A young man from Kantemirovsky district has been seeking the right to do the alternative civilian service for already six months. He was repeatedly denied in the application processing, and they opened a criminal case under article "evasion of military service" after Yevgeny’s failing to appear on a medical examination. Now he faces up to two years imprisonment or to a fine of 200 thousand rubles. (Similar case was reviewed recently in Murmansk, where the draftee Nikita Konev received a year of suspended sentence and a fine of 130,000). Yevgeny has a blog on "7x7", where you can get acquainted with the history of his case. Yesterday, on January 28, the Court once again refused to consider an appeal. Tatyana Zrazhevskaya, Human rights commissioner in the Voronezh region, gave a legal treatment to the case of Yevgeny Plahutin and found serious violations of the Constitution. Now Yevgeny intends to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.
According to the overrule law, everyone has the right to do the alternative civilian service in our country if the military service is contrary to his beliefs or religion. But if religion is not so difficult to define (in such cases, young people are often involved in religious communities), civil convictions are not so simple. To make an expert finding confirming someone's life stance is impossible. The only evidence is a statement of the draftee. Sergei Fedulov, who served the ACS few years ago, says: "The commission put me through a searching examination of how and under the influence of what my beliefs were formed. It was a very humiliating procedure." Yevgeny Plahutin is a pacifist, he rejects violence. He said that he has never been a disputed man, and awareness of his militaristic beliefs came last year, when Yevgeny turned twenty. So he decided to apply for the ACS.
According to statistics of the HRH, about 6000 have passed an alternative civilian service since 2004. It means that out of 300 thousand people in one call only 300-500 young people from across Russia declare their anti-militarist convictions. The law lists more than 30 professions that can be mastered in a year and 9 months during the passage of the ACS. They don’t require special training, so the level of education doesn’t matter. In Voronezh, there are only two specialties — a nurse at the regional hospital and a postman. Youth Council for Human Rights knows several cases of the ACS: this year, two have already been working in the hospital, and two are waiting for the service.
Alexander Zubkov, a draftee of 2013, has been working in a pharmacy of regional children's hospital №2 for a month. 5 working days from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. he washes floors and maintains the purity of the test-tubes and other medical utensils. "I worked in different places — at the sink, as a promoter, even dabbled in network marketing. So my job doesn’t seem difficult to me. I even want to ask to transfer me to any ward as a nurse. Yeah, it's harder, but I'll be able to get at least some useful skills. And shift work would be more convenient: it is necessary to look for a side job, it’s impossible to live with 4.5 thousand today." A year and 9 months in civvy street is better than a year of military service for a convinced pacifist Alexander: "I am against the compulsory recruitment. In fact, the state forces young people to take weapon, instills cruelty. I'm for the contract system: only those should go to the army who are mentally and physically ready to do this."
Situation of Alexander Zubkov was similar to the case of Yevgeny Plahutin. He also recently learned about the existence of the ACS, so he applied not six months before the draft, as established by law, but a little bit later. However, the same law allows that there is no deadline by which a person must make up his mind on the beliefs, so even a "belated" statement of a draftee Zubkov was reviewed, and the commissariat was denied in his appeal. Yevgeny Plahutin had an opposite situation. Alexander himself believes that in his case the violation committed by the recruitment commission has played into the hands, — the signature on one of the documents was delivered by another person.
Many of the former recruits believe that an order of the number of people who must undergo the military service for a particular call "go down from the top" to each commissariat. Demographic hole of 92-94ss significantly reduced the number of recruits in recent years, so the draft board may fear that they simply will not gain the right amount of people, especially if the alternative civilian service will become more popular. But this is only a conjecture; the fact is that the Court persistently refuses to allow the appeal of Yevgeny Plahutin.
Sergei Fedulov is convinced: "Those who believe that the passage of the ACS is a great way to dodge the draft are sadly mistaken. The work to do is very hard, and not always prestigious." By the way, Sergei has been working as a keeper in a psychoneurological hospital in a ward of specialized type for almost two years. In simple terms, a man who is not tall and of delicate constitution had to deal with mentally ill people every day.
Yekaterina Bogdanova, «7x7»
Original: http://7x7-journal.ru/item/37003
