Paul Goble
Staunton, July 6 – The Russian defense ministry is preparing a law that will severely limit the ability of soldiers wounded in combat or infected with serious disease to seek separation from the service and instead force them to continue to serve and even to be returned immediately to the front lines.
The measure, the text of which is available at regulation.gov.ru/projects/169064/ and discussed in detail at ehorussia.com/new/node/34848, appears to put in the form of law what have been a number of disturbing practices that the Russian army has practiced during Putin’s expanded war in Ukraine.
It is thus disturbing not only because it takes away rights that Russian soldiers had enjoyed earlier to seek separation from service if they suffered from serious injury or disease but also because by legalizing the arrangements it highlights both just how much the army must now seek to retain soldiers given its losses and suggests Moscow wants to be ready for more wars.
Up to now, Russian law has specified that a soldier seeking separation as a result of injury or infection is to be sent to a special military medical commission consisting of a large number of specialists and that separation is required if it is found that the soldier in question has a disability that is listed in military regulations.
Now, under the terms of the new law, this decision will be made by a regular military medical commission without specialists and with broad powers to declare that a soldier is not so unfit that he cannot continue to serve and must be returned to the front lines immediately without a chance to recover or separate from the service.
That will make it far more difficult for soldiers in this position to seek redress in Russian courts, something they have been able to do and have regularly taken advantage of since 2022, and give commanders the whip hand as far as making decisions about who will be separated and who will not.
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