The Duma Defense Committee will support a bill prepared in the Federation Council on conscription into the army of those who were previously recognized as partially fit for service for health reasons. Sources in the lower house told RBC about this

The Duma Defense Committee, at a meeting on Thursday, October 19, recommends supporting amendments to the Federation Council that would allow the conscription of men previously recognized as partially fit for military service into the army. military service, if they later underwent re-examination. Two sources in the committee told RBC about this.

According to Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Defense Yuri Shvytkin (United Russia), the initiative “deserves support” “because it will help give the opportunity to defend the Fatherland to those who really want it.” According to the current law, if the medical commission does not allow a conscript to serve, then he will no longer enter the army.

The bill was supported by the Duma legal department, recalled one of RBC’s sources. In addition, the document received a positive response from the government. The Cabinet of Ministers agreed with the arguments of the senators that “many citizens who were previously recognized as partially fit for military service due to health reasons and were enlisted in the reserves express a desire to undergo military service on call." “The adoption of the bill will ensure the opportunity for these citizens to exercise their constitutional right and fulfill their duty to defend the Fatherland,” the government review emphasized.

The bill was introduced by a group of senators led by Chairman of the Defense Committee of the Federation Council Viktor Ozerov on May 2. As noted in the text of the explanatory note, “male citizens aged 18 to 27 years, exempt from conscription for military service as limitedly fit for military service due to health reasons and enlisted in the reserve, have the right to undergo medical re-examination.” If a medical examination shows that the conscript is fit for military service or “fit with minor restrictions,” he can go to serve.

The authors motivate the need to adopt the bill by the fact that “to the military commissariats and bodies legislative branch arrives significant amount appeals” from Russians who were initially not allowed to serve in the army due to their health, but then their medical indicators improved.

“The law is needed because of the growing demand for military service. The current list of diseases, which limits the possibility of conscripting young people, also consists of curable diseases,” Viktor Murakhovsky, editor-in-chief of Arsenal of the Fatherland magazine, commented to RBC. The expert added that due to the growing number of contract soldiers, the Ministry of Defense does not have a shortage of conscripts. This allows military registration and enlistment offices to select conscripts not only based on medical conditions, but also through interviews with psychologists, and also taking into account their suitability for military specialties.

Another argument in favor of the bill, Murakhovsky called the growing interest in military service due to the fact that those who served in the army began to be provided with additional benefits when entering universities and the civil service. “Some draft dodgers are now running around and trying to retroactively register their service in order to take advantage of the privileges,” the expert noted.

"The number of conscripts in recent years stays at 300 thousand per year. This is a third of total number young people of conscription age, fit for military service,” Sergei Krivenko, coordinator of the public initiative “Citizen and the Army,” told RBC. This situation has been observed since 1994. According to Krivenko, more conscripts are not required. The army is tasked with forming combat-ready units on a contract basis. “They don’t want to cancel the conscription, since this transition is difficult, and contract soldiers are recruited from among the conscripts,” he added. In units, all units that perform combat missions are formed from contract soldiers, but conscripts are employed in auxiliary work, Krivenko noted. According to him, this dangerous situation: in the army there are many conflict situations between contract soldiers and conscripts.

In May, a group of senators led by Ozerov introduced to the State Duma a whole package of bills regulating issues of conscription into the army. As one of the co-authors of RBC, Senator Franz Klintsevich, the package of amendments was designed to reduce the number of “evaders” and help form a military reserve.

One of the bills, in particular, proposed to give military registration and enlistment offices the opportunity to send summons to conscripts email. But the State Duma refused the proposal to send conscripts electronic summons to the military registration and enlistment office. The Defense Committee said that the implementation of the bill will require additional spending from the budget.

In Russia, conscription for military service is carried out twice a year: from April 1 to July 15 and from October 1 to December 31. Men aged 18 to 27 who have no medical contraindications and no right to a deferment are called up for military service. On September 27, President Vladimir Putin issued a decree calling up 134 thousand people for military service from October 1 to December 31, 2017.

