MOSCOW. July 9 (Interfax-AVN) - Human Rights Commissioner Vladimir Lukin wants the system of draft deferments to be tightened, but not for students, because the country's national security cannot be assured unless Russia is an educated nation, Lukin told a news conference in Moscow on Friday.
Of the class of 2003 draftees, 34.9% had not worked or studied in a higher education institute before being conscripted, 21.7% were dropouts, 53% were not fully healthy, 19.5% had been raised in a one- parent family, 6% were registered with the police for anti-social behavior, and 5.1% had quashed court sentences.
This kind of 'new blood' has a negative impact on the moral climate in the armed services, he said.
Out of every 100 young men registered in recruiting offices, only nine perform military service. "There are now 24 official reasons why one cannot be drafted, compared to nine in the former USSR. Still, citizens unfit for military service are drafted on numerous occasions," Lukin said.
Vyacheslav Seliverstov, a senior official in Lukin's office, said they have received over 5,000 complaints filed by servicemen.
About 20% of them are about housing, followed by complaints about benefits; third place is taken by complaints over supplies and wages, while those over hazing take fourth place. The number of hazing complaints has declined recently, he said.
Most complaints are sent by conscripts who feel that they should not have been drafted or about diseases contracted during service, Seliverstov said. Some of last year's conscripts even died of pneumonia, he said.