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Jane
Buchanan, researcher in the Europe and Central Asia division of Human Rights
Watch, Diederik Lohman, senior researcher of the Europe and Central Asia
Division of Human Rights Watch, Anna Neistat and Alexander Petrov, respectively
director and deputy director of the Moscow office of Human Rights Watch
conducted research for this report in the cities of Cheliabinsk, Moscow,
Novokuznetsk, Novosibirsk, St. Petersburg, and Volgograd. Diederik Lohman is the author of the report, which was edited by Rachel Denber, deputy executive
director of the Europe and Central Asia Division of Human Rights Watch,
Veronika Leila Szente Goldston, advocacy director of the Europe and Central Asia
Division of Human Rights Watch, Dinah PoKempner, General Counsel at Human
Rights Watch, and Widney Brown, deputy program director at Human Rights Watch.
Invaluable assistance was provided by Kristina Alessi, Ludmila Belova, and Anna
Sinelnikova, associates at the Europe and Central Asia division of Human Rights
Watch; and Angelika Bykadorova, Timur Onica, Sandra Sirota, Isabella
Gourgenian, Hanna Gronborg, Karina Frayter, all interns with the Europe and Central Asia division of Human Rights Watch.
This
report would not have been possible without the many young men who shared their
often traumatic experiences in Russia’s armed forces with us. Thank you for
your courage to be so frank with us. We also extend our warmest gratitude to
the phenomenal staff of the Association of Soldiers’ Mothers of Cheliabinsk
Province, the Soldiers’ Mothers Committee in Novosibirsk, the Committee for the
Protection of the Rights of Military Servicemen in Novokuznetsk, the
Moscow-based Union of Committees of Soldiers' Mothers of Russia, the Soldiers'
Mothers of St. Petersburg, and the Right of the Mother in Volgograd and
Uriupinsk, who generously shared their unique knowledge of Russia’s armed
forces; helped us organize dozens of interviews with conscripts, officials, and
others; and gave us access to their often extensive archives.
