"Vechernjaja Moskva", February 17, 1996, page 1

After the State Duma could not overcome President's veto on the amendments to the law on military service, it became finally clear that referendum on a number of "army" draft laws must be carried out, states press release of Antimilitarist Radical Association. As Nikolaj Khramov, secretary of the organization, says, the issue of plebiscit should be amendments providing reducing the service duration up to 12 months, the law on alternative civilian service, as well as question about abolition of conscription and transition to the professional principle of armed forces recruitment. Antimilitarists called upon every good-thinking forces of the country to unite their efforts in order to collect 2 millions of signatures necessary for referendum.