Forced conscription roils Russians

The Defense Ministry admits that fewer than 10 percent of males ages 18 to 27 are available for service this year, down from 25 percent a decade ago. The main reasons are an apparently disastrous decline in the health of Russian youth and the creative use of legal deferments.

"I will try to get my son another student exemption, and if not I'll put him into a hospital," says Galina Arsenyeva with her son, Ivan, whose student exemption expires next month. "I will find some way to keep him out of the Army." Sitting beside her, Ivan looks embarassed. "Some guys are made to be soldiers, but it's not my thing," he says. "I don't want it."

Several Moscow-area recruitment officials declined to be interviewed for this story, and a spokesman for the Defense Ministry said it could take weeks to arrange permission to visit an induction center.

Like most Russians, Mr. Ossovsky is proud of his father's war record in World War II. He has no complaints about his own service in the Soviet Army in the 1970s. But, he says, "Today's Army has nothing in common with the one that defended the country in World War II." The battle against the Nazis was sacred for Russians, but opinions here about the role of the military have changed.

One factor could be the decline in family size over the past century. In the 1920s the average Russian woman had nearly seven children. By the 1980s the rate declined to less than two children per woman. "People have far fewer children, so it's natural that they're more protective of them," says Sergei Kazyonnov of the Institute of National Security and Strategic Research here. He says this may be the best argument for a professional Army. "We should create good conditions for those with the predilection to be soldiers."

Former President Boris Yeltsin pledged in 1996 to abolish the draft by 2000. Vladimir Putin, recently reelected in a landslide, has said conscription will be phased out, with most combat roles being carried out by paid volunteers by 2007.

The main obstacle to change, experts say, is money. Russia's defense budget is about $12 billion annually, hardly enough to pay salaries, much less replace Soviet-era hardware.

Many people had hoped that the Law on Alternative Service, passed last year, would ease the social strains of conscription by allowing "conscientious objectors" to perform civilian work in lieu of joining the Army. But critics say the law is too harsh, setting nearly impossible criteria for applicants to "prove" their pacifist credentials and then forcing them to serve three years, often as menial laborers on military bases. Just 216 young men have been approved for alternative service this year.

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