Putin’s decree “On calling up members of the reserve forces of the Russian Federation to military ranks in 2004” was issued on 20 December 2003. Ten days later, when Russians, whether eligible for military service or not, were busy with peaceful preparations for the New Year festivities, the Ministry of Defence explained the meaning behind the presidential decree to the public.


“We are forced to train our citizens for military service because of the necessity of developing the required level of military specialists from among our reservists in peace time,” explained the Ministry’s press office. The average duration of military training for which people may be called up during their time as reservists may be as much as a year. Citizens may be called up for military training no more than once every three years. The usual length of training will be two months.

Those who have received mobilization papers may be called up immediately for ten-day training or assessment courses. This will be done, according to the Ministry of Defence, “to test the viability and speed of complying with mobilization procedures.” In other words, to test how they have set things up so that the military commissariats may turn up with a warrant, with a guard, a platoon or a whole army to the home of anyone who has ever served in the army or even someone who has never served, and without saying a word, take him away for ten days. No matter what plans that person may have made for his personal life, whether he was planning to visit his country house, go on holiday, sign an important business deal, or tomorrow propose to his beloved and take her to get married.

“Furthermore,” the press office states, “a citizen may periodically be called up for eight-hour training exercises.”

At the same time, the Ministry of Defence insists that military exercises will not be conducted “except for the purpose of training for military service.” That is, they are apparently not planning to send people to so-called “hot spots”.

People will be paid for their participation but, needless to say, not by the army. “Citizens who are called to take part in military training will be released from their employment or studies with a guarantee that their job or place in education will be kept for them, and they will be paid the average salary or bursary from their permanent place of work or study at a rate to be determined by the federal legislature,” explains the Ministry of Defence. This means that, for example, any person called up for military training who works for a private company will be paid by that firm. But only the Ministry can say how the federal legislature will determine the “average wage” of a director of a private company, and where in the legislation this amount is written.

There is no doubt that the armed forces, already totally corrupt, have now been given another trough to feed from. The wealthy will pay off the military commisariats, in order to protect their time, their freedom and personal life. Even wealthier people will come to an agreement with the military, who are so fond of the sound of crackling banknotes, so that they take away their undesirable competitors or simply those people who irritate them. In any case the authorities will easily be able to remove anyone they dislike from civilian life, without wasting time on formalities or the need for legal sanction to carry out an arrest.