How the size of the Russian army changed

Throughout the 1990s, the number of military personnel in the Russian Armed Forces (AF) decreased by approximately half. Since 1997, it has been established by presidential decrees. By his decree of 1997, Boris Yeltsin established the regular number of military personnel at 1.2 million people since 1999.

In 2001, Vladimir Putin signed a decree, according to which the number of military personnel was to be reduced to 1 million from 2006. However, in 2005, the number of military personnel was increased for the first time since the collapse of the USSR: according to Putin’s decree, it amounted to 1134.8 thousand . Human . In addition, the decree for the first time established the staffing level of the armed forces at the level of 2020.5 thousand units.

In 2006, there were regulations, according to which the service life of 2007 conscripts was reduced to 18 months, and from 2008 it was set at 12 months. At the same time, some deferments from conscription were canceled, others were adjusted. The adoption of the amendments was due to the transition of the aircraft primarily to the contract method of manning.

The next time the number of military personnel changed was in 2008, when Dmitry Medvedev again reduced it to 1 million by decree. The total number of armed forces was then reduced to 1884.9 thousand units.

In 2016, Vladimir Putin left the number of military personnel at 1 million people, and in 2017 it increased to 13.6 thousand people.

With the participation of: Philip Aleksenko

Spring is a reason for excitement for many young people. However, this is not at all connected with the onset of heat and sunny days, but with the fact that just in spring time recruitment into the army is underway.

The modern military service system is the result of many changes. They affected both the timing and the army composition itself. As for 2017, according to preliminary data, conscripts will make up approximately 2/3 of the people who will serve under a contract. Conscripts must serve for exactly one year, while contract service requires two years of service.

Should I wait for cancellation?

The question that worries many is whether military service will be abolished in the coming year 2018? Young men whose age is just right for conscription are especially interested in this.

There is indeed information that from 2018 it will be possible to serve exclusively under a contract. Rumors about such an innovation have been circulating for a long time. However, how true are they?

At the same time, if we consider this question on the part of the people responsible for the security of the country, then this option will be extremely beneficial for them. The whole point is that people who go to serve voluntarily and receive material rewards for it are more interested than those who are forced into the army.

In addition, every educated person should understand that mastering military basics in one year is unrealistic. This requires much more time. However, who would want to spend their youth acquiring military knowledge?

Reforms

Future reforms are aimed at maintaining the Russian army. Thus, the changes will affect rearmament and equipping conscripts with more modern equipment.

It is believed that more effective weapons will make it possible to better prepare for the defense of the Motherland. At the same time, it is worth saying that rearmament will not be completed overnight; on the contrary, it will occur gradually and will require a certain amount of time.

Another innovation will concern raising service standards. It is believed that the new level will make the army more prepared, and its work more coordinated and efficient. The authorities will spare no expense especially for this purpose.

About the military department

A visit to the military department is good option to avoid military service. For such university students, conscription issues are, as a rule, uninteresting. However, in this case, the student will have a hard time: in addition to his main studies, he will need to attend additional classes, where he will be introduced to the intricacies of military affairs.

The result of visiting the military department - officer rank. As for the duration of such training, it is approximately 450 hours.
What options were considered?

Along with information about the abolition of military service, there is another point of view. It concerns the fact that the period of military service can be increased to 1.8 years. That is, eight more months can be added to the existing twelve months. Is this true?

It is impossible to give an exact answer to this question, since not a single person can look into the future and say what awaits him, even tomorrow. One thing is clear: no such changes have been made so far.

In addition, the increase in service life has no basis. Accordingly, no changes can be expected in the next year or two.

About service reduction

Along with information about the abolition of army service and increasing it by eight months, there is another option - reducing the stay in the army to 45 days, that is, up to one and a half months.

Such information exists, but where it came from is very difficult to determine. Most likely it came to light from some unreliable sources that should be treated with distrust.

What does the president say?

The word of the President - the Supreme Commander-in-Chief - is one of the most significant. Many future conscripts of 2017 were waiting with great excitement to see what V.V. himself would tell them. Putin.

As it turned out, the president’s plans do not include either increasing the service life, or, especially, reducing it. This statement was made by V.V. Putin officially.

Therefore, there is nothing more to add to his assurance. In the near future, future soldiers can rest easy. The period of military service will be, as before, 1 year.

