Russia: December 6, 2002

Archives

  The armed forces announced that only 11 percent of Russian 18 year olds eligible for conscription actually serve. In addition to 22 legal reasons for avoiding service (medical, educational, etc), many simply bribe government officials or just don't show up. At the same time, the army announced that a unit commander had been convicted of beating his troops and stealing their pay, actions that caused 16 conscripts to flee their unit on December 4th. Punishment of corrupt officers, not to mention such swift punishment, has been rare. But president Putin has become fed up with resistance to reform by army officers and has ordered change, or else. This, however, does not guarantee that anything will actually happen.

 

X

ad

Help Keep Us From Drying Up

We need your help! Our subscription base has slowly been dwindling.

Each month we count on your contributions. You can support us in the following ways:

  1. Make sure you spread the word about us. Two ways to do that are to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
  2. Subscribe to our daily newsletter. We’ll send the news to your email box, and you don’t have to come to the site unless you want to read columns or see photos.
  3. You can contribute to the health of StrategyPage.
Subscribe   Contribute   Close