Suicide in the Russian military

Yesterday's Novye Izvestiia had an article about the high rate of suicide - not to mention accidental and other non-combat death - in today's Russian military. I have translated it below, and any errors resulting from the translation are mine alone.

With a machine gun and a noose around their necks.
By Nadezhda Krasilova

Every month, over 20 people commit suicide in the army.

Yesterday, the Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) published figures which state that the crime rate in the army increased in July by 36% as compared with June. Since the beginning of the year, 158 servicemen have committed suicide. But human rights activists say that the army’s statistics are not consistent with reality, and that the MoD’s actual casualties in this time of peace are approximately three times the official figures.

Back at the end of July, Chief military prosecutor Alexander Savenkov was the first to announce the growth in the army crime rate. Prior to that, MoD reports suggested that crime in the army was steadily declining. For example, according to official figures, non-combat losses in 2004 were 954 versus 1286 in the year 2000. However, according to the Chief military prosecutor’s office, the amount of crimes committed in the army was steadily growing. The Chief military prosecutor released information that during the week from June 6 to 13 alone, 46 servicemen died and another 22 were injured in the “peacetime” army. In response, Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov accused the Chief military prosecutor’s office of inefficiency and accused the Chief military prosecutor himself of failing to respect the verdict of a jury trial (the prosecutor had publicly criticized the verdict in the Ul’man case).

However, the military prosecutors’ criticism of the army leadership had to be indirectly taken into account, and Sergei Ivanov has decreed that henceforth the non-combat casualties of the army and navy will be published on the MoD’s official website. Yesterday, society had the chance to view the first such report where the MoD acknowledged a rise in peacetime losses. The official release states that the number of accidents and crimes in the Russian armed forces in July of this year was 1697, 36% more than in June. In all, since the beginning of this year, there have been over 9000 crimes and accidents. In July, 119 people in the services died, including two as a result of inappropriate treatment [hazing] (which killed 2 people in June also), 32 servicemen committed suicide (25 in June), 35 died in accidents (29 in June), and 15 as a result of careless handling of weapons (4 in June). Another 34 servicemen died in vehicular accidents, 7 died as a result of civilians’ criminal acts, and one due to negligence. In all, since the beginning of the year, according to the MoD’s figures, 158 servicemen have committed suicide (i.e., every month 20 leave this life willingly), 12 have died as a result of hazing, 153 in vehicular accidents, 147 in other accidents, and in 18 cases the cause of death was negligence.

In the opinion of human rights activists, however, even these figures provided by the military about crime in the army are understated. The Mother’s Right foundation told Novye Izvestiia that, according to their information, non-combat losses annually number around 3000 servicemen, and not 900-1100, as the MoD reports. This is because the military leadership does not count servicemen who die at home from illnesses received while in the army or those who go missing. Because of this, it’s not at all rare for a dead soldier to be retroactively demobilized and not make it into the MoD’s statistics. The Mother’s Right foundation was unable to explain the growth of suicides in July, since they only keep annual statistics and not monthly ones. They did, however, state that suicide is the main cause of death in the military, and that suicides make up 30 to 35% of all military deaths.

For purposes of comparison, US troops in Iraq (which I know number several times less than the total number of active-duty Russian servicemen, so the comparison is not perfect) suffered 406 "non-hostile" deaths during the period from March 2003 through July of 2005 (according to the iCasualties website).