Russia may soon expect a complete abolition of conscription in the army. This is evidenced by the abundance of various messages and rumors on social networks in this regard. In support of the theory about the abolition of military service in favor of contract service, Internet users cite the words of President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin from an interview at the end of 2017. Then Putin said that in a general sense, the trend in the development of the armed forces of the Russian Federation tends to completely abolish conscription for military service.

Vladimir Putin, in his forecast on this matter, said the phrase “after a certain time,” but in September 2018, more specific figures began to be circulated. For example, persons indirectly associated with the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation claim that the abolition of conscript service in Russia should be expected in the next 5 years, which will last the last term of Vladimir Putin’s presidency.

There are several serious reasons for the abolition of the concept of “conscript service” and conscription obligations for young male citizens over 18 years of age, rooted in jurisprudence on the issue of human rights. Thus, by many progressive modern democratic standards, forcing a person to go to military training under the threat of criminal liability, depriving him of freedom of movement and not focusing on his personal beliefs is in fact a gross violation of many clauses of the International Convention on Human Rights. Russia, despite its difficult geopolitical position, tries to comply with all the rules of a democratic society.

In addition to the fact that conscript service is morally outdated and violates many people’s rights and freedoms, the reason for its abolition may also be an economic issue. Namely, the issue of paying off the maintenance of soldiers who are conscripted by force. More often than not, these soldiers receive much poorer training than their contract counterparts. Contract soldiers are ready to work very hard for the good of their homeland, receiving a decent salary for their military service. Considering such an obvious benefit for the country, it is not at all surprising that even Vladimir Putin, the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the entire army, is thinking about its further transformation into a voluntary one and for money.

When will conscription service in Russia be finally abolished?

So far, all existing and circulating on the Internet terms of the complete abolition of compulsory conscription service in Russia are unconfirmed by the main body responsible for conscription itself in Russia - the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. Nevertheless, all the leaks that are in the hands of the Internet public, as well as in some analytical articles, in total repeat approximately the same period of time in which the abolition of conscript service in Russia should take place. These terms are either vague “several years” or more specific the next 5 years, coinciding with the fourth term of Vladimir Putin’s presidency.

Vladimir Putin’s interview with one of the news publications in 2017 touched upon the situation with conscript service rather indirectly. However, that same interview had the status of a real resonance, giving rise to reasons for reflection for a whole year ahead. The president of the Toga country said a phrase that does not literally speak about the projects of the future that are on paper on the lists. Vladimir Putin argued to journalists that after some time the conscript army in Russia will definitely retreat, giving way to young and ambitious contract soldiers.

The Duma Defense Committee will support a bill prepared in the Federation Council on conscription into the army of those who were previously recognized as partially fit for service for health reasons. Sources in the lower house told RBC about this

The Duma Defense Committee, at a meeting on Thursday, October 19, recommends supporting amendments to the Federation Council that would allow men previously recognized as partially fit for military service to be drafted into the army if they later underwent re-examination. Two sources in the committee told RBC about this.

According to Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Defense Yuri Shvytkin (United Russia), the initiative “deserves support” “because it will help give the opportunity to defend the Fatherland to those who really want it.” According to the current law, if the medical commission does not allow a conscript to serve, then he will no longer enter the army.

The bill was supported by the Duma legal department, recalled one of RBC’s sources. In addition, the document received a positive response from the government. The Cabinet of Ministers agreed with the arguments of the senators that “many citizens who were previously recognized as limitedly fit for military service due to health reasons and were enlisted in the reserves express a desire to do military service upon conscription.” “The adoption of the bill will ensure the opportunity for these citizens to exercise their constitutional right and fulfill their duty to defend the Fatherland,” the government review emphasized.

The bill was introduced by a group of senators led by Chairman of the Defense Committee of the Federation Council Viktor Ozerov on May 2. As noted in the text of the explanatory note, “male citizens aged 18 to 27 years, exempt from conscription for military service as limitedly fit for military service due to health reasons and enlisted in the reserve, have the right to undergo medical re-examination.” If a medical examination shows that the conscript is fit for military service or “fit with minor restrictions,” he can go to serve.

The authors justify the need to adopt the bill by the fact that “military commissariats and legislative bodies receive a significant number of appeals” from Russians who were initially not allowed to serve in the army due to their health, but then their medical indicators improved.

