MOSCOW. Feb 27 (Interfax-AVN) - The Defense Ministry believes that the quality of potential conscripts largely depends on the criminal situation in the Russian regions where soldiers are recruited from.
"A large number of crimes in military units is committed by servicemen recruited from the Perm, Yaroslavl and Penza regions and the internal republic of Tatarstan. According to the Prosecutor General's Office, the regions were the most criminal ones in 2003," a source in the Defense Ministry told Interfax- Military News Agency Friday.
He said that citizens subject to conscription committed over 310,000 crimes in 2003. At the same time, over 145,000 crimes were committed by teenagers who have not reached the conscription age.
"According to the Russian Prosecutor General's Office, the crime level has reached considerably among teenagers and young people in the Penza, Perm, Yaroslavl and Amur regions and in the republics of Tatarstan, Dagestan and Tuva. As a result, the number of conscripts with criminal record recruited from these regions grew by 3.5 percent in 2003," the source said.
Defense Ministry leaders believe that this affects the general crime level in the Armed Forces.
The source recalled a grave committed by two servicemen of the 31st detached airborne brigade in 2002. The two men, one of them having earlier criminal record, stole arms and killed 10 people. One of the criminals was recruited from the Penza region and the other one from Tatarstan.
Servicemen who were convicted before conscription are the most frequent perpetrators of the most dangerous crimes such as arms and ammo trade, hooliganism in barracks, extortion and sexual harassment, the source stressed.