Source: HRO.org (info), 12/10/11 

• Human rights defenders  Army  Conscripts’ rights  Moscow city & Moscow region  Chelyabinsk region

Twenty-two human rights organizations from 14 Russian regions have issued an appeal to the President of the Russian Federation over the death of conscript Ruslan Aiderkhanov. “We are convinced that modernization of the country is impossible while conscription is maintained in its traditional form,” the authors of the appeal declare. 


Dear Dmitry Anatolievich! 

Yet one more tragedy has taken place in the Russian army with the death of Ruslan Aiderkhanov, a conscript in military unit 55062 in Elansk garrison. His body was found hanging from a tree outside the unit’s limits. Relatives, who despite the ban by the military authorities opened the coffin, discovered a knife wound on his body, together with numerous injuries and marks of torture. Military investigators and prosecutors have stated that the soldier committed suicide. [Read more]