Young Crimean man will be drafted into the Russian army starting this spring and could end up stationed in Chechnya and Dagestan, Crimea's leader said following the peninsula's vote to join Russia.
When Crimea's accession to Russia is complete, the region will be subject to that country's laws, including its mandatory service in the Russian army, Crimea's Prime Minister Sergei Aksyonov said Tuesday, Ukraine's TVi reported.
Ukraine scrapped universal conscription last October, but Russia still has universal military draft for men over the age of 18, and Aksyonov said the deployment of young Crimeans will not be limited to their native peninsula.
"The conscripts will serve throughout the country, including in Dagestan, Chechnya and generally in the North Caucasus," he said.
Ahead of last Sunday's referendum, Crimean regional legislature speaker Volodymyr Konstantinov promised that the salaries of government workers would increase from between twofold and fourfold if voters cast ballots in favor of joining Russia.
Several pundits said Crimeans were promised an embellished picture of Russia before the vote, and some residents may now feel they are getting more than they bargained for with news of their eligibility for conscription.
Alluding to the landslide vote in the Crimea referendum, Twitter user Veselye Rebyata, or Funny Guys, said that "96.7 percent of Russian voters are also ready to vote for their regions' accession to the kind of Russia that the Crimeans had been invited to join."
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