Russia’s men increasingly see army as good job, not dead end
YEKATERINBURG, Russia — Increasingly, the young men of Russia say they see military service as an opportunity, not a dreaded obligation to avoid.
The Associated Press recently visited Russia’s newest military recruitment center in Yekaterinburg, Russia’s fourth-largest city, and talked with several men who plan to turn their one-year mandatory military service into a longer-term job. The cultural shift is significant in an army long dependent on barely paid, low-morale conscripts who leave within 12 months, if they ever report for duty at all.