ON MILITARY DUTY AND MILITARY SERVICE
I. I. Kotlyarov
To facilitate the military security and defence of the state, a uniform military service system is
established in the Russian Federation. Its legislative regulation is facilitated by the Federal Law ‘On
Military Service’. It establishes, in particular, that international agreements of the Russian
Federation are related to the basics of military service, which is considerably important for
facilitation of the rights and freedoms of military personnel at the level of world standards, for the
democratization of the military and for the integration of the Armed Forces with civil society.
The law establishes a legal basis for engaging educated, physically sound, law-abiding citizens
with the Armed Forces and other troops. The same is supported by medical certificates and
professional and psychological screening of recruits for military service; organization of training in
military service basics, military applied sports in state, municipal and non-governmental
educational institutions. According to the law, persons with an existing conviction and under
investigation cannot be drafted for military service.
The law allows the release from military service those citizens whose brothers have died during
discharge of their military duties. There are provisions made for the postponement of service in
cases concerning required support for the elderly, parents, siblings or young children.
Postponement allows recruiters to proceed with education and to increase the cultural and
intellectual potential of people, and to establish economic prerequisites for increasing the wellbeing
of civil society.
The basic form of military responsibility is military service. The social significance of military service
rests with the capability of citizens to fulfil their Constitutional obligation to protect the country by
means of its Armed Forces, troops, military units and organs. The law qualifies cases of protection
of the wellbeing of individuals, assistance through law and order organs devoted to the protection
of the rights and freedoms of citizens, public security and the prevention and liquidation of
calamitous consequences upon “discharge of military service obligations”. This underlines the
direct relationship between military service and the affairs and interests of civil society.
While describing in detail the content of military service and its types, procedures and rules of their
discharge, obligations of the bodies of state power, of officials and citizens with respect to its
organization, the law acts as the most important instrument for the regulation of this sphere of
social life. It describes and substantiates military service as a special type of federal state service.
Therewith, the law is an instrument defining the content and many trends of civilian control over the
military organization and activity in the Russian Federation. Thus, the procedure for the military
registration of citizens is determined by the corresponding provisions approved by the Government
of the Russian Federation. The draft board is of a non-departmental character. Its resolutions can
be challenged in courts of law, and so on. The law establishes a reliable basis for the legal
facilitation of the integration of the Armed Forces with civil society. The goal is the compulsory
fulfilment of all its provisions and norms by all organizations, departments, officials, and citizens.
At the same time, for the purpose of increasing the authority of the military service within society
with complete effectuation of human rights and freedoms, it is necessary to pass a law applicable
to alternative military service. Cardinal measures must be developed with the aim of increasing the
attractiveness of military service, guaranteeing facilitation of the rights and freedoms of military
persons according to international treaties on human rights and terminating any type of abuse by
military officials and the administrative system in general.