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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsEligible Crimean Men to Be Drafted into Russian Army Next Spring
Young Crimean man will be drafted into the Russian army starting this spring and could end up stationed in Chechnya and Dagestan, Crimea's leader said following the peninsula's vote to join Russia.
When Crimea's accession to Russia is complete, the region will be subject to that country's laws, including its mandatory service in the Russian army, Crimea's Prime Minister Sergei Aksyonov said Tuesday, Ukraine's TVi reported.
Ukraine scrapped universal conscription last October, but Russia still has universal military draft for men over the age of 18, and Aksyonov said the deployment of young Crimeans will not be limited to their native peninsula.
"The conscripts will serve throughout the country, including in Dagestan, Chechnya and generally in the North Caucasus," he said.
Ahead of last Sunday's referendum, Crimean regional legislature speaker Volodymyr Konstantinov promised that the salaries of government workers would increase from between twofold and fourfold if voters cast ballots in favor of joining Russia.
Several pundits said Crimeans were promised an embellished picture of Russia before the vote, and some residents may now feel they are getting more than they bargained for with news of their eligibility for conscription.
Alluding to the landslide vote in the Crimea referendum, Twitter user Veselye Rebyata, or Funny Guys, said that "96.7 percent of Russian voters are also ready to vote for their regions' accession to the kind of Russia that the Crimeans had been invited to join."
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/eligible-crimean-men-to-be-drafted-into-russian-army-next-spring/496455.html
Ex Lurker
(3,813 posts)Something tells me a lot of Crimean kids will be slipping over to western Ukraine.
davidpdx
(22,000 posts)Now they have to follow their laws. If they end up going to war then it is their own fault.
Ex Lurker
(3,813 posts)although I expect the kids weren't the ones who voted this in.
davidpdx
(22,000 posts)Cha
(297,188 posts)Svitlana Zalischuk states..
The referendum itself doesnt mean anything, she added, noting that the choice was between yes and yes, and didnt give people a choice of maintaining the status quo. You cant conduct a democratic referendum when a whole country is invaded and controlled by the troops of a foreign country.
The Fight for Democracy in Ukraine: A Conversation with Center UAs Svitlana Zalischuk
BY Micah L. Sifry
In the third and last part of our conversation, I asked Zalischuk about the referendum about to take place in Russian-occupied Crimea and the massive Russian troop presence across the border from eastern Ukraine. Russian invaded Ukraine, she said, mincing no words about Vladimir Putins actions in the wake of Yanukovychs departure from office. The referendum itself doesnt mean anything, she added, noting that the choice was between yes and yes, and didnt give people a choice of maintaining the status quo. You cant conduct a democratic referendum when a whole country is invaded and controlled by the troops of a foreign country.
This is not a conflict between Ukraine and Russia, she said, its a conflict between the civilized world and totalitarianism, one that undermines the whole architecture of the European and world community. I asked her about the idea that the democracy movement in Ukraine was mostly strongest in the western part of the country and not so much from the eastern half, where Yanukovych got the majority of votes. She said the picture was more complicated, because Yanukovych himself had campaigned in favor of stronger ties with Europe when he was running for president.
http://techpresident.com/news/wegov/24827/fight-democracy-ukraine-conversation-center-uas-svitlana-zalischuk
Timothy Snyder: Freedom in Russian exists only in Ukraine
In Ukraine, millions of Russian-speakers read a free press and learn from an uncensored internet
snip//
"Putin claims that he is defending the rights of speakers of Russian in Ukraine. He has used this argument to justify his invasion of Crimea and the electoral theatre of yesterday, a referendum in which there was no way to vote against union with Russia.
Among the speakers of Russian in Crimea are the Crimean Tatars, whose historical memory is dominated by their murderous deportation by Stalin in the Forties, and who boycotted the referendum. It makes no reference to their minority rights, nor to their assembly, the Mejlis, which was permitted by Ukrainian law. Crimean Tatars are now fleeing the peninsula for mainland Ukraine. Russian-speaking Ukrainian Jews have also made it clear to Putin that they do not want Russian intervention."
snip//
"If speakers of Russian were suffering discrimination, that would give rise to concern, though not justify invasion. In fact, Russian is a completely normal language of interchange in Ukraine. There, tens of millions of Russian-speakers read a free press, watch uncontrolled television and learn from an uncensored internet, in either Ukrainian or in Russian, as they prefer.
In Russia, the major social media have been brought under state control, television has been almost completely subdued and several of the remaining free-thinking blogs and internet news sites have been shut down or pressured. This leaves Ukraine as an island of free speech for people who use the Russian language."
MOre..
http://www.standard.co.uk/comment/timothy-snyder-freedom-in-russian-exists-only-in-ukraine-9196833.html
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=4689054
Just another view..
davidpdx
(22,000 posts)I agree the whole thing was a farce. It sounds like those who are not Russian will pay dearly.
Cha
(297,188 posts)renegade000
(2,301 posts)Send the new guys to go see what you do to the last guys that tried to leave the party (Chechnya).
EmilyAnne
(2,769 posts)Crimeans voting to essentially occupy places that are not permitted the same kind of vote.
joshcryer
(62,270 posts)But don't worry, Putinists are on the side of the pension tripling good guys.
Bluenorthwest
(45,319 posts)Russia? One would think all fit Crimeans would volunteer instantly to be in service.
NuclearDem
(16,184 posts)Or if history is anything to go by, seeing one of their cities shelled into oblivion.