Researchers name action motives and methods of Caucasian draft dodgers

Researchers have found out how men who are in areas at risk of conscription and mobilization into the Russian Army, but would not take part in military operations, choose their life strategies. They have also compared the motives and methods of action of residents of Russian central regions with those in Northern Caucasus.

The study was conducted by the APUS – a project of an initiative group of human rights defenders, researchers and lawyers working on the human rights topic.

The researchers conducted 42 interviews with the men who were subject to conscription or the decree on the "partial mobilization". The Caucasian part of the sample included respondents from Ingushetia, Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachay-Cherkessia and Dagestan. No interviews were conducted in Chechnya, since the mobilization situation there is specific, the authors have noted.

In the regions of the Caucasus, the researchers saw that those mobilized feel less protected than conscripts: in their interviews, they stated that in a certain situation they might have to join the Russian Army.

The humanitarian, religious values and pacifist views serve as a basis for the desire to resist conscription, but in some cases, respondents who adhere to these principles note that if they had to choose the prison or military service, they would be forced to choose service.

The researchers note that people's great dependence on the surrounding people, historical experience and awareness of discrimination against Caucasians in Russian prisons play a role here. Those, who are sure that from the viewpoint of Islam it is unacceptable to participate in sinful events, are more resistant to mobilization. None of the respondents who adhere to these views were ready to participate in the special military operation (SMO) under any circumstances.