A variety of military reforms makes this a unique draft campaign. The length of the military service term has been shortened to one year, down from two in 2006 and 1.5 in 2007. Experts believe that this will undoubtedly lead to an explosion of “dedovschina,” or severe hazing common among military units.

Four of the 25 exemptions to military service have also been removed, and military officials believe this will add an additional 100 thousand soldiers to the pool of conscripts.

New legislation is also in the works that would restrict the movement of young men aged 18 to 27. Draftees are now required to report their whereabouts, and may be drafted in regions of the country where they do not reside.

Still, many men are expected to dodge the mandatory draft by claiming an exemption, avoiding draft officers, and even bribing officials. According to Defense Ministry, one third of eligible conscripts will bow out for health reasons, and some 12,000 young men are currently dodging the draft.

Authorities in the city of St. Petersburg have planned new measures to find the unwilling soldiers, including Russia’s most popular online social networks. As the Fontanka.ru internet newspaper reported, the city’s Vice Governor, Mikhail Oseyevsky proposed using two popular social networks to send conscription notices to recalcitrant draftees.

The websites, “odnoklassniki.ru” (lit. classmates.ru) and “In Contact,” have grown exponentially in the past two years, and Odnoklassniki alone has more than 10 million users.

This would not be the first use of online social networks to track down individuals hiding out from authorities. Banks regularly use the websites to find defaulting borrowers, while court officers commonly seek out debtors.

In Moscow, residents fed up with mandatory military service took to the streets. A protest action called a “March for a Volunteer Army” took place on March 29th, drawing more than 200 people (See kasparov.ru (rus) for a photo-report).

On Tuesday, Shadrin’s mother received a call from the local prosecutor’s office, and was instructed to appear as a witness for a hearing involving a criminal case initiated against her son. The lead prosecutor told her that the case was being mounted after Shadrin refused to accept an enlistment notice on several occasions.

Shadrin recounted a different story, explaining that he had not been visited by any officers from the military enlistment office, and could not have refused a summons. In his opinion, the staff of the Leninsky district enlistment office were using threats to coerce people into serving as witnesses and signing off that others had renounced their enlistment notices.

Furthermore, Shadrin explained that he was not fit for military service for health reasons, as he suffers from scoliosis. Corresponding documents were recently forwarded to the enlistment office.

Denis Shadrin has been targeted by his Kirov prosecutors before. In 2007, a different criminal case charged the activist with “forcible assertion of right”. Consequently, a misdemeanor charge was launched. On February 1st, 2008, the case was suspended for lack of evidence by a magistrate of the Kirovsky oblast judicial district.

Shadrin’s prosecution adds to joins a growing number of instances where opposition activists are illegally threatened or conscripted into military service. February 20th marked two months since Oleg Kozlovsky, a leader in the vocally anti-Putin Oborona (Defense) youth movement was taken by plain-clothes officers outside of his home and sent to serve in the army. Kozlovsky, 23, was first moved to a district enlistment office, then to an army assembly point, and finally shipped to military base number 11291 in the Moscow oblast. Two days later, he was moved again, this time to an air base in the Ryazan oblast. After his case was put before military prosecutors, he was able to file a request for a required medical examination. He was then taken to a garrison clinic, where he was deemed “fit with restrictions” for military service.

Oleg Kozlovsky had completed training courses for the Russian reserves as a student in Moscow State University, and was legally exempt from serving. Nonetheless, he was enlisted as a common soldier and must now serve for one year. Other members of Oborona, as well as notable politicians and human rights activists believe that Kozlovsky was conscripted in retaliation for his opposition activities.

Representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church believe that the move will undermine the fundamentals of spiritual education in Russia and threaten Russia’s institution of priesthood.

“Even though the Ministry of Defense assured us that the conscription of clergymen will raise morality in the armed forces, these are absolutely empty words. The truth is that a priest dressed in a soldier’s uniform can, like any ordinary person, exert a share of their moral resources, and by no means enrich the army with morality or guidance,” said Ksenia Chernega, the legal counsel of Moscow’s patriarchate, in a statement published online.

The motivation for the change remained unexplained, and the Ministry of Defense declined to comment on the introduction of conscription for the country’s future spiritual leaders.

The new rules are problematic for the faithful, since the Canon law of the Orthodox Church forbids clergymen from entering the military service as soldiers. Furthermore, members of the Church must technically be defrocked for participating in the military. Aside from that, priests are also barred from taking up arms or harming any living creature.

The soldier’s struggle is far from an isolated case. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, some 500-1000 conscripts died of non-combat related injuries, including hazing and suicide in 2007. Unofficial estimates from human rights groups like the St. Petersburg-based Soldiers’ Mothers run even higher.

The secrecy and slow response of the Russian military to Rudakov’s condition are similarly typical. Officials first denied that he was harassed, then hid critical medical records. When Germany, France and Israel offered to help with the private’s medical treatment, Russia flat-out refused.

Finally, little has changed in the armed forces since Rudakov was first hospitalized in the fall of 2006. There is doubt that his death will have any effect on how the military treats its conscripts.

Read the full story from Yezhednevny Zhurnal:

Without An Answer
February 13, 2008. 15:28
Yezhednevny Zhurnal

On Tuesday, after an operation, Private Roman Rudakov, a victim of bullying in the army, died in the intensive care unit of the Burdenko hospital, where he had spent over a year. Over the course of many months, he was waiting on an intestinal and kidney transplant operation. He was 21 years old, and he died slowly and painfully. According to his sister, he said this of the doctors treating him: “they are simply waiting for my death.”

When Roman Rudakov’s story first appeared in the media, Sergei Ivanov, then the minister of Defense, publicly said that Roman had a “rare blood disease.” – and no manner of “bullying.” Almost immediately it became apparent that this wasn’t so: Rudakov genuinely suffers from a blood condition, but “bullying” was also present. Medical documents and witness testimony soon surfaced and made it clear that Roman was regularly beaten in the unit where he served. In September 2006, an alleged blow to the stomach injured the vessels of his small intestine, after which the youth began to suffer tissue necrosis. After that, Rudakov was given directions to the Sosnovoborsky hospital, and he was sent on foot, without money, to the doctors. The distance between the Pesochnoye village, where Rudakov was serving, and the Sosnovoborsky hospital is more than 80 kilometers. Later, his small intestine was removed in St. Petersburg, and it was then when the story really became publicly known. The “Soldiers’ Mothers” found the dying soldier on a hospital bed and raised a racket.

Political movements and human rights activists rose to Roman’s defense, led protest actions, wrote complaints. Rudakov was transferred to Moscow to the Burdenko hospital. Then there was the court, where Private First Class Maxim Lomonin, [a fellow recruit] was made the scapegoat, even though Roman said that he was beaten by officers. Lomonin was given a 3 year sentence (suspended). Afterwards, everyone forgot about Rudakov: infrequent reports that his condition was worsening appeared in the media, and that was it. Only the “Soldier’s Mothers” were following Roman’s fate, and there was nothing they could do. The military exerted such efforts to hide any information about this story, that it’s unclear to this day whether or not anything could have been done to save Roman. Why was the operation postponed for so long? Is is true that they couldn’t find a donor (or didn’t want to)? And what did Roman Rudakov die of – according to relatives, an operation was attempted, but they don’t really know anything. There are many questions.

Translated by theotherrussia.org