, military personnel often do not even have the opportunity to wash, and shave at allrepresents «luxury». In addition, for some military personnel, wearing a beard is part of religious etiquette. The head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, agreed with him, calling Sobolev’s words “an obvious provocation”. After that, Sobolev clarified his position and stated that he does not oppose beards as such, but only believes that the military should look neat.
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