A COLD DRAFT….
Lieutenant General Vasily Smirnov says more and more young men are evading conscription. He put the number of draft dodgers at 38,000 this spring, up from 19,000 last fall. Draft evasion is only one of the problems facing a military with a manpower shortage in the ranks. Legal draft exemptions already cover 87 percent of draft-age youth, no doubt increasing the resistance to service by the 13 percent not so favored. Recruitment problems are behind the defense ministry’s opposition to a proposal by the ministry of education to extend the school system from ten to twelve years.