Europe

September 29, 2022 / Harold Meyerson / The American Prospect  - It’s been less than a week since Vladimir Putin announced he was calling up 300,000 fellow Russians to fight his war in Ukraine, but on Monday, just five days after his speech, the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, citing government sources, reported that 261,000 Russian men had fled the country. Today’s New York Times reports that the line of cars at Russia’s border with Georgia stretches 12.5 miles.

Credit where credit is due: Putin has accomplished in less than a week what it took years for Presidents Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon to do—drive young men across the border (in that case, Canadian) rather than fight an immoral and failing war.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine is a reminder that military conscription remains foundational to modern warfare. It is a reckless, self-defeating, and criminal practice that makes us all less safe — and it should have been abolished long ago.

Jonah Walters | Jacobin | The shocking and massively destructive Russian assault on Ukraine, still ongoing at the time of this writing, is conducted by a military that includes an estimated 260,000 conscripted soldiers in its ranks.

An open letter signed by a coalition of human rights groups, including Child Rights International Network, Amnesty International UK and Human Rights Watch, urged the defence Ministry to stop recruiting children aged under 18.

The letter declared that the UK military recruits more soldiers at 16 than any other age, especially for combat infantry roles, whereas most countries around the world only allow adults to be recruited. Additionally, this recruitment practice needs to end as “figures showed that girls aged under 18 in the armed forces made at least 16 formal complaints of sexual assault to military police in the last six years” informed The Guardian in an article released in June covering the MPs debate around the Armed Forces Bill.

The joint letter also said:

Uutiset -

    Finns’ support for conscription and national defence has decreased, according to a survey by The Advisory Board of Defence Information (MTS).

Just over half (52 percent) of respondents believe Finland’s defence system should be based on mandatory conscription for men, and voluntary conscription for women. The figure is considerably lower than in previous years.

The Finnish Constitution stipulates that every male Finnish citizen is obligated to participate in national defence. All Finnish men aged between 18 and 60 are liable to complete military service, and women can opt to do it on a voluntary basis.

Military service has to be completed as armed or unarmed military service, or non-military (civil) service.

Almost a quarter of respondents preferred a conscription that would apply to both men and women. The idea of voluntary conscription for both sexes, or a professional army got much less support.