And to make the twelve months of war easier, you should start preparing for them in advance, increasing your level of physical fitness, patience and endurance.

The same applies to those who plan to serve under a contract. Perhaps this decision will play a role and in the future the soldier will want to connect his entire life with a military career.

Russia may soon expect a complete abolition of conscription in the army. This is evidenced by the abundance of various reports and rumors in social networks on this score. In support of the theory about the abolition of military service in favor of contract service, Internet users cite the words of President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin from an interview at the end of 2017. Then Putin said that in a general sense, the trend in the development of the armed forces of the Russian Federation tends to completely abolish conscription for military service.

Vladimir Putin, in his forecast on this matter, said the phrase “after a certain time,” but in September 2018, more specific figures began to circulate. For example, persons indirectly associated with the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation claim that the abolition of conscript service in Russia should be expected in the next 5 years, which will last deadline presidency of Vladimir Putin.

There are several serious reasons for the abolition of the concept of “conscript service” and conscription obligations for young male citizens over 18 years of age, rooted in jurisprudence on the issue of human rights. Thus, by many progressive modern democratic standards, forcing a person to go to military training under the threat of criminal liability, depriving him of freedom of movement and not focusing on his personal beliefs is in fact a gross violation of many clauses of the International Convention on Human Rights. Russia, despite its difficult geopolitical position, tries to comply with all the rules of a democratic society.

In addition to the fact that conscript service is morally outdated and violates many people’s rights and freedoms, the reason for its abolition may also be an economic issue. Namely, the issue of paying off the maintenance of soldiers who are conscripted by force. More often than not, these soldiers receive much poorer training than their contract counterparts. Contract soldiers are ready to work very hard for the good of their homeland, receiving a decent salary for their military service. Considering such an obvious benefit for the country, it is not at all surprising that even Vladimir Putin, the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the entire army, is thinking about its further transformation into a voluntary one and for money.

When will conscription service in Russia be finally abolished?

So far, all existing and circulating on the Internet terms for the complete abolition of compulsory conscription service in Russia are unconfirmed by the main body responsible for conscription itself in Russia - the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. Nevertheless, all the leaks that are in the hands of the Internet public, as well as in some analytical articles, in total repeat approximately the same period of time in which the abolition of conscript service in Russia should take place. These terms are either vague “several years” or more specific the next 5 years, coinciding with the fourth term of Vladimir Putin’s presidency.

Vladimir Putin’s interview with one of the news publications in 2017 touched on the situation with urgent service rather indirectly. However, that same interview had the status of a real resonance, giving rise to reasons for reflection for a whole year ahead. The president of the Toga country said a phrase that does not literally speak about the projects of the future that are on paper on the lists. Vladimir Putin argued to journalists that after some time the conscript army in Russia will definitely retreat, giving way to young and ambitious contract soldiers.

© Andrey Alexandrov/RIA Novosti

Russia is already ready for existing system The formation of the armed forces is completely replaced by a contract one, according to the Growth Party. The collection of signatures for amendments to the law “On Military Service” has been launched on the portal of the Russian Public Initiative (ROI). It is proposed to supplement it with a clause according to which “military service is carried out on a voluntary basis (under a contract).” At the same time, it is proposed to remove Article 328 “Evasion from military service” from the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

It is quite possible to make appropriate changes to the legislation in the near future and make sure that the spring conscription of 2016 becomes the last, believes the party leader, Federal Commissioner for Entrepreneurs Boris Titov. “The last step remains for the transition to a fully professional army. We've already passed adaptation period, we know how a contract army works, all the technical parts are there, all that remains is to make a decision and refuse conscription,” he said at a round table dedicated to this topic.

According to Titov, today there are enough people in the country who professionally fulfill their military duty. They are the ones who participate in real serious special operations. And new conscripts dig trenches around their unit and are generally used more for housework than for their intended purpose. The army and military officers do not need them, but the generals need them as cheap labor to fulfill everyday economic needs.

