Conscription into the army: How to avoid becoming a victim of scammers during the quarantine period
Russian conscripts risk becoming victims of swindlers who get money from them, promising to “excuse” them from serving in the army. Various services activated with adoption of the presidential decree on conscription 2020, offer their “help” in medical and legal matters, launch beautiful advertising and capitalize on the fears of conscripts. All this is fueled by the coronavirus pandemic. But today the Russian army is one of the safest and most protected places. PolitNavigator looked into what the threat is from fake human rights activists.
This year, at least 135 thousand conscripts will go to defend the vastness of the Motherland - the corresponding decree was signed by the country's President Vladimir Putin. The conscription will take place according to plan from April 1 to July 15, although before that the General Staff doubted that it would take place on time due to the spread of coronavirus around the world.
In order to avoid the penetration of infection into the ranks of the RF Armed Forces, the military medical commissions of the commissariats were reinforced with medical specialists and equipment.
The refusal to postpone the spring conscription dates has intensified various “human rights” organizations that allegedly offer a legal “opt-out” from military service, but, of course, not for free.
In order not to attract the attention of law enforcement officers, this is often camouflaged as “legal and medical services.” Such a service is provided, for example, by the resource “PrizyvaNet.ru”, which has several “mirrors” that allow it to avoid blocking, and is full of satisfied reviews from conscripts who managed to “refuse” to serve.
It is interesting that even with a cursory study of the operation of this site, it turns out that it uses the services of “bot farms” and artificial promotion services. Thus, according to the website Pravda-sotrudnikov.ru, the organization is included in the rating of companies suspected of boosting positive reviews artificially. In this rating, the company “PrizyvaNet.ru” took 11th place.
It is noteworthy that the company’s website promises the conscript to receive a military ID without bribes, having previously concluded an official contract with a guarantee of a refund if it still fails to “excuse” the conscript from serving.
“The company enters into a paid agreement with clients for the provision of services - consultations on legal and medical issues. This means that the company undertakes only to advise the conscript; obtaining a military ID is not its task... However, the guarantee only works if the conscript follows all the company’s recommendations, and this can be difficult to prove,” notes in the blog "T-Z" lawyer Alexander Denisov.
“Taking into account the fact that conscription into the army is a lot of stress, such aggressive advertising does not seem very honest. It seems that she is putting pressure on young people's fear of the army so that they buy the company's services without any second thoughts. Such techniques are often used by scammers, for example, when they promise fabulous profits from investments or mountains of gold for unskilled work on the Internet,” Denisov continues.
The expert also doubts the qualifications of the specialists working at PrizyvaNet.ru, although the website states that the company employs experienced lawyers and doctors who know how to protect the rights of conscripts.
However, for example, in the city of Omsk, the company was looking for a head of a customer retention group, which, according to Denisov, indicates that it often encounters situations where customers terminate contracts. It is also possible that clients have good reasons for this.
In addition, the company claims that its specialists have experience working in military registration and enlistment offices, however, such a requirement does not appear in the vacancies posted on the website hh.ru. By the way, lawyers are only required to have a higher legal education and work experience of one to three years, without experience in court, but most often it turns out that young people from lawyers need direct help in court to prove the illegal grounds for recognizing a conscript as fit for duty. service. In this case, the main task of the lawyer is the ability to defend the interests of the conscript in court. What can a last year law school graduate who has no experience representing in court do?
“Judging by the website, the company works with any situation. But if a conscript evades military service, he may become a suspect or accused in a criminal case of evasion - and protect his interests only a lawyer can . But according to the law, lawyers do not have the right to work in commercial organizations. I also could not find confirmation that PrizyvaNet.ru cooperates with lawyers. So if a criminal case is initiated against a company’s client for evading military service, they will not be able to help him. You’ll have to look for a lawyer yourself,” Denisov notes.
The situation with doctors is identical: applicants are only required to have a higher education, but there is no requirement to have experience and a specialist certificate granting the doctor the right to conduct private practice. What kind of “thorough diagnosis” can we talk about when the doctor’s qualifications remain in question? In addition, the duties required of doctors are of interest: their job is only to study medical documents and send conscripts for examinations.
One of the dangers when working with such companies, according to Crimean lawyer and ex-Verkhovna Rada deputy Vadim Kolesnichenko, is that the conscript’s personal data can easily be resold to a third party. The expert stated this in a comment to PolitNavigator and reminded about criminal liability when trying to evade service.
“If a person is a conscript, then he should already have at least oil in his head - he should read what he signs. This is the first one. Secondly, the transfer of personal data without your consent to a third party is criminalized in the Russian Federation. Third, if you engage in illegal actions, and let me remind you, the law on universal military service has not been repealed, and conscription is the law on conscription. Therefore, if you come into contact with people who offer you to “refuse” from the army, this means that you are entering into a criminal conspiracy to violate the law of the Russian Federation and are an accomplice to the crime. This is an attempted crime. As for proposals of this kind, this is a proposal about a crime, public. The presence of such sites is illegal,” Kolesnichenko said.
The lawyer also noted that in the context of the spread of the dangerous coronavirus, the Russian army is one of the safest places:
“As for conscription, it is obvious to everyone that the system of the Ministry of Defense can provide quarantine measures, treatment measures and preventive measures much more effectively. In this case, I would be more happy to send the child there than to have him sit in self-isolation, it is unclear what to do with unclear consequences. And there the state takes it under control, controls the state, provides and protects the state,” Kolesnichenko said.
As for such resources, they will fall under the supervision of the prosecutor’s office, and cases regarding them will be sent to court, said Senator Olga Kovitidi, a member of the Defense Committee of the Federation Council.
“Prosecutorial measures should be taken against this kind of sites, since these services are in conflict with current legislation, no matter how beautifully they write about themselves. The state already has a certain kind of experience in this direction. We know that the prosecutor's office succeeded in blocking sites that sold pregnancy certificates and also referred to the fact that everything they do is done exclusively within the law. Therefore, in this case, the prosecutor’s office should consider filing a claim in court and, based on a court decision, measures should be taken to include such a “recruitment” site in the registers of prohibited sites. Naturally, this court decision will be the basis for execution and subsequent referral to Roskomnadzor,” Kovitidi said.
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