Shave at the expense of relatives

Another full-time student at a Moscow university (Mikhail is a fourth-year student at the Institute of Linguistics of the Russian State University for the Humanities) was sent to the army. NEWSru.com reports that on June 25, a police raid took place in the hostel where Mikhail was registered. Mikhail was ordered to appear at the Chertanovsky military registration and enlistment office without being given a summons, explaining that nothing terrible would happen to him. But at the military registration and enlistment office, Mikhail’s passport was taken away and he was sent to the Kazansky station, from where he and a group of conscripts were to be taken to a unit near Togliatti. However, at the station, one of the conscripts escaped, and the group remained overnight at the station. The absurdity of the situation was aggravated by the fact that, since the conscripts had lost their train tickets, and the accompanying people no longer had money for new ones, the military suggested that the conscripts’ relatives should pay for the fare to Tolyatti.

The executive secretary of the Union of Committees of Soldiers' Mothers, Valentina Melnikova, has repeatedly stated that the police have no right to seize conscripts: according to the law, the police can only serve a summons or, in case of refusal, draw up an administrative protocol. At the beginning of June, the Moscow Central Internal Affairs Directorate stated in all honesty that they were not doing anything like that. Mikhail is a full-time student, all sessions are closed, there is an order to transfer to the fourth year. According to Melnikova, quoted by NEWSru.com, such situations most often occur with students who transferred from one university to another or went on academic leave. A few weeks before the incident with Mikhail, another student of the Russian State University for the Humanities (from the third year of the Faculty of Economics) was also drafted into the army, since he was transferred from one faculty to another, and in one of the orders it was written “expel”, which the military registration and enlistment office immediately took advantage of. As Mikhail’s relatives told the EZh correspondent, he actually transferred to the Russian State University for the Humanities from Petrozavodsk State University (from the second year to the second) and, in addition, lost a year due to academic leave. However, according to all calculations, and this is confirmed by a lawyer from the Russian State University for the Humanities, Mikhail’s term of study has not yet expired during the current draft. The military registration and enlistment office thought otherwise, despite the fact that every year the student brought there a certificate stating that he was studying at the Russian State University for the Humanities, and despite the fact that he brought a paper from the university granting a deferment until 2011. According to the Chertanovsky military registration and enlistment office, Mikhail’s period of study has already ended.

The situation is complicated by the fact that on Friday evening neither the military registration and enlistment office, which has already finished work, nor the Russian State University for the Humanities, nor the military prosecutor's office will decide anything. We just have to wait until Monday. And time goes by. The student’s relatives managed to obtain a second certificate from the Russian State University for the Humanities stating that Mikhail had been granted a deferment until 2011. But it is not yet valid without the rector’s signature and official seal. The signature and seal will again be available no earlier than Monday. At the moment, Mikhail, along with a group of conscripts, was transported from the Kazansky station to the military unit of the internal troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia on 2nd Kvesisskaya Street, where they are waiting to be taken to their destination.