For a year urgent conscription It is impossible to turn yesterday's schoolboy into a professional soldier. And even if in some cases this is successful, the actual period of its effective operation (minus training time) will not exceed 2-3 months. And then the person will return to civilian life, where the acquired skills will dissolve as unnecessary. A contract soldier who comes to military service voluntarily and for a long time will perform his functions for at least several years, supporters of this initiative argue for their position.


© Alexander Kryazhev/RIA Novosti

Moreover, today, in the era of targeted special operations and hybrid wars, which often begin on Facebook and are waged not so much on the battlefield as in the information space, the armed forces no longer require a huge number of privates. And from an economic point of view, training and servicing endless conscripts costs the state budget more than maintaining a professional army on a contract basis.

And in case of unforeseen circumstances and the need to assemble a large-scale people's militia, it is necessary to train reservists, including women. To do this, it is necessary to revive the system of military departments at universities and make more active use of the practice of short-term military training. It would also not hurt to revive basic military training in schools. Already at this early stage, you can teach some professional skills that can be useful both in the army and in life, for example, the ability to drive large machines, no matter whether it is a tank or a tractor, or to provide first aid.

At the same time, in order to create a full-fledged professional army, the issue must be considered comprehensively, and solve not only the problem of training and maintaining contract soldiers, but also their future fate after the end of the service. Everyone acknowledges the existence of this problem. IN Soviet era An officer leaving for the reserve received an average pension of 220-250 rubles, and could calmly fish at his dacha for his own pleasure, without thinking about his daily bread. Today, the average pension of a military personnel is from 20 to 30 thousand rubles. This, of course, is more than the average Russian pension in general, but it is still not enough for a full life. After all we're talking about about people who are still quite young - 40-45 years old, most have families and children.

In Russia, at this age, finding a job is, in principle, quite difficult, and even more so in the absence of “civilian” experience. And if technical specialists can still get a job in some commercial companies, then where should a combat officer go - only as a security guard? But such people are in great demand in various criminal structures.

This social problem became especially pronounced in the 90s. Now the situation with the employment of military personnel has changed in better side, but is still far from ideal. In order to somehow relieve its severity, it is necessary to start working in advance with those who are planning to leave the ranks of the armed forces, the round table participants summarized.

“On measures for a phased transition to staffing the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation with military personnel on a voluntary basis - under a contract.” The document obliged the Ministry of Defense from 1993 to begin organizational work on a phased transition to military service on the basis of a contract. At the first stage, the ministry was supposed to engage in attracting citizens to contract service in regions with “excess labor resources,” as well as recruit soldiers, sailors, sergeants and foremen who had already served in the army under conscription for contract service. 6 billion rubles were allocated for the initial stage of the reform. On January 31, 2012, the document became invalid.

On May 16, 1996, Presidential Decree No. 723 was also signed, which allowed conscripts to be sent to an armed conflict zone only on a voluntary basis and after concluding a contract with them. However, this decree was changed two years later - now the document stated that soldiers, sailors, foremen and conscripted officers could be sent to “hot spots” on a voluntary basis, but without concluding a contract. In October 1999, the decree completely lost force.

In addition, in September 1999 it was determined that conscripts could be sent to the combat zone after six months military training. On February 11, 2013, President Vladimir Putin signed a decree that reduced the period of such preparation to four months.

At the end of December 2016, a law on short-term contracts was adopted, which allows conscripts who signed the corresponding document to be sent abroad “to participate in activities to maintain or restore international peace and security or suppress international terrorist activities.”

“At the same time, the implementation of the government initiative will not require additional financial costs,” noted Rossiyskaya Gazeta.

May 16, 1996 President Boris Yeltsin issued Decree No. 722 “On the transition to filling positions of privates and sergeants in the Armed Forces and other troops of the Russian Federation on a professional basis.” The decree in its original version determined that from the spring of 2000, the Armed Forces must completely switch to “staffing positions of privates and sergeants on the basis of the voluntary admission of citizens to military service under a contract with the abolition of conscription.” The development of the procedure for entering contract service was to be completed by 2000. In July 1996, Yeltsin was re-elected as president.

Two years later the decree was amended - now the document provided for a transition to contract service “as the necessary conditions are created.” Soon, the State Duma adopted the federal law “On Military Duty and Military Service,” in which “conscription military service” was recorded as an obligation, and the fulfillment of “the constitutional duty to defend the Fatherland through voluntary enlistment in military service” as a citizen’s right.

