MOSCOW. June 18 (Interfax-AVN) - Soldiers desert from the Russian army due to beatings, humiliation, torture and extortion, the Russian Union of Committees of Soldiers' Mothers said on Tuesday.
"Out of the 900 servicemen who turned to the Moscow office of the Union of Committees of Soldiers' Mothers, 150 people complained they were beaten, 12 people were tortured and 20 people were subject to extortion," the union's secretary, Valentina Melnikova, said at a press conference in Moscow.
In 2001, over 1,000 people appealed to the Moscow office of the union, she said. Up to 40,000 soldiers desert from the army every year, she said.