The General Staff admitted

A representative of the Russian General Staff has finally confirmed what the media have been reporting for more than a week: conscripts took part in the military operation in Georgia. Previously, the Ministry of Defense assured that conscripts do not participate in hostilities. Moreover, some representatives of military commissariats said that this was prohibited by law. A representative of the Main Organizational and Mobilization Directorate of the General Staff, Major General Ivan Borodinchik, told Interfax on August 20: “We actually had a small number of conscripts in combat operations. Mainly from those units that are stationed in the Vladikavkaz region.” In justification, the major general referred to the law on conscription and military service, saying that “citizens and military personnel who have served for at least six months and have received a military specialty, that is, trained, can participate in hostilities.” The Chelyabinsk Worker newspaper wrote on August 14 that South Ural conscripts who left to serve in May of this year were sent to the conflict zone (that is, exactly six months have not passed since the start of their service). It was stated that they would serve in Volgograd, but they were taken to Makhachkala, and from there to Buinaksk (we note that there was no talk about the Vladikavkaz region). At the same time, Novye Izvestia wrote that mothers from Suzdal, Taganrog, Birobidzhan, Khabarovsk, Vladivostok called the hotline in Vladikavkaz - their sons had gone to South Ossetia along with units of the 58th Army. At the same time, it was reported that conscripts were not sent to dangerous zones; they accompanied the convoys of the Ministry of Emergency Situations. There was information that contracts were immediately concluded with conscripts. Among the conscripts who ended up in Georgia, there were wounded, and even one dead - Anar Aliyev, who was buried on August 14 in the Rostov region.

As Maria Fedulova, a member of the coordinating council of the Union of Committees of Soldiers' Mothers, told the Daily Journal, the decision to send conscript soldiers to Georgia is a violation of Federal Law No. 93 of June 23, 1995 "On the procedure for providing military and civilian personnel to participate in support or restoration activities international peace and security." Article 8 of this law states that military personnel sent to participate in peacekeeping activities outside the territory of the Russian Federation “are staffed on a voluntary basis with military personnel undergoing military service under a contract.” In addition, “those indicated must undergo preliminary special training.”