“The law is needed because of the growing demand for military service. The current list of diseases, which limits the possibility of conscripting young people, also consists of curable diseases,” Viktor Murakhovsky, editor-in-chief of Arsenal of the Fatherland magazine, commented to RBC. The expert added that due to the growing number of contract soldiers, the Ministry of Defense does not have a shortage of conscripts. This allows military registration and enlistment offices to select conscripts not only based on medical conditions, but also through interviews with psychologists, and also taking into account their compliance with military specialties.

Another argument in favor of the bill, Murakhovsky called the growing interest in military service due to the fact that those who served in the army began to be provided with additional benefits when entering universities and the civil service. “Some draft dodgers are now running around and trying to retroactively register their service in order to take advantage of the privileges,” the expert noted.

“The number of conscripts in recent years has remained at 300 thousand per year. This is a third of the total number of young people of conscription age fit for military service,” Sergei Krivenko, coordinator of the public initiative “Citizen and the Army,” told RBC. This situation has been observed since 1994. According to Krivenko, more conscripts are not required. The army is tasked with forming combat-ready units on a contract basis. “They don’t want to cancel the conscription, since this transition is difficult, and contract soldiers are recruited from among the conscripts,” he added. In units, all units that perform combat missions are formed from contract soldiers, but conscripts are employed in auxiliary work, Krivenko noted. According to him, this is a dangerous situation: in the army there are many conflict situations between contract soldiers and conscripts.

In May, a group of senators led by Ozerov introduced to the State Duma a whole package of bills regulating issues of conscription into the army. As one of the co-authors of RBC, Senator Franz Klintsevich, the package of amendments was designed to reduce the number of “evaders” and help form a military reserve.

One of the bills, in particular, proposed allowing military registration and enlistment offices to send summonses to conscripts by email. But the State Duma refused the proposal to send conscripts electronic summons to the military registration and enlistment office. The Defense Committee said that the implementation of the bill will require additional spending from the budget.

In Russia, conscription for military service is carried out twice a year: from April 1 to July 15 and from October 1 to December 31. Men aged 18 to 27 who have no medical contraindications and no right to a deferment are called up for military service. On September 27, President Vladimir Putin issued a decree calling up 134 thousand people for military service from October 1 to December 31, 2017.

How the size of the Russian army changed

Throughout the 1990s, the number of military personnel in the Russian Armed Forces (AF) decreased by approximately half. Since 1997, it has been established by presidential decrees. By his decree of 1997, Boris Yeltsin established the regular number of military personnel at 1.2 million people since 1999.

In 2001, Vladimir Putin signed a decree, according to which the number of military personnel was to be reduced to 1 million from 2006. However, in 2005, the number of military personnel was increased for the first time since the collapse of the USSR: according to Putin’s decree, it amounted to 1134.8 thousand . Human . In addition, the decree for the first time established the staffing level of the armed forces at the level of 2020.5 thousand units.

In 2006, there were regulations, according to which the service life of 2007 conscripts was reduced to 18 months, and from 2008 it was set at 12 months. At the same time, some deferments from conscription were canceled, others were adjusted. The adoption of the amendments was due to the transition of the aircraft primarily to the contract method of manning.

The next time the number of military personnel changed was in 2008, when Dmitry Medvedev again reduced it to 1 million by decree. The total number of armed forces was then reduced to 1884.9 thousand units.

In 2016, Vladimir Putin left the number of military personnel at 1 million people, and in 2017 it increased to 13.6 thousand people.

With the participation of: Philip Aleksenko

“On measures for a phased transition to staffing the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation with military personnel on a voluntary basis - under a contract.” The document obliged the Ministry of Defense from 1993 to begin organizational work on a phased transition to military service on the basis of a contract. At the first stage, the ministry was supposed to engage in attracting citizens to contract service in regions with “excess labor resources”, as well as recruit soldiers, sailors, sergeants and foremen who had already served in the army on conscription for contract service. 6 billion rubles were allocated for the initial stage of the reform. On January 31, 2012, the document became invalid.

On May 16, 1996, Presidential Decree No. 723 was also signed, which allowed conscripts to be sent to an armed conflict zone only on a voluntary basis and after concluding a contract with them. However, this decree was changed two years later - now the document stated that soldiers, sailors, foremen and conscripted officers could be sent to “hot spots” on a voluntary basis, but without concluding a contract. In October 1999, the decree completely lost force.

In addition, in September 1999 it was determined that conscripts could be sent to a combat zone after six months of military training. On February 11, 2013, President Vladimir Putin signed a decree that reduced the period of such preparation to four months.

At the end of December 2016, a law on short-term contracts was adopted, which allows conscripts who signed the corresponding document to be sent abroad “to participate in activities to maintain or restore international peace and security or suppress international terrorist activities.”

