Twice a year Russia drafts 150,000 to 200,000 men between the ages of 18 and 27 to serve for 12 months. Today's conscripts have continued the tradition of avoiding military service in great numbers.
While exact figures are almost impossible to attain because they would embarrass the Russian government, Sutyagin said, traditionally around 50 percent of conscripts avoid the draft. A
2013 report from the General Staff of the Russian Federation Council mentioned that 244,000 men avoided conscription in 2012, although those figures could not be verified.
According to the report, 8,794 men who received draft cards did not turn up at the recruiting office. Another 235,800 avoided the draft by other means.
Maj. Gen. Alexander Nikitin, a department head at the Chief Military Prosecutor's Office, said
around 30,000 people a year are convicted of offenses related to evading the draft. Draft dodging is punishable by up to two years in prison, and according to Nikitin around 1,000 people a year are convicted.