Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Life In The Russian Army Is Not A Bed Of Roses


Is The Russian Army Bullying Its Soldiers to Death? -- Time Magazine

Oksana Berelyuk says her fiancé was whispering the last time they spoke. Days earlier, her betrothed, 19-year-old army recruit Roman Suslov, had shipped out in good spirits from the western Siberian city of Omsk. But his family was troubled by a series of text messages and frantic phone calls they received from him during the four-day train journey to the Far East town of Bikin, where he was to begin his mandatory year of military service. Suslov claimed his superiors were bullying him and denying him food, water and cigarettes. On May 22, he called Berelyuk and told her that a lieutenant and a warrant officer were threatening him. "He was scared someone would hear him talking," Berelyuk tells TIME. "He told me, 'They'll either kill me or cut me.' Then he hung up."

The next day, Suslov's mother received a call from the unit's command. Her son, she was told, had hanged himself with a belt in one of the train's bathrooms.

Read more ....

My Comment: I have seen pictures of Russian soldiers who have been hazed that makes me sick. Discipline and professionalism is what the leaders in Moscow want in their military .... but they have a long way to go before they are at that level.

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