The widely publicized story about the torture and mutilation of the Russian Army private Sychev has had a huge impact on Russian society. His legs and genitals were amputated after he was gang raped and tortured by 40 officer candidates at Russia's tank academy. As a result of the public outrage over this story, reports of torture, murder and soldiers driven to suicide by sadism have poured into human rights organizations from all over the country. Sychev's lawyer even asked if all of this was part of some planned campaign.
The private is still in critical condition, while the Soldiers' Mothers Committee and human right organizations are visiting military bases all over the country, where everyday soldiers desert by the dozens. In one division, an 18 year old private was beaten and is now in critical condition after refusing to give up his cellphone to two officers. In part due to the public outrage over Private Sychev's fate, the officers are being prosecuted.
In military division #61201 an 18 year old conscript named Ivan Medvenikov was questioned by his drunken supervising officer on the topic of additional alcoholic supplies. The private didn't answer this demand, so first the officer smothered Medvenikov, then slammed the private's head into a wall. Medvenikov suffered a concussion and fell down on the floor; the officer kicked him for several minutes afterwards. All this was happened in front of the division commander, who did nothing to stop it. When Medvednikov and his comrades were being transported to the division's jail he ran away, and called his mother.
In the Kazan Military Academy (where they prepare high-ranking officer candidates for promotion), 19 year old Ilmart Sharipov deserted on December 7th. He was later found half-dead from starvation in an abandoned apartment building in the city on January 5. The soldier had burns on his legs and multiple concussions and haematomas from repeated beatings. The soldier had pleaded for medical assistance many times while at the Academy, he was always treated poorly and his injuries had been reported as the result of "falling down the stairs".
There are literally thousands of cases with clear evidence of abuse, and everyone knows how the Russian military system functions -- it simply doesn't. Surprisingly, Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov still has his job and was even promoted few months ago. Putin personally addressed the issues of abuse and sadism in the ranks and urged the Duma to pass legislation for creating new special military police to investigate and deter these brutal acts. However, many think that the police will become just another part of corrupt system and will fully participate in torture and follow the "unwritten rules" that define Russia's pathetic, brutal army today.
In the mean time, there is a way out of the draft -- bribes. It varies from $5,000 to $10,000 U.S. dollars, and as evidence of this Dr. Guzyal Gorelova from the city of Ufa was recently sentenced to 10 1/2 years in prison, after she was caught taking a $1,500 euro bribe from a conscript. She would have avoided going to prison, if she had asked for higher bribes and paid off her superiors. Dr. Gorelova's services included misplacing paperwork during medical exams, so that healthy young men would be counted as sick or handicapped and exempted from the draft.
For more on this topic, see our post The Nightmare of the Russian Army.
My family came from Russia, and I am just glad they left... to many horror stories I've heard.
Tovya:
How long ago did they leave?
Russia currently ranks third among nations receiving immigrants.
I sense that many might be somewhat prejudiced by the Russia they knew under Soviet occupation as well as the post Communist turmoil of the last decade.
I made the point a couple of posts up that maybe this is Putin using the Media to crack down those in the military who are 'resisting' reform. If we are to believe that the Russian Media is so totally under the control of the Kremlin, certian interesting questions are raised...