MOSCOW. Sept 28 (Interfax-AVN) - Over 30 percent of servicemen who deserted from Land Forces have been found and returned to units in September.
"This is the preliminary results of the 'Deserter' operation that is being held by the Land Forces Command in cooperation with regional police in September," Colonel General Alexander Morozov, Land Forces Chief of Staff, told Interfax-Military News Agency Tuesday.
"For instance, 23, 20 and 29 percent of deserters have been returned to the Siberian, Moscow and Far East Military Districts respectively, " he added.
He also said that as a rule the figures were twice as low when only the police were involved.
"The police are entitled to search for deserters, and Armed Forces can only join them in the course of such operations. By the way, we had worse results of similar operation last year. It means that year after year the liaison of Land Forces and law enforcement agencies turns better, as well as the methods to find deserters, which only helps to achieve better results," he said.
He emphasized that the Land Forces Command thinks it is very important to return deserters to their units.
"The matter is that the longer the servicemen are on the run, the higher is the possibility that they will commit other crimes. Statistics shows that every sixth serviceman commits one or several criminal offences during his absence from the unit," Morozov said.