MOSCOW. March 30 (Interfax-AVN) - About 2,000 conscripts were decommissioned for health reasons in 2003, head of the General Staff Mobilization Directorate Colonel General Vasily Smirnov told reporters in Moscow on Tuesday.
"About 2,000 conscripts were decommissioned from the army for health reasons last year," he said.
Various health reasons is the main cause for decommissioning, the general said.
"According to the data of the 2003 fall conscription campaign, 5 percent of conscripts had health restrictions, 40 percent of them did not work or study at the time of recruitment, and five percent had had record of public offenses.
"Actually we are forced to conscript everyone without a deferment. Only because of this men with certain service health restrictions find themselves in the army," he said.