Posted by News Express | 26 December 2019 | 821 times
Russian opposition
leader Alexei Navalny has condemned the forcible conscription of one of his
allies to serve at a military base in the Arctic.
Ruslan Shaveddinov was
seized at his home in Moscow on Monday and flown 2,000km (1,240 miles) to the
remote Novaya Zemlya archipelago.
Mr Navalny accused the
authorities of kidnapping the activist who, he said, was exempt from military
service.
An army official accused
the activist of being a draft-dodger.
Alexei Navalny: Russia's
vociferous Putin critic
Military service of 12
months is compulsory for all Russian men aged 18 to 27, but there are
exemptions on medical or other grounds.
Mr Shaveddinov was
working as a project manager at Mr Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK)
when he was seized.
What happened to the
activist?
On Monday a court in
Moscow rejected an appeal made by Mr Shaveddinov against his conscription on
medical grounds.
That evening he was
taken from his flat and his phone stopped answering, Russian media report. His
disappearance was reported by the FBK.
According to Mr Navalny,
the missing man managed to borrow a phone on Wednesday and called him to say he
had been taken to a base of the 33rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Regiment, whose
headquarters is in Rogachovo, Novaya Zemlya. (BBC)
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