Скачать или смотреть RUSSIA: MOSCOW: YOUNG MEN CONSCRIPTED INTO ARMED FORCES

(31 Oct 1996) Russian/Nat

Autumn means one thing for thousands of young men across Russia - an envelope in the post-box calling them up into the armed forces.

Yet as Russia's army lurches deeper into crisis, it is an offer many are desperate to refuse.

Although Russia's constitution guarantees their right not to serve, parliament has twice failed to pass a law on alternative, civil service.

The law goes before deputies in November.

But some can't wait that long - a growing number are fighting the call-up in Russia's courts.

For these soldiers the cabbage field has replaced the battle field.

Trained as tank crews and radio operators, the battle today is to bring in the harvest before the first snow fall.

Most of these conscripts openly prefer earning their miserly ten dollar monthly wage on the farm to fighting for their lives in Chechnya.

Yet the spectacle of skilled youths cutting cabbages goes to the heart of the crisis afflicting the nation's armed forces.

Financial straits have hit the Russian military hard.

Speaking at a meeting of Chechnya and Afghanistan veterans, Russia's defence minister said next year's budget covers only a third of the army's needs.

Unless money is found, he predicted the army would cease to function - and warned of "uncontrollable" consequences.

SOUNDBITE: (Russian)
"Delays of many months in paying wages to soldiers and support personnel have thrown them beyond the poverty line. There have been several cases of soldiers fainting from hunger and even of officers who are unable to support their families committing suicide."
SUPERCAPTION: General Igor Rodionov, Russian Defence Minister

At another meeting across town, conscript-age young men and their parents are looking for any way out.

Russia's constitution guarantees the right not to serve in the army.

But with no law on alternative, civilian national service, thousands are sucked into the armed forces whether they like it or not.

Chechnya and other flashpoints top the list of worries.

Thousands of young men were killed in Russia's abortive war in the Caucasus.

Added to widespread hazing, corruption and malnutrition, few feel the call to "fulfil their duty to the fatherland."

Of 200-thousand called up in Moscow last autumn, 31-thousand are reckoned to have avoided the draft.

The going rate to bribe your way out is three (m) million rubbles - or about 550 U-S dollars.

Moscow's draft officers lay the blame squarely with the media - and the draftees' relatives.

SOUNDBITE: (Russian)
"The problem comes from the parents. The war in Chechnya, though, hasn't affected the call-up in Moscow. I have spoken to many draftees and they say 'Colonel, send me to a war zone please. I want to test myself on the battlefield.' I'll say it again - patriotism in Russia will never dry up!"
SUPERCAPTION: Colonel Vladimir Dobrovolsky, Deputy Military Commissar of Moscow

The officer's bravado fails to convince many.

Ever more teenagers are taking their case to court.

Pyotr Gusov is just one of the 200 similar cases heard in Moscow alone.

The 20-year-old is not only a conscientious objector, he simply does not want to serve in the modern-day army.

Although he has the constitutional right to demand an alternative to military service -
in reality there is no alternative.

Today, like many others, he lost his case.

SOUNDBITE: (Russian)
"First of all it's a matter of my beliefs and secondly it's because there's chaos and complete confusion in the army which makes it even more repellent for people to join up."




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