A ridiculous excuse for why Russian military won't talk about suspicious deaths of soldiers
This summer, a controversy broke out across Russia. More than a few soldiers who just happened to be assigned to units stationed near Ukrainian border wound up dead. The official line was that they died in training accidents, but evidence started to emerge suggesting that they died in eastern Ukraine.
In Russia, soldiers are conscripted, so the question of what the hell actually happened to the soldiers touched the nerve of a chunk of Russian population that would otherwise never question the official line on the Ukrainian crisis. The military's stonewalling didn't help. Groups of mothers of drafted soldiers demanded answers.
Ella Polyakova, head of the St. Petersburg Mothers of Soldiers" (Dmitriy Azarov/Kommersant)
Last week, Kommersant newspaper reported that one such group, which is based in my home city of St. Peterburg, decided that it wasn't going to take obstruction for an answer.
They sued the Ministry of Defense itself.
The lawsuit was filed in Frunzenskiy neighborhood court by Ella Polyakova, head of "St Petersburg Mothers of Soldiers" organization. As the NGO told Kommersant, in August, Ms Polyakova addressed the Main Military-Medical Administration of the Ministry of Defense with a demand for information about the servicemen that were hospitalized in Kirov Military Medical Academy due to wounds of various degrees of severity. As "Mothers of Soldiers" representative Alexander Peredruk explained, this request came as a result of multiple articles that insisted that wounded soldiers were taken to military hospitals from the Rostovskaya Oblast [which borders eastern Ukraine's Donetsk Oblast], where military exercises took place near the Ukrainian border all summer.
"As we recall, there were different accounts [of the cause of this], and testimonies from servicemen appeared insisting that they were sent to fight in southeastern Ukraine," said Mr. Peredruk. "The testimonies included specific units that were [allegedly] sent to Donbass."
We would like to remind our readers that, in August, members of the the President's Human Rights Committee demanded that the Investigative Committee [of the Ministry of Defense] investigate the circumstances behind the deaths of several fighters in the 18th Motor Rifle Brigade."
The Defense Ministry refused to disclose anything on the grounds of... Brace yourselves for his one, because it's a doozy.
In the official response to "Mothers of Soldiers" obtained by Kommersant, Deputy Head of Military-Medical Administration of the Ministry of Defense Konstantin said that such information "constitutes privileged medical information," and that the request itself violates the federal law "regarding the foundations of health of the citizens of Russian Federation," which prohibits disclosure of patients' personal information.
In other words, the Ministry of Defense is hiding behind the freaking doctor-patient confidentiality.
Now, the attorney for the St. Petersburg Mothers of Soldiers basically called bullshit on the whole thing. He also pointed out that, under a 2001 legal decision, information about military casualties could no longer be considered top secret, so the Ministry of Defense is on shaky legal grounds here.
Of course, as anyone who's followed this blog would know, Russian laws are only as enforceable as the ruling United Russia apparatus wants them to be. The article quotes Human Rights Committee member Sergey Krivenko as saying that, even if the lawsuit is successful, the Ministry of Defense would find some other technicality to hide behind. Which sounds about right to me.
To add a bitter turd cherry on top of this pile of rubbish, the Kommersant article ends with this:
According to a high-ranking source within the Ministry of Defense, [the ministry] has no intention to respond to the St. Petersburg Mothers of Soldiers.
"There's nothing to talk about," he said.
He said that the organization, which was placed on the "foreign agents" list by the Ministry of Justice (this happened immediately after the complaint was filed), has already been noted for "deliberate spread of disinformation regarding the [alleged] mass deaths for Russian soldiers on the Ukrainian territory," which "quoted posts on Ukrainian news sites word for word." According to the source, the ministry is also skeptical about the lawsuit itself, but that, if it was filed, the ministry was prepared to defend its position in court.
The message is unmistakable - don't challenge the official narrative, or we'll fight you and label you an agent of evil Westerners.
The Ukrainian Crisis has given United Russia an excuse to tighten the screws against any in all signs of dissent. From the laws placing additional burdens on bloggers and greater penalties for unsanctioned rallies to the more recent restrictions on foreign ownership stakes in media outlets... There are people old enough to vote in Russia who weren't alive when being against the party line sucked more than this.
