MOSCOW, February 14 (RIA Novosti, Olga Lipich) - Military prosecutors have prepared a draft law on the introduction of the institution of chaplains in the Russian armed forces, an aide to the chief military prosecutor said Tuesday.

"We have prepared the relevant bill on army chaplains. It is based on articles 14 and 28 of the Constitution," Justice Maj. Gen. Valery Kondratov said at a Moscow news conference.

"Preparation of the bill was needed to combat hazing, strengthen military discipline and boost army morale," Kondratov said. "There should be a federal law regulating the relations between religious associations, the state and the armed forces. The time has come."

An army official in charge of morale, Rear Admiral Yury Nuzhdin, thanked the Russian Orthodox Church, the Council of Muftis and the leaders of other traditional faiths for their work with servicemen.

"The number of suicides is falling, the level of morale is improving in [military] units where we interact," Nuzhdin said.

An Orthodox official in charge of military affairs, Archpriest Dimitry Smirnov, said that according to statistics, the number of hazing incidents, suicides and desertion cases had decreased in a year to a year-and-a-half's time after the introduction of a unit chaplain.

Smirnov said the Russian armed forces currently employed some 2,000 religious personnel.

He said army chaplains should not wear rank or military uniforms or carry weapons, and that it was not traditional for Russian clergymen to do so. Smirnov said chaplains in combat zones should be allowed to wear uniforms, but they should have insignia identifying them as chaplains.

The archpriest said army chaplains should have a rank similar to that of officers.

Maj. Gen. Valery Kondratov said, however, that according to the new bill, chaplains would be equal in rank to contract servicemen.

The initiative to introduce the institution of chaplains was raised following recent hazing cases in the Russian army that caused a massive stir in society. In one such case, a serviceman had to have his legs amputated after being tortured by colleagues for several hours in the Siberian city of Chelyabinsk.