MOSCOW. Sept 10 (Interfax-AVN) - A Russian General Staff commission headed for the city of Volgograd to find out reasons for the mass desertion of servicemen in the Volgograd region, the Defense Ministry's press service chief Colonel Nikolai Deryabin told Interfax-Military News Agency on Tuesday.
"At an order from Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov the commission led by Lieutenant General Vladimir Novikov, chief of the General Staff department on control over troops service and military service security flew to Volgograd," Deryabin said.
According to him, the commission features officials from various services including those from the main political work department.
Deryabin stressed that the North Caucasus military district's commander Colonel General Gennady Troshev is already in the city.
An official of the Defense Ministry said that 54 servicemen deserted their unit, which belongs to the 20th motorized rifle division of the North Caucasus military district.
The mass AWOL happened from a military proving range on Sunday morning. The deserters were detained at about 1:00 a.m. Moscow time on Tuesday (2100 GMT on Monday) on the outskirts of Volgograd.
"According to preliminary data, the reason for the AWOL was hazing," a source in the Volgograd region law-enforcement agencies told Interfax-AVN.
All servicemen were without arms, the source said.