Russian Conscripts Forced to Enlist?

[unhappycamper]

Russian Conscripts Forced to Enlist?
Associated Press | January 24, 2008

MOSCOW - President Vladimir Putin has halved the length of mandatory service for draftees to one year, but human rights activists charged Thursday that conscripts are now being forced to enlist for much longer periods.

Putin's decree was meant to ease Russia's transition to a fully professional army, but activists told reporters many hundreds of conscripts are now being pressured, often through physical intimidation, into signing contracts to extend their service by up to three years.

The abuse of novices by older soldiers, known in army slang as "dedovshchina," has long been a fact of life in Russian military barracks. But the use of intimidation to boost enlistment is on the rise, activists say.

"Commanders leave conscripts to freeze in their tents, starve them and put them in isolation cells" until they agree to enlist, said Dmitry Pyslar, who leads a regional soldiers' rights organization in the Volga River region.

Lev Ponomaryov, the head of the group For Human Rights, told reporters Thursday that the rising number of coerced enlistments has made it hard to appeal to authorities to improve living conditions for young soldiers.


Rest of article at: http://www.military.com/NewsContent/0,13319,160663,00.html

[aquart]

1. An old Russian tradition.

Do they still let you live in Moscow after you serve your 25 years?

[USA_1]

2. Draft Never Stopped Russian Imperialism In Chechnya

And it never stopped the Pentagon from war expansionism.

AREN'T YOU GLAD THERE IS NO DRAFT HERE???