Bolshoi Gorod has a chilling article about the most common practices of humiliation used in dedovshchina. I haven't been closely following the recent story about a conscript who lost his legs in a hazing incident, which has apparently brought the issue out into the open - or at least forced the Minister of Defense to comment on it publicly.
Tightening up the draft rules to catch more young men of service age is an unconscionable thing for the MoD to be doing in the absence of a serious, systematic attempt to eliminate one of the main reasons young Russians dodge the draft. The risk of physical and psychological brutalization (not to mention the material humiliation of being shaken down by your fellow servicemen) is a cancer on the Russian armed forces.
As such, it's a threat to Russian security on both a systemic level (poor morale, not to mention rampant suicide in the ranks = worse fighting form) and on a micro-level (psychologically terrorized, armed soldiers deserting with their weapons are a public safety hazard), which you would think would have been of greater concern to the Russian security policy community for some time.
These illustrations are from BG's article and purport to reflect hazing methods which are currently in use, based on BG's research among people who have recently served and on the internet. So, some of them may be exaggerated or represent atypical practices, but I'm sure they are not all made up.
