The army must recruit conscripts by the new year, but draft-dodging in Moscow is so rampant that military officials have resorted to arresting men at random.
Elena Stefanovskaya, of Soldiers' Mothers' Committee, said: "There has been a concerted action for the past week to fulfill quotas by Dec. 31st. Boys are taken in the metro, at home or in the street."
Only 22 percent of young men in Moscow enroll for national military service. According to the Times, Artyom Fyodorov, a journalist and law student, was stopped by a police officer last week at a subway station. He was then taken to the draft office, where he was told he would serve in a base outside Moscow.
Fyodorov three years ago contracted hepatitis B, a potentially fatal disease, and has since suffered stomach problems and expected to fail the medical examination.
But the army told him he was "fit to serve with limitations," meaning that he will be exempt from divisions such as paratroopers.
His mother, Yevgenia, was at home when she got the call. "My child has been kidnapped. Don't any of these people think about how the mothers feel?"
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