Not a single draftee came from Chechnya in last fall's draft, General Staff deputy head Vasily Smirnov announced Thursday.
Smirnov did not provide a specific reason for the lack of draftees, instead saying "[to get draftees] the counting of citizens must be put right, and medical commissions must be created and begin working," Gazeta.ru reported.
The Defense Ministry announced last year that no one was drafted from Chechnya in the spring of 2011 either, despite only 100 young men being rejected by medical commissions out of more than 7,000 who underwent medical exams, RBK reported last year. At the time Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov called the ministry's statement "provocative" and dictated by a desire to "play the Chechen card," Gazeta.ru reported.
The army did not draft men from Chechnya from the start of the First Chechen War, in 1994, until 2005. Two hundred men were drafted from Chechnya in 2005 but were later sent home.
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