— DRAFT CALL:

This fall 160,000 men, 30,000 fewer than last year, will be called up for military service. The regular army is slated to shrink from 1.5 million to 1.2 million by January, and the full panoply of armed services–including the troops of the Federal Border Service, the Federal Security Service and the Ministry of the Interior–is to be cut from 2.3 million to 1.5 million by 2005. The Committee of Soldiers’ Mothers has appealed to President Yeltsin to end the draft now, but the government claims that an all-volunteer force would be too expensive.