http://www.eurasiareview.com/despite-promises-russian-draftees-are-
fighting-and-dying-in-north-caucasus-24052011/

Despite Promises, Russian Draftees Are Fighting And Dying In North
Caucasus

Written by: Paul Goble

May 24, 2011

Despite repeated promises by senior Moscow officials and the explicit
provisions of several laws, Russian draftees are being sent to fight and
die in the hotspots of the North Caucasus, a situation a major Moscow
paper is calling attention to and one likely to spark both more resistance
to the draft and more questions about Russia's policies in that region.

The deaths of several draftees in Ingushetia have prompted Moskovsky
komsomolets to declare in a headline that The Russian Army is Outside the
Law because the defense ministry has declared that such personnel must
not be involved in counter-terrorist operations:

www.mk.ru/politics/article/2011/05/19/590609-rossiyskaya-armiya-vne-
zakona.html

...The major reason commanders want to use draftees is that such personnel
cost less and are far more numerous than professional soldiers, but
another experts says that the latter are far more prepared to speak up for
their rights than are the draftees. If the pay of the professionals is
late, for example, they raise such a fuss that commanders hurry to address
the problem.

...However, the numerous cases of the violation of the defense minstry's
own orders and of the rights of draftees almost certainly will increase
calls for a shift to a professional military, something Russia would find
hard to pay for unless it significantly reduced the size of its armed
forces, or an increase in the amount of draft resistance.

And in the current environment, these two trends appear to be coming
together. In St. Petersburg over the weekend, for example, some 150 people
staged a demonstration under the banner Say No to the Draft during which
speakers called for the creation of a purely professional military
(ingria.info/lenta/347-2011-05-22-08-50-40).

This meeting is likely to lead to others, all the more so because it was
organized by groups with sections elsewhere and by political parties,
including Yabloko, which are likely to be interested in using this issue
to attract attention and support in the run up to the 2011 and 2012
elections.

About the author:

Paul Goble

Paul Goble is a longtime specialist on ethnic and religious questions in
Eurasia. Most recently, he was director of research and publications at
the Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy. Earlier, he served as vice dean for the
social sciences and humanities at Audentes University in Tallinn and a
senior research associate at the EuroCollege of the University of Tartu in
Estonia. He has served in various capacities in the U.S. State Department,
the Central Intelligence Agency and the International Broadcasting Bureau
as well as at the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and
at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Mr. Goble maintains the
Window on Eurasia blog and can be contacted directly at
paul.goble@gmail.com .--------------------
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