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BBC Monitoring
Cross-country vehicles, donkeys, camels subject to mobilization in Russia
Source: NTV, Moscow, in Russian 1600 gmt 12 Dec 01
[Presenter] Car owners may start facing more problems. The leaders of the State Road Safety Inspectorate have turned to the presidential decree, adopted three years ago, under which all cross-country vehicles made in Russia are subject to wartime mobilization. To be more precise, they must be registered with military commissariats. Incidentally, the list consisting of Niva and UAZ vehicles also includes deer, donkeys and even camels. Here are more details in a report by Yevgeniy Ksendzenko...
[Correspondent] From now on, cross-country vehicles are subject to military service in Russia, and their owners must be prepared to give their vehicles to their motherland as soon as it requests them. The list of vehicles subject to military call-up in wartime includes Niva and UAZ cross-country vehicles, light lorries and heavy-duty motorcycles. Private owners must register their property with a local military commissariat, otherwise it would be impossible to either register or de-register a vehicle [with the vehicle registration authority] or pass an MOT. A relevant instruction has already been sent to all regional units of the State Road Safety Inspectorate. The instruction was issued in line with the 1998 presidential decree on the mobilization of vehicles in wartime...
[Mikhail Prostodushev, captioned as deputy military commissar of Moscow and chief of the 1st (mobilization) directorate] The owner of a means of transport will receive an individual warrant on the strength of which the means of transport in their possession will be taken away from its owner.
[Correspondent] The owner of a means of transport will receive an invoice showing its market price. The military cannot say when the owner will be able to get money for his property. They say a procedure is still being worked out...
Jeeps and other foreign-made cars, which have become so common in Russia that they seem to have adjusted themselves to its roads, will not be subject to military registration. The so-called foreigners will not be entrusted to defend our homeland for the simple reason that it wartime conditions it would be impossible to repair a Jeep, whereas any soldier can repair a Niva using almost no tools...
The decision to put private vehicles on military registration lists was a well thought-out move, and this is proved by the fact that the list of means of transport subject to compulsory registration includes, apart from Niva cars, camels, donkeys, deer and sleighs. Their owners also must visit their respective military commissariats.
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