As Russia begins drafting young men, some fear ending up on Ukraine’s front lines
President Vladimir Putin said March 8 that hostilities in Ukraine did not involve conscripts.
Skepticism toward military officials runs deep in Russia. Many people remember the trauma inflicted during the separatist wars in the southern Russian republic of Chechnya in the 1990s and early 2000s. Thousands of young men, woefully unprepared for battle, were killed, and groups like the Committee of Soldiers’ Mothers gained prominence, working to release prisoners of war and return bodies to grieving families.
Many Russians also try to avoid the draft for health reasons and through deferments granted to university students. But enlistment offices do not always accept these reasons. The draft is also riddled with corruption. Enlistment offices have networks of doctors, clerks and military officials who are willing to sell military service record cards, which allow men to avoid conscription, at a cost of up to several thousand dollars each. The ever-increasing cost of such cards has prompted many parents to have two savings funds: one to pay for college and another to bribe the enlistment office.Evading the draft is especially common in big cities like Moscow and St.
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