Moscow March, 6, 1997

Dear colleagues,

I have read with great interest both the letter of Moscow Helsinki Group to the leaders of human rights associations and the appeal "Stop Ruining Our Sons" about the referendum on the professional army signed by You, Mrs. Kirbasova and Mr. Ponomarev.

Last summer Antimilitarist Radical Association indicated in the General Motion of its First Congress an intention of "creating (...) necessary political and organisational prerequisites for a successful campaign conducted together with other social and political forces in order to collect signatures required for holding national referendum on the Alternative Civil Service Draft Law and on all bills and amendments to the legislation in force, aimed at ensuring progress of a successful military reform (...)".

However, it seems to me, that such a large-scale and, frankly speaking, unprecedented task as organising a referendum "from below", requires a particularly proved approach. In this connection, allow me to make a few remarks on Your project.

First: required number of signatures.

According to article 8 of the Federal Constitutional Law "On Referendum of the Russian Federation", "initiative of holding a referendum of the Russian Federation belongs to not less than two million citizens of the Russian Federation which have the right to take part in referendum of the Russian Federation, under conditions that no more that 10% of them either live in the territory of the same Subject of the Russian Federation, or beyond the borders of the Russian Federation". In other words, it is necessary to collect 2,800,000 signatures (as You know, 40% is a necessary surplus, provided to compensate eventual "rejection" of signatures by Electoral Commissions) in not less than 10 Russian regions. Strangely enough in Your appeal You mention only one million of signatures.

Second: establishing an initiative group.

You declare Your intention to begin collecting signatures from the first of September. This means that by that date it is necessary to organise and register the Initiative Group responsible for collecting signatures. Such a group should number not less that 100 members (art. 9 of the above mentioned law). The same article stipulates that the application for registration of the Initiative Group should include personal data of militants authorised to represent the Initiative Group in the territory of the corresponding subject of the Russian Federation. As far as I can understand, You are planning to organise the Initiative Group and nominate authorised persons in every region by the middle of August, aren't You?

The status of the Initiative Group is not quite clear too. What do You mean by "Organising committee for collecting signatures"? Is it the Initiative Group mentioned in the law or something else?

Third (may be, the most important point): formulating a question or questions for referendum.

Your appeal does not formulate the exact question You propose for a nation-wide voting.

According to article 1 of the Law, "referendum of the Russian Federation is a nation-wide voting of citizens of the Russian Federation on draft laws, laws in force and other questions of national importance". According to Article 38, "a decision made by the Referendum of the Russian Federation comes into force the day of its official publication (promulgation) by the Central Committee of the referendum of the Russian Federation, in case the question formula adopted by the referendum of the Russian Federation does not stipulate other procedure". According to article 40, "A decision made by the referendum of the Russian Federation is obligatory and does not require additional confirmation. (...) Whether it is necessary to issue an additional legislative act for executing the decision made by the referendum of the Russian Federation, federal body of government competent to solve this question is obliged to fix the date for preparing this legislation act within 15 days from the date the decision of the referen

dum of the Russian Federation comes into force."

I suppose You agree that it is worth organising a referendum whose results mean that certain laws or amendments to the legislation in force immediately come into effect. And it is not worth while wasting great forces and resources for organising a kind of nation-wide opinion poll on what people think about transition to professional army. All-Russian Centre for Studying Public Opinion coped well with its task: according to public opinion poll of March 1996, 42,5% "entirely approve" the abolition of conscription, 20,7% "rather approve it" and only 14,4% "disapprove" this idea.

If You submit to a referendum not a draft law but a question that to a certain extent repeats the public opinion poll ("What is Your attitude to the abolition of conscription and establishing a professional army on a voluntary basis?"), legally that means that within two weeks either the State Duma or the government will be obliged to repeat the famous Presidential Decree 722 on transition to professional army from 2000 (2005, 2010 ... - insert any year you like).

On the other hand, if You submit to a referendum either a draft law or an amendment that, in case it is approved by the referendum, automatically comes into force, the enemies of a democratic military reform will not be able to do anything within the limits of law, because "a decision made by a referendum of the Russian Federation is valid in the whole territory of the Russian Federation and can be annulled or modified only by another decision of a referendum of the Russian Federation" (article 40 of the Law). The result we struggle for (i.e., on the one hand, the end of the existing status quo when the enemies of the military reform may blockade all changes thanks to decreasing but still incessant stream of draftees that come into barracks, and on the other hand, rapid changes in the system of remanning and in the conditions of army service) can be achieved even if the legislative acts approved by the referendum do not require immediate transition to professional army.

Such legislative acts may be:

- an amendment to article 37 part 1 of the Military Liability and Military Service Law that provides for the reduction of the call-up period from two years to 10-12 moths;

- an Alternative Civil Service Law that at once gives every draftee a real possibility to choose between military service and social service for the same period.

It is easy to imagine practical consequences of the adoption by a referendum even of these "limited" and "mediated" legislative acts. The government will have to stop speaking about the need of the military reform and will have to take first practical steps to put the armed forces in order and to change the conditions of the military service. In fact, the military service will be voluntary and the numerical strength of the armed forces will be reduced "in a natural way" till the limits that really correspond to economical, demographic, social, political and psychological realities of present-day Russia.

It is also possible to submit to a referendum another question of the so-called "indirect" action: total abolition of conscription and transition to voluntary military service and voluntary civil service within definite periods.

Thus, we have to do with an extremely large-scale and ambitious plan. Then the forth question is bound to arise: which resources do we need to realise it?

It is known, that for a referendum to be hold it is necessary to collect a number of signatures twice that as many as the necessary minimum for registering candidates for president. This should be done within three months from the date of registration of the Initiative Group (i.e., by the 1st of December according to the schedule You propose). Let us assume that we collect signatures in 20 Russian regions. Then, it is necessary to collect one and a half thousand signatures a day in every region within the established time. The experience of collecting signatures by Radical Party and ARA militants shows that we may expect that about 20 signatures will be collected an hour at each table. Without going into details, I can assert that for successful collection of signatures in every region not less that 50 persons must work 4 hours a day during 3 months (one thousand militants in all Russia).

Another problem concerns financing the collection of signatures. Even if the number of disinterested volunteers working "for the idea" is greater than the number of activists who participated in the last election campaigns, it will be necessary to pay for collection of a part of signatures. Let us assume that one signature "costs" 1000 roubles, than the initiative group should have 2.800.000.000. roubles (about 500.000 USD). It is not much, when we have to do with an electoral campaign. But this is a considerable sum if we compare it with the budget of human rights and non-government associations we belong to. Who could finance the campaign of collecting signatures for referendum? I suppose that it is possible to find such organizations and individuals. Anyway, these will not be governmental and private foundations that lately distribute grants for human rights activity with considerable generosity.

There are many questions and few answers. Nonetheless, I entirely agree with You that "we, ordinary Russian citizens, have only one way out, i.e. to make this decision by a nation-wide referendum." I would like to add that such a referendum will become an unprecedented triumph of democracy and a strong evidence of the formation of civil society in Our country.

This makes our mission, mission of all people ready to assume the responsibility for making a great deal of work to develop the principles of direct democracy in Russia, even more important and crucial.

On behalf of Antimilitarist Radical Association I express my solidarity with Your noble intentions. I am looking forward to meet You at any time that is suitable for You to discuss both questions raised in my letter and concrete steps which I hope we will make together, sooner or later.

Sincerely Yours,

Nikolai KHRAMOV

(Secretary of Antimilitarist Radical Association)