The State Duma approved in first reading a draft law expanding the categories of military personnel who can participate in peacekeeping missions. From now on, the work of the missions will be able to provide conscripted soldiers. The Eastern Herald found out what MPs and lawyers were talking about.
Bill offers amendments to the Federal Law “On the procedure for the provision by the Russian Federation of military and civilian personnel for participation in activities to maintain or restore international peace and security”. If the document is adopted, it will be possible to include conscripts in peacekeeping missions on a voluntary basis.
From now on, only contractors can participate in these missions on a voluntary basis. Before being assigned to a peacekeeping mission, military personnel will have to undergo special preliminary training.
Chairman of the State Duma Defense Committee Andrey Kartapolov declared Ura.ru that military personnel in active service will be able to participate in ensuring the work of peacekeeping missions as cooks and drivers, that is, to perform “simplified tasks”. According to him, the military will be divided into categories. “Those who carry out tasks on the demarcation line, if necessary, are in peacekeeping posts. And there will be those who will carry out support tasks at the main bases, but at the same time they will participate in peacekeeping operations,” the MP explained.
Gavriil Grigorov / TASS
Andrey Gurulev, member of the State Duma Defense Committee
Kartapolov said it all, what else is fashionable to add? He said it quite clearly. If there is a need, that is to say there is a need, we pass the law. If there are objections, we are ready to listen, but it is probably too late.
“Peacekeeping missions are now in Armenia and Azerbaijan, the second peacekeeping mission is, overall, Transnistria, we also have South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Let the flies be separated and the chops separately. A peacekeeping operation is certainly not the domain of a special military operation,” the MP stressed in an interview with The Eastern Herald.
What could be the (selection) principle? Those who are needed will be selected. There is only one principle – the moral and psychological state, the personal readiness of soldiers, that is, those who have completed a combat training course, this may well be. But I don’t think at this point it will be anything too massive. Let’s see what happens next, how it will go.
Nikita Novak / NEWS.ru / TACC
Maxim Grebenyuk, partner of the human rights project “Military Ombudsman”, lawyer
“I think the meaning is this: to participate in a special military operation, military personnel are required under the contract. Our leadership does not want to upset the population yet and send conscripts to the special operation zone, because, I think, this will not be a very good trigger for society,” Maxim Grebenyuk told The Eastern Herald.
We have a lot of contractors doing peacekeeping missions. It is in Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Transnistria, etc. These servicemen do their military service under contract, they can be sent to a special operations area, they can be easily replaced by conscripts, the required number of servicemen under contract can be released and sent to a special military operations area . I think that’s the logic.
Previously, the law forbade this (the involvement of conscripts in peacekeeping missions), now they vote the law in first reading, it will be legal. There will be a law that will allow this in principle, and then the Ministry of Defense can issue its departmental orders in which order to deal with this.