“At the same time, the implementation of the government initiative will not require additional financial costs,” noted Rossiyskaya Gazeta.

May 16, 1996 President Boris Yeltsin issued Decree No. 722 “On the transition to filling positions of privates and sergeants in the Armed Forces and other troops of the Russian Federation on a professional basis.” The decree in its original version determined that from the spring of 2000, the Armed Forces must completely switch to “staffing positions of privates and sergeants on the basis of the voluntary admission of citizens to military service under a contract with the abolition of conscription.” The development of the procedure for entering contract service was to be completed by 2000. In July 1996, Yeltsin was re-elected as president.

In two years the decree was amended - now the document provided for a transition to contract service “as the necessary conditions are created.” Soon, the State Duma adopted the federal law “On Military Duty and Military Service,” in which “conscription military service” was recorded as an obligation, and the fulfillment of the “constitutional duty to defend the Fatherland through voluntary enlistment in military service” as a citizen’s right.

In November 2001 Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov presented a report to President Vladimir Putin on the gradual transition of the Armed Forces from conscription to the contract principle of recruitment. The report stated that Russia needed a gradual transition to a fully professional army; the number of contract soldiers in the Armed Forces should grow annually; the pace of reform will depend on the economic capabilities of the country, the prime minister specified. Newly appointed Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov estimates that the transition to a fully professional army would take at least 10 years.

In August 2002 At a meeting with sailors of the Pacific Fleet, Putin called the transition to contract service “task number one.” At the same time, he did not talk about the abolition of conscription as the ultimate goal of military reform. “In general, in continental countries, rarely does anyone switch to 100% contract service. But at the same time, contract service can be and, apparently, will be in the future, as it were, the main component,” Putin reasoned. - Initially it seemed that it was enough to simply increase the salary, and that’s all. No. Some of our politicians say: let us transfer everything to a contract basis within a year. You can transfer it to a contract basis within a year, but this will discredit the idea itself.”

In 2003 the government approved the federal target program “Transition to manning a number of formations and military units with contract military personnel,” according to which almost half of the units were to be transferred to the category of permanent combat readiness units; From now on, only contract soldiers could serve in them. The same program provided that from 2008, conscription service would be reduced to 12 months. According to a member of the Presidential Council for Human Rights, director of the human rights group “Citizen. Army. Right” by Sergei Krivenko, the military department failed to implement the program - “soldiers were forced to sign a contract,” and conscripts continued to serve “in real military units,” although the Federal Target Program assumed that they would only master military specialties.

In 2004 Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov announced that conscription into the army would not be cancelled; Only units with constant combat readiness will switch completely to the contract. “In Russia, no one has set or intends to set the task of completely transitioning to a contract system for recruiting the army and navy,” Ivanov said, explaining that “the state does not have such capabilities, and this must be directly recognized.”

In 2006 Vladimir Putin, at a meeting of the leadership of the Armed Forces, promised that by 2008, 70% of military personnel will be contract soldiers.

In November 2011 President Dmitry Medvedev has promised to reduce the number of conscripts to a minimum over the next five to seven years. According to Medvedev’s plans, by 2018 the share of contract soldiers in the army was supposed to be 80-90%. Those who consider it “extremely important and necessary for themselves” could serve under conscription, the president admitted. “We made, in essence, a political decision to calmly move towards a professional army,” the head of state said then. He emphasized: reform will require significant costs; To make contract service attractive, military personnel need to raise salaries.

In January 2012 Prime Minister Putin said that the requirement for a complete transition to contract service is related to the task of training military specialists, since “a year of service, of course, is not enough to master modern technology.” “We, of course, will retain a significant part of the conscript army for now, but gradually, especially for high-tech branches of the armed forces such as aviation, air defense, and the navy, we need to gradually switch to a contract basis,” he concluded.

A month later“Rossiyskaya Gazeta” published Putin’s “Be Strong,” dedicated to the development of the military-industrial complex. The author wrote that by 2020 the number of conscripts should be reduced to 145 thousand people, with a total number of armed forces of one million people. However, the presidential candidate made a reservation: “Of course, the Army should become professional, and its core should be contract soldiers. However, we cannot abolish the concept of honorable military duty for men, and they must be ready to defend the Motherland in a moment of danger.”

In November 2013 Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said in an interview with the Rossiya 1 TV channel that the Russian army cannot completely switch to contract service. “We have a very large country. In order to have an exclusively professional army, we have a very large territory. In case of a threat, we must be able to mobilize,” the minister explained. - And in order to mobilize, we must have a mobilization resource. For this, there is a solution to create four reserve armies, and by 2020 we will move away from the use of conscripts in combat operations.”

