MOSCOW. Nov 17 (Interfax-AVN) - The Russian Defense Ministry has proposed introducing a disciplinary or an administrative arrest in the Armed Forces, Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said at the Wednesday meeting of the Armed Force senior officials devoted to major results of combat training in 2004 and development prospects until 2016.
"Experience also proves that the lack of adequate disciplinary punishment for offenses is one of the major prerequisites for crimes in the Armed Forces. It is also caused by suspension of such an efficient disciplinary punishment as detention in the guardhouse," he said.
He said that the Defense Ministry proposed introducing a disciplinary or an administrative arrest in the Armed Forces, with the follow-up legal confirmation of this preventive punishment in order to provide commanding officers with a capability of exercising their power to the full extent.
Ivanov also said that the number of crimes, pertaining to evading military service, which traditionally account for the lion's share in the overall number of crimes committed in the Armed Forces, had slightly decreased this year.
"While in 2003 such crimes amounted to 3,241, in 2004 they amount to 3,085," he said.
He also noted that an almost 5% increase in the overall number of crimes (10,849 in 2003, and 11,624 in 2004) was an indisputable fact, and the crime level in the Armed Forces remained unacceptably high.
According to him, the environment in the North Caucasus, the Volga-Urals, the Siberian, the Far East, and the Leningrad Military Districts, as well as the Northern Fleet, and the Airborne Forces generates the greatest concern.