Obninsk - Moscow, August 13, 1999.

Military Commissar of Obninsk (Kaluga region) A. Podgurskii asked the City Public Prosecutor to bring a criminal action against Tat'yana Kotlyar, deputy of the City Assembly of Obninsk.

"Taking refuge in the right of a citizen to replace the military service by the alternative civilian service, T. M. Kotlyar calls the conscripts to refuse the military service - in fact, she instigates young people to commit a crime, provided in Art. 328 of the Russia Criminal Code", - declared the Military Commissar in his letter addressed to the Office of Public Prosecutor and to the Federal Security Service. Earlier the Military Commissar appealed to the City Assembly of Obninsk, asking its deputies "to discuss at a session of the City Assembly of Obninsk the activity carried out by Tat'yana Mikhailovna Kotlyar - with her actions she tries to disorganise the work of the City Enlistment Commission and to derange the delivery of the young generation to the troops. Taking refuge in a right- defence activity, Tat'yana Kotlyar systematically breaks down the young people of conscription age both in the city and in the nearby regions, calling them to present to the Enlistment Commission an application for the al

ternative civilian service". After a polite refusal of the City Assembly to "discuss the activity of its deputy" - for a deputy may respond only to his electors - the Military Commissar appealed to the Office of Public Prosecutor and to the Federal Security Service.

Since 1994 Tat'yana Kotlyar was elected deputy in Obninsk three times.

She co-ordinates the Regional Right-Defence Group in Obninsk and is a member of the General Council of the Antimilitarist Radical Association. Since 1995 she defends the rights of the conscripts, including the right to conscientiously object and to perform the alternative civilian service instead of the military service.