A year and a half later, in the spring of 2015 Shoigu said he still hopes that in the future the Russian army will be completely contract-based. However, the official did not give specific dates for the possible refusal of conscription. The minister noted that the number of contract soldiers in 2015 for the first time exceeded the number of conscripts: 300 thousand people versus 276 thousand, respectively.

We, faithful citizens of the Russian Federation, ask to cancel conscription into the armed forces in peacetime, while maintaining the obligation of citizens to register for military service.

Justifications for abolishing military service in Russia:

1. At the moment, there are approximately 800 thousand military personnel in the armed forces. Of these, about 400 thousand are in contract service. Moreover, in terms of size, the Russian Army ranks 5th in the world. One of the best and strongest Armies in the world. Abolition of conscription would allow hundreds of thousands of young people to work after school and pay taxes to the state to support the army. At first glance, one year is not very much, but if hundreds of thousands of people lose this year at the same time every year, that’s a decent amount of time. In one year, the state receives less taxes from 400 thousand people. For 5 years: 400,000 x 5 = 2,000,000. Draw your own conclusions about how much taxes these people could pay to maintain the army. For time is also capital.
2. Today, the already economically difficult situation is complicated by another reason: young people do not go to work and benefit society, but enter universities due to a deferment from the army. We are not against universities, but against the fact that those who do not need it for their reasons and abilities enroll there. The result: the value and quality of higher education is declining, and the state is losing hundreds of thousands of promising workers and taxes every year.
3. This point comes from the first two: a state that has received good taxes is able to use them to strengthen the Army. This includes an increase in military salaries, promising research, and modernization of the armed forces. As a consequence: the abolition of conscription will have a beneficial effect on the prestige of the Army, its defense capability and professionalism, and the state will have new financial and human resources.
4. The abolition of conscription would make it possible to raise the authority of our Motherland Russia in the eyes of foreigners. Today there is a stereotype that the Russian Army is not an army of patriots, professional volunteers trained, strong in spirit and ready to break up any aggressor if necessary, but a crowd of weak-willed, unprepared people drafted into the army against their will.
5. If the Army becomes fully contract-based, then the standards for entering the army will increase. Today, unfortunately, people who cannot do one pull-up on the bar are called upon to do 10 push-ups, etc. Current question: do the Army need such people or could they become outstanding musicians, scientists, engineers and benefit the state in their own way?
6. The conscript army provokes corruption. There are many cases where conscripts who are unfit for health reasons, despite this circumstance, are called up for service, one way or another fall under the yoke of the bureaucratic apparatus and try to pay off hopelessness (despite the fact that many are forced to treat this crime as an extreme to the extent that appealing to the courts and other authorized bodies is not able to help). Thousands of unnecessary organizations profiting from conscription are appearing, providing “assistance in obtaining a military ID.” What nonsense? The abolition of conscription would allow every person, if there are objective reasons, not to join the Army.
7. The army as a social elevator. Don’t know what to do after school, haven’t decided yet, or have no life prospects at all? No problem - the contract Army is for you. A good salary in the army and, perhaps, as a bonus, other benefits would help those people who need a better life.
8. Counter-argument for people who say that the army makes men out of people: you won’t be nice by force. If you are not a man, then none of you will make one by force. You don’t have to join the army to know what boxing is, how to run 5 kilometers in 22 minutes and then do 10 pull-ups on the bar. A person could learn how to handle weapons in specially created shooting clubs.
9. There are about 200 countries on planet Earth. Of these, about 100 have already refused conscription. And not all of them are economically developed countries. This suggests that the state of the state’s economy cannot justify the existence of conscription. States with weak economies that refused conscription: Iraq, Lebanon, India, Afghanistan, Albania, Ethiopia, Pakistan and many others. Russia simply must not become last in this ranking of countries.
10. The conscription is unconstitutional and discriminatory. The Constitution enshrines the right of every person: to freedom of movement, non-forced activity, equality and equal opportunities for all citizens, regardless of gender and other characteristics. To those who try to argue that this cannot concern military service and so on, we answer the following: any society, state and law evolves. Some time ago, serfdom existed and then it was considered justified, it was considered a state-guaranteed right of certain classes. The first US president owned about 300 slaves. Now he would have been tried and imprisoned, but then it was his right. And there are many, many such examples. Military conscription today is an atavism of the past.
11. The conscription destroys many young families and prevents many promising young people from starting a family. The phenomenon is not rare. Anyone who has encountered this will understand without further comment.
12. Military conscription ceased to be relevant in the second half of the 20th century due to the end of the Second World War and the creation of the United Nations (UN). International law has established norms according to which waging aggressive war has become a crime. As a result, there has not been a single major bloody war between states since 1945.
13. The call is not effective. Let’s imagine what would happen if in our country musicians and singers were recruited by conscription (no voice or hearing? No problem - we’ll teach you how to sing) or doctors and lawyers? There would be a collapse. Military service is as respected and prestigious a profession as any other. There is such a profession - to defend the Motherland. Efficiency and success in work directly depends on the talent, predisposition and desire of the candidate himself.
14. This reason is different for everyone.

