MILITARY CONSCRIPTION FOR CHECHENS BEGINS. A

call-up of young Chechen men for service in the Russian military has begun. The head of the pro-Moscow military enlistment office in Chechnya, Anatoly Kryuchkov, reported that 566 Chechen youths had been summoned, and that 25 percent of them had then been deemed unfit for service (RIA Novosti, August 3). The basic mass of the conscripts will carry out their duties within the confines of the republic. Each potential conscript will be carefully screened to ensure that he has had no contacts with the separatists. The pro-regime online daily SMI.ru commented: “The call-up of young Chechens into the Russian army has important ideological significance. The issue concerns not only the integration of the republic into the legal space of the Russian Federation but also the mutual trust of Chechens and the federal authorities. And although, evidently, the Chechen conscripts will not at first serve in [Russian] combat units, a beginning for that important practice has been set” (SMI.ru, August 3).