The YABLOKO party expresses its resolute protest against
the plans of the Moscow government to restore the [Soviet]
system of preservice military training with regular encampments
of schoolchildren and introduction of the fundamentals of
the military service as a subject in the school curriculum.
We think that the Concept of Preservice Training of the Young
People in Moscow Until 2020 endangers life and health of the
young Muscovites and is targeted at conservation of the present
problems rather than reconstruction of the army, which inevitably
leads to further degradation of the armed forces.
The present system of conscription to the Armed Forces of
Russia serves only for justification of the existence of the
Russian military bureaucracy and their deriving profits from
gratuitous soldiers’ labour. Mass-scale violations of the
rights of the young people of the conscription age and harassment
– derision, beatings and blackmail – have become a daily reality
in the army.
The concept adopted by the Moscow Government also contradicts
to the essential principles of the military reform announced
in early 2000s: fight against harassment of subordinates in
the army and gradual transfer to a professional army.
YABLOKO demands from the Moscow and the federal government
to abolish the plans of mandatory preservice military training
at schools, cancellation of conscription and creation of a
professional army formed on a contract basis.
Sergei Mitrokhin,
Chair of the YABLOKO party
Ivan Bolshakov,
Chair of the Commission on the Youth Policies of the Moscow
YABLOKO
See also:
Human
Rights
The
Russian Army
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