Preventive measures can be taken against army evaders
About 200 thousand people in Russia are evading conscription, said on Monday the head of the Main Organizational and Mobilization Directorate, Deputy Chief of the General Staff Vasily Smirnov. Despite the difficulties, the Department of Defense will not increase the term of military service.
The earth must burn under the feet of the deviators
The Defense Department said Monday that it is determined to avoid military enlistment by using long-calculated, simple methods.
“Today, about 200 thousand people evade military service by refusing to receive summons or leaving their places of residence for the period of the conscription campaign,” said Vasily Smirnov, Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, at a press conference. - The problem of conscripts is serious. If you bring the draft dodgers to the recruiting stations, the problem will be largely solved. The earth must burn under the feet of the deviators."
“We believe that the conscription service should not be devalued. It must be attractive,”Smirnov said. He recalled that it was originally planned to have 210,000 contract servicemen. In fact, the number of contractors has decreased slightly.
“This is a forced measure. In this way, we want to raise their wages,”ITAR-TASS quoted Smirnov as saying.
In turn, the head of the Office of the Main Military Prosecutor's Office, Lieutenant-General of Justice Alexander Nikitin, notes that from 800 to 1 thousand people are brought to criminal responsibility for evading military service annually. So, according to Nikitin, last year there were 875 such deviators.
The high-ranking military man recalled that under article 328 of the Criminal Code, criminal liability for such offenses is provided for up to two years in prison, but in most cases a conditional sentence is given. At the same time, 16,800 young people were brought to administrative responsibility for evading the army during this spring draft, who "decided to break the law."
On July 18, the chief military prosecutor of Russia, Sergei Fridinsky, said that it is possible to fight those who avoid turning up at assembly points for military service only by ensuring the inevitability of punishment.
Less is Better
Commenting on rumors about a possible increase in the term of military service, Vasily Smirnov noted: “The Ministry of Defense did not plan, does not plan and will not plan to come out with proposals to increase the term of military service. But a possible increase in the age of conscription is "under discussion in society."
On May 5, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev also announced that the Russian authorities did not plan to increase the term of service in the conscript army.
Earlier, a number of media outlets reported that "the country's military leadership is preparing public opinion to understand that the reforms carried out since 2004-2005, related to the transition of troops to a professional basis and the reduction of the duration of conscript service, have failed."
There is always an alternative
Meanwhile, 242 people chose alternative civilian service during the spring draft.
“There are deviators who do not want to fulfill the duties of either the military or the civilian service,” admitted Smirnov.“There have been more than 340 such people in the six years of the alternative service”.
In total, 270,600 Russians were sent to the army for the spring conscription, the General Staff said. The troops sent 45 thousand 327 people (16, 8%) with higher professional education.
During the spring conscription, everything necessary was done to prevent young people with poor health from getting into the army. “We made sure that citizens who were poorly examined (by medical commissions) did not get into the army,” Smirnov also noted. "We are more interested than anyone in the fact that there are no sick people in the army."
All in all, the Armed Forces will have no more than 20% of contract servicemen in the positions of soldiers and sergeants. At the same time, “this issue must be approached in a differentiated manner. In Chechnya, for example, it will be 100%, in the Airborne Forces - up to 50%,”Smirnov explained.
