All Russian men between 18 and 27 are eligible for the draft and are required to serve at least two years, but liberal student exemptions in response to widespread loathing of military service, along with claims of disabilities, have reduced the pool of eligible conscripts, who make up 70 per cent of Russia's 1.2 million-man armed forces. Mr Putin has ordered the call-up of 189,995 conscripts in this spring's draft, sharply down from the 350,00 to 400,000 of recent drafts. Military officials worry that even that goal will not be met. The divide separating Mr Ivanov from the throngs of eligible draft-age men avoiding military service is not health or education. It is money.
Bribery is common even after induction.
The pledge was met. Equipment was pitiable and hunger routine, former soldier Mr Maxim Sakhalov said. According to Ms Fyodorovna, the army's official report said the young man had fallen out of a second-floor window. Efforts by authorities to round up draft dodgers have come to little. Police and the military prosecutor's office in Moscow admit they are reluctant to bring cases to trial.