MOSCOW. April 21 (Interfax-AVN) - Raw recruits started leaving for units of the Russian Armed Forces and other law- enforcement structures on April 20, chief of the General Staff mobilization directorate's manning department Lieutenant General Valery Astanin told Interfax-Military News Agency on Monday.
Over 175,000 people are to be drafted for active-duty service with the army and other law-enforcement agencies from April to July.
"The main problems the General Staff is worried about are related with health of draftees and their education level. Nearly 50 percent of people that showed up at medical commissions of military commissioner's offices have health restrictions and cannot be sent to units where advanced requirements for servicemen's physical training are in forces. I am talking about units of the Airborne Troops, Navy, special purpose forces, border guard and Interior Ministry troops," Astanin said.
According to him, 25 percent of draftees only have elementary or incomplete secondary education.
Astanin noted that attention to each potential recruit increased due to the limited number of draftees. From now on draft commissions in districts must daily compare the number of people summoned to the commissions with the number of people that actually showed up. "In case somebody is absent, the commission chairman or military commissioner sends a corresponding application to a local police body so that they could deliver the draft dodger to the commission," Astanin stressed.
He added that his department so far does not have general information on the number of people dodging the current draft in Russia.