A Cossack leader called Thursday for the restoration of his people's tsarist-era privilege of forming settlements in border areas in return for supplying conscripts and officers to guard Russia's frontiers.


Vladimir Naumov, first deputy head of the Cossack Union, told a press conference that Cossack border-guard units were already operating at 10 border posts, mainly in the Caucasus.


"We think that in the near future we will be granted the right to establish our traditional settlements between the border posts," Naumov said. "This method of guarding borders is very effective."


Vladimir Glukhovskikh, leader -- or ataman -- of the Cossacks in Kuban, south Russia, said there were 400,000 Cossacks living in the region including 9,000 officers who were ready to join the armed forces. He said Kuban could provide the army with 1,500 conscripts every draft.


"The rebirth of Russia depends on the rebirth of the Cossack movement," Glukhovskikh said.


Lieutenant General Nikolai Bordyuzha, deputy head of the Border Guards, said the military had already embarked on a policy of calling up Cossack conscripts to guard the borders.


"At present Cossacks make up the considerable part of the border population and, therefore, military leadership decided this year to use them to guard state borders," he said.


Bordyuzha said Cossacks had already started to serve in Vyborg on the Russian-Finnish border, in the Caucasus and in the Far East.


The Cossack tradition of guarding Russia's borders goes back to the times of the Russian Empire, when Cossacks were given special privileges by the tsars. They lived in self-governing communities, enjoyed tax exemptions and in return provided military units to defend the borders.