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HAZING AND POVERTY RUSSIAN ARMY'S WORST PROBLEMS

RIA Novosti

MOSCOW, March 4 (RIA Novosti) - Hazing is one of the basic kinds of misdemeanors by the Russian Armed Service conscript soldiers. It accounts for 20 to 30 per cent of all soldier crimes, Lieutenant General Victor Buslovsky said to Nezavisimaya Gazeta, popular Moscow daily. General Buslovsky is second in charge of the Russian Armed Forces Central Personnel Board.

The number of soldier suicides is not subsiding. They accounted for 24.6 per cent of all 932 accidental deaths in the Armed Forces last year, for privates. The percentage for officers and noncoms was somewhere in between 15 and 20.

Bad living conditions and social problems are the main reasons that drive officers to take their own life. As for conscript privates, a half of them commit suicide because of unrequited love.

General Buslovsky tracked disciplinary misdemeanors down to what he described as "poor quality of recruits". Thus, a mere 4 to 6 per cent of conscript-age boys go to the army in Moscow and St. Petersburg-all from problem families, with token exceptions.

The situation will grow even worse unless Russia urgently settles soldiers' social and economic problems, warned the general.

Close on 15 per cent of commissioned officers currently have no intention to prolong their service contracts, say Defense Ministry statistics. Alarming figures have come from opinion probes the Armed Forces Sociological Center made in all Russian military districts and fleets from October 2004 into February 2005. There were 1,320 respondents-army and naval officers and noncoms. 50 to 60 per cent of officer respondents preferred to wait and see. They hope the government will not put up with their social and economic plight getting ever worse.

Thirty four per cent of officer and noncom families are beyond the poverty level, and a mere 40 per cent of officer and noncom wives are employed, say official statistics.