If we summarize all of the above, we can say that the abolition of conscription would have a beneficial effect not only on the development of the economy of our Motherland, but also on its defense capabilities, the ability to resist internal and external threats more effectively, the well-being of the military personnel themselves would also improve, and more people would appear who would perceive the Army not as a duty or an inevitable obstacle in their career, but as a prospect in life and would be personally interested in service.

“It is impossible to defeat a free person, for he will stand for his freedom and the freedom of his loved ones with a wall so that no one can take it away. The forced one is weak, because he already has nothing to lose.”

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According to the expert, the Ministry of Defense is already showing today that the army does not particularly need conscripts: for example, students are sometimes allowed to enter into contracts without mandatory conscription service, and graduates of various military departments are generally considered not to be drafted into the army, but immediately sent to the reserves.

“A contract soldier is also distinguished by a special legal status, according to which he is actually equated to an officer. A contractor can protect his rights; he has the concept of work time, and the rest of the time is personal. He can live outside the barracks, rent housing, and has free access from the unit. There are many advantages,” explains Lenta.ru’s interlocutor.

According to Krivenko, today in the regions outside the military registration and enlistment offices there are recruitment centers for contracts, where people line up, despite strict selection criteria. Young people are attracted by good and stable salaries.

“You shouldn’t be afraid that there won’t be enough people for the contract, which has stricter requirements than conscript service. About a third of our young men are unfit for military service - but this is a global situation. Plus, we are now gradually emerging from the demographic hole of 2014-2016. So I don’t see any serious obstacles to the complete transfer of the army to a contract basis,” the expert concludes.

If tomorrow there is war

“Today the Russian army formally has about a million “bayonets” - although in reality there are about 800 thousand of them. Of these, about 500 thousand are ground forces, but with such forces, if something happens, it is impossible to block even the western direction of the country, explains military expert, retired colonel Mikhail Timoshenko. - The military understands that in the event of war, contract soldiers will burn out in the first month in border battles. Actually, they are needed precisely so that the military has time to mobilize all its forces and equip combat units with reserves.”

Lenta.ru's interlocutor notes that making the army completely contract-based is pointless, since in this case the military will be left without an organized reserve that can be used if necessary.

Photo: Alexander Kryazhev / RIA Novosti

“Many people use the United States as an example, where the entire army exists on a contract basis, but the specifics there are different,” explains Tymoshenko. - The American army is aimed at solving expeditionary tasks, and we are talking not only about the Marines, but also about other troops too. In the United States, the military, in principle, is not aimed at defending the country’s borders, which is understandable: are we going to ski to them across the Bering Strait? Or will the Chinese sail to them on ships? The American army and ours have completely different tasks.”

Therefore, based on the tasks of our army, it needs to have reservists - those same conscripts who are capable of joining the ranks in case of military necessity. However, their combat effectiveness is alarming. According to the expert, a conscript in the modern Russian army is like a suitcase without a handle, which is both inconvenient to carry and impossible to throw away. The level of pre-conscription training leaves much to be desired, and during military service, turning yesterday's schoolboy into a good soldier is a difficult task.

“With the workload and the limits on the expenditure of material, technical means and ammunition that we allocate for combat training, a year of service is not enough. Moreover, there is not enough time for a full year there. The first month a conscript undergoes a young fighter course, then he has three months of training, followed by service. During Soviet times, training lasted six months, and military equipment has since become much more complex. As for the majority of conscripts, they haven’t gotten much wiser since then: they still needed six months to study an army specialty. However, I don’t think that today anyone will decide to increase the length of conscription service: such an initiative will not meet with understanding in society,” the specialist concludes.

In other words, in the coming years, the Russian army will most likely be able to completely switch to a contract form, but this is unlikely to increase its combat effectiveness in the event of a large-scale conflict.