From the DW:
“As Russia
battles coronavirus, its military pushes ahead with recruitment”
The Russian
government has vowed to protect its military conscripts, but service and living
conditions heighten the risk of COVID-19 infection. Recruits and their families
are pushing back. Thousands of new recruits are set to enlist in Russia's
military this year, despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. By the end of
2020, some 263,000 personnel will have been conscripted to the 1-million strong
Russian military. Drafting new conscripts was put on hold for about six weeks
during the first wave of the pandemic in the spring. As a result, 135,000 young
men had to be examined by medics and assigned to their posts in just two
months, rather than the usual three-and-a-half months. "The fact that the
enlistment plans were not shortened at the time led to serious problems in the
spring — and that will happen again now," said Alexander Gorbachev, a
lawyer with the human rights organization Soldiers' Mothers of
Saint-Petersburg. The nongovernmental organization has received numerous
complaints of violations at enlistment offices, with most pertaining to
neglected hygiene and pandemic-related guidelines. There are also indications
that the rights of conscripts have been violated. The Defense Ministry releases
daily figures on how many members of the military have become infected with
COVID-19, and how many have recovered. Around 4,500 cases have been reported
since March. According to the Defense Ministry, that figure has been increasing
by around 260 infections per day for the past 10 days.
Complaints
against enlistment offices Ivan*, 25, is among those who has turned to
Soldiers' Mothers of Saint-Petersburg for help. He has suffered from
cardiovascular problems and fainting episodes for years, and has repeatedly
been called to enlistment offices for medical examinations. At every
appointment he explained his medical condition, only to have recruitment
officers tell him he would have to come back until he turned 27. During
his last visit, this past summer, Ivan had to take a psychological test. The
military doctor certified he had a "cognitive disorder" and explained
that nobody could join the military "with such a result." "Nevertheless,
they called me a few days later and said I was fit and had to report for
duty," said Ivan. He has contested the decision in court; the case is yet
to be determined.
Army using
pandemic to infringe conscripts' rights? Anna* comes from the St.
Petersburg suburb of Vsevolozhsk. She was not allowed to enter the enlistment
office there as a representative of her son due to coronavirus restrictions in
place. At the same time, however, according to Anna, young men reporting for
service at the office were "crowded in like sardines." Anna is
concerned that enlistment offices could be using the pandemic to restrict the
rights of conscripts. She fears that in her absence, employees at the office
could "accidentally lose" her son's original medical records showing
that he did not have to complete military service. According to
Gorbachev, it's mostly in the large cities where authorities have employed
these kinds of tricks. "It's important to know that in many regions of
Russia, young people are enthusiastic about joining the army," he said,
adding that young people in Moscow and St. Petersburg are generally more aware
of their legal rights.
More work
for medics, cleaners For some conscripts, the pandemic has made military
service a little easier, said political activist Pavel Krisevich. He was
conscripted into the army in 2019 and ended his service in the spring, in the
middle of the first wave of the pandemic. "Most sporting events
take place in the months of April and May usually, and I worked in an army
sports unit. But because of coronavirus, everything was canceled and all of us
soldiers were allowed to sleep in on weekends," he said. However,
said Krisevich, the companies responsible for medical care and chemical
disinfection have more to do. Among their increased duties: performing
temperature checks of their colleagues, manning field hospitals and cleaning
surfaces clad in protective gear. But in the view of the Soldiers'
Mothers of Saint-Petersburg, the measures the Russian military has taken to
curb the spread of COVID-19 are both inadequate and ineffective. In a recently
published report about the spring recruitment process, the rights group
recommended reducing the number of overall conscripts and cutting back on
enlistments during the pandemic. *names have been changed
^ The Russian
Military has been plagued with abuse, shortages, problems and many other issues
for nearly 30 years now. Add to that Covid-19 and it makes a bad situation even
more worse. The majority of countries in the 21st Century do not
need Conscription Militaries. Only a handful (Israel, Ukraine, South Korea,
Georgia and the Baltics) continue to need a Military made up of Conscripts because
of direct threats to them (Israel against most of the Arab/Muslim World, South
Korea against North Korea, Ukraine, Georgia and the Baltics against Russia.) The
rest, like Russia, only keep Conscription because they either want to keep
tight control over their male population or they are too lazy to change and modernize
(sometimes both.) The United States got rid of the Military Draft in 1973 – at the
end of the Vietnam War - and has had an All-Volunteer
Military for 47 years now (and that’s with winning the Cold War in 1991, the 1st
Iraq War, the 9-11-01 Attacks, War in Afghanistan and the 2nd Iraq
War.) Russia should move to an All-Volunteer Military and with that modernize how
it trains and supports its Soldiers and Sailors. They need to get rid of the
widespread abuse (Soldier on Solider and Officers on Soldier), the widespread corruption,
have more updated training methods that focus on the Soldier’s mental and
physical health as well as combat readiness, modernize and update training
locations, barracks, etc. and a whole list of other issues that need to be
addressed. Russia uses Conscripts to fight their wars across the world (Crimea,
the Donbas, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Transnistria, Armenia, Syria, etc.) Covid-19
hasn’t created the major problems that Russian Conscripts have while being
forced to serve in the Russian Military, but it has made those major problems
much, much worse. Luckily, there are still Russians who care about their
Soldiers and try to show the Russian people and the rest of the world the truth
about all the abuses, corruption and poor/bad training and equipment.
Hopefully, the Russian Government and the Russian Military will start doing
something concrete to fix those problems. ^
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