SARATOV, December 6 (AVN) - The central Russian Saratov region has recruited 70 percent of its residents eligible for army draft this autumn, a spokesman for the mobilisation department of the Privolzhsky district headquarters said on Monday.
Nevertheless, the number of draft dodgers in the region is still one of the highest in the country, the spokesman told the Military News Agency. Over 3,200 persons are currently evading service, he said.
The spokesman blamed the situation on low-level recruiting commissions which keep secret the number of persons who do not show up for draft. As a result, regional authorities and law-enforcement agencies are not fully aware about the scale of the problem.
In general, the Privolzhsky district is coping with the draft quite satisfactory, the spokesman said. The Bashkyrian autonomous republic, where the number of persons eligible for draft is twice as high as in Saratov, has registered only about 3000 dodgers. The lowest number of dodgers, 101, is registered in the Orenburg region.