In November 2001 Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov presented a report to President Vladimir Putin on the gradual transition of the Armed Forces from conscription to the contract principle of recruitment. The report stated that Russia needed a gradual transition to a fully professional army; the number of contract soldiers in the Armed Forces should grow annually; the pace of reform will depend on the economic capabilities of the country, the prime minister specified. Newly appointed Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov estimates that the transition to a fully professional army would take at least 10 years.

In August 2002 At a meeting with sailors of the Pacific Fleet, Putin called the transition to contract service “task number one.” At the same time, he did not talk about the abolition of conscription as the ultimate goal of military reform. “In general, in continental countries, rarely does anyone switch to 100% contract service. But at the same time, contract service can be and, apparently, will be in the future, as it were, the main component,” Putin reasoned. - Initially it seemed that it was enough to simply increase salary, and that's it. No. Some of our politicians say: let us transfer everything to a contract basis within a year. You can transfer it to a contract basis within a year, but this will discredit the idea itself.”

In 2003 the government approved the federal target program “Transition to manning a number of formations and military units with military personnel serving under contract,” according to which almost half of the units were to be transferred to the category of permanent combat readiness units; From now on, only contract soldiers could serve in them. The same program provided that from 2008, conscription service would be reduced to 12 months. According to a member of the Presidential Council for Human Rights, director of the human rights group “Citizen. Army. Right” by Sergei Krivenko, the military department failed to implement the program - “soldiers were forced to sign a contract,” and conscripts continued to serve “in real military units,” although the Federal Target Program assumed that they would only master military specialties.

In 2004 Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov announced that conscription into the army would not be cancelled; Only units with constant combat readiness will switch completely to the contract. “In Russia, no one has set or intends to set the task of completely transitioning to a contract system for recruiting the army and navy,” Ivanov said, explaining that “the state does not have such capabilities, and this must be directly recognized.”

In 2006 Vladimir Putin at a meeting management team The Armed Forces promised that by 2008, 70% of military personnel would be contract soldiers.

In November 2011 President Dmitry Medvedev has promised to reduce the number of conscripts to a minimum over the next five to seven years. According to Medvedev’s plans, by 2018 the share of contract soldiers in the army was supposed to be 80-90%. Those who consider it “extremely important and necessary for themselves” could serve under conscription, the president admitted. “We made, in essence, a political decision to calmly move towards a professional army,” the head of state said then. He emphasized: reform will require significant costs; To make contract service attractive, military personnel need to raise salaries.

In January 2012 Prime Minister Putin said that the requirement for a complete transition to contract service is related to the task of training military specialists, since “a year of service, of course, is not enough to master modern technology.” “We, of course, will maintain a significant part of the conscript army for now, but gradually, especially for high-tech branches of the armed forces such as aviation, air defense, and the navy, we need to gradually switch to a contract basis,” he concluded.

In a month V " Rossiyskaya newspaper“Putin’s “Be Strong” was published, dedicated to the development of the military-industrial complex. The author wrote that by 2020 the number of conscripts should be reduced to 145 thousand people, with a total number of armed forces of one million people. However, the presidential candidate made a reservation: “Of course, the Army should become professional, and its core should be contract soldiers. However, we cannot abolish the concept of honorable military duty for men, and they must be ready to defend the Motherland in a moment of danger.”

In November 2013 Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said in an interview with the Rossiya 1 TV channel that Russian army cannot completely switch to contract service. “We have a very large country. In order to have an exclusively professional army, we have a very large territory. In case of a threat, we must be able to mobilize,” the minister explained. - And in order to mobilize, we must have a mobilization resource. For this there is a solution to create four reserve armies, and by 2020 we will move away from combat use in military operations of conscripts."

A year and a half later, in the spring of 2015 Shoigu said he still hopes that in the future the Russian army will be completely contract-based. However, no specific dates possible refusal the official did not name the call. The minister noted that the number of contract soldiers in 2015 for the first time exceeded the number of conscripts: 300 thousand people versus 276 thousand, respectively.