Russian military has never been too keen on the whole transparency/accountability thing. Not even during Yetsin's presidency. And the current political climate sure as hell isn't helping.
I'm fairly sure it's only going to get worse.
In Russia, soldiers are conscripted, so the question of what the hell actually happened to the soldiers touched the nerve of a chunk of Russian population that would otherwise never question the official line on the Ukrainian crisis. The military's stonewalling didn't help. Groups of mothers of drafted soldiers demanded answers.
Ella Polyakova, head of the St. Petersburg Mothers of Soldiers" (Dmitriy Azarov/Kommersant)
Last week, Kommersant newspaper reported that one such group, which is based in my home city of St. Peterburg, decided that it wasn't going to take obstruction for an answer.
They sued the Ministry of Defense itself.
The lawsuit was filed in Frunzenskiy neighborhood court by Ella Polyakova, head of "St Petersburg Mothers of Soldiers" organization. As the NGO told Kommersant, in August, Ms Polyakova addressed the Main Military-Medical Administration of the Ministry of Defense with a demand for information about the servicemen that were hospitalized in Kirov Military Medical Academy due to wounds of various degrees of severity. As "Mothers of Soldiers" representative Alexander Peredruk explained, this request came as a result of multiple articles that insisted that wounded soldiers were taken to military hospitals from the Rostovskaya Oblast [which borders eastern Ukraine's Donetsk Oblast], where military exercises took place near the Ukrainian border all summer.
"As we recall, there were different accounts [of the cause of this], and testimonies from servicemen appeared insisting that they were sent to fight in southeastern Ukraine," said Mr. Peredruk. "The testimonies included specific units that were [allegedly] sent to Donbass."
We would like to remind our readers that, in August, members of the the President's Human Rights Committee demanded that the Investigative Committee [of the Ministry of Defense] investigate the circumstances behind the deaths of several fighters in the 18th Motor Rifle Brigade."
The Defense Ministry refused to disclose anything on the grounds of... Brace yourselves for his one, because it's a doozy.
In the official response to "Mothers of Soldiers" obtained by Kommersant, Deputy Head of Military-Medical Administration of the Ministry of Defense Konstantin said that such information "constitutes privileged medical information," and that the request itself violates the federal law "regarding the foundations of health of the citizens of Russian Federation," which prohibits disclosure of patients' personal information.
In other words, the Ministry of Defense is hiding behind the freaking doctor-patient confidentiality.
Now, the attorney for the St. Petersburg Mothers of Soldiers basically called bullshit on the whole thing. He also pointed out that, under a 2001 legal decision, information about military casualties could no longer be considered top secret, so the Ministry of Defense is on shaky legal grounds here.
Of course, as anyone who's followed this blog would know, Russian laws are only as enforceable as the ruling United Russia apparatus wants them to be. The article quotes Human Rights Committee member Sergey Krivenko as saying that, even if the lawsuit is successful, the Ministry of Defense would find some other technicality to hide behind. Which sounds about right to me.
To add a bitter turd cherry on top of this pile of rubbish, the Kommersant article ends with this:
According to a high-ranking source within the Ministry of Defense, [the ministry] has no intention to respond to the St. Petersburg Mothers of Soldiers.
"There's nothing to talk about," he said.
He said that the organization, which was placed on the "foreign agents" list by the Ministry of Justice (this happened immediately after the complaint was filed), has already been noted for "deliberate spread of disinformation regarding the [alleged] mass deaths for Russian soldiers on the Ukrainian territory," which "quoted posts on Ukrainian news sites word for word." According to the source, the ministry is also skeptical about the lawsuit itself, but that, if it was filed, the ministry was prepared to defend its position in court.
The message is unmistakable - don't challenge the official narrative, or we'll fight you and label you an agent of evil Westerners.
The Ukrainian Crisis has given United Russia an excuse to tighten the screws against any in all signs of dissent. From the laws placing additional burdens on bloggers and greater penalties for unsanctioned rallies to the more recent restrictions on foreign ownership stakes in media outlets... There are people old enough to vote in Russia who weren't alive when being against the party line sucked more than this.
Russian military has never been too keen on the whole transparency/accountability thing. Not even during Yetsin's presidency. And the current political climate sure as hell isn't helping.
I'm fairly sure it's only going to get worse.