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Anti-militarist Radical Association

For Immediate Release

Moscow, June 24, 1997

``The State Duma, finishing its Spring session, vent to vacations. The day before it vividly demonstrated its real attitude towards young voters. Not only young, however, but towards all those citizens paying taxes in our country, as well as towards the government's intentions to launch finally the democratic military reform.

Yesterday legislators have passed in second lecture the new draft law "On Conscription and Military Service" which hardly could be defined otherwise as militarist, anti-popular and openly directed against military reform proclaimed by government. The draft law provides conservation of total conscription, yet more limits circle of citizens who can get conscription delay (in particular, students of non-state commercial high school loose right on delay). MPs retained the irrational two-years duration of military service, rejecting amendments which were providing 12 or at least 18 months. The draft law provides militarization of education process, introducing again military training lessons in schools professional schools. Instead of reduction the burden of military expenditures, rejecting the budget sequestration both in governmental and Duma's variant, the anti-reformist and militarist parliamentarian majority charged the federal budget also with obligation to finance "military and patriotic education of citiz

ens".

Meanwhile, the draft law on alternative civilian service passed the first lecture yet by previous legislature in December 1994, remained not adopted and not even discussed, despite its habitual presence in the Spring session agenda.

The State Duma visually demonstrated once more its essence, which logically results from partocratic nature of Russian legislative power - a power representing minority of Russian citizens, a power composed according the electoral law which grants to the Communist majority 46% of votes given mainly for democratic lists who did not pass the 5% barrier.

Tomorrow several hundreds of Russian citizens would be able - by informal way for a while - to express their opinion on key questions of military reform (reducing of military service duration, alternative civilian service law, transition to the reduced professional army) during "the street referendum" organized by activists of ARA on Nikolskaja street in Moscow. I am sure that opinion expressed by voters on the street will essentially differ with the opinion of their supposed representatives in Okhotny Ryad.''

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