Blame the wine: military alcohol testing wants to simplify
It will be possible to check military personnel for alcohol intoxication without taking them to a medical organization, but right on the spot, for example, in a unit. Such a bill was approved by the Cabinet of Ministers on April 20. Now, if a soldier or officer is suspected to be drunk, they must be examined at a licensed medical facility. And it may be located far from the place of service. To carry out operational checks, it is also necessary to develop regulations for the use of breathalyzers and a procedure for challenging the results obtained, experts noted. How the mechanism will work is described in the Izvestia article.
Alcohol testing of the military will be simplified
The Ministry of Defense has proposed to simplify the procedure for checking military personnel and people called up for training camps for alcohol content in their blood. The Agency has developed amendments to the law that allow for such an examination to be carried out on the spot. The government Commission on Legislative Activity approved this document on April 20, sources in the Cabinet of Ministers told Izvestia.
Now, according to the law on the Status of Military Personnel, if a soldier or officer is suspected of having come to service in a state of intoxication, he is sent for a medical examination. And it can only be carried out in those organizations that have a license for this, for example, in drug dispensaries, regional, regional or district hospitals.
In practice, as the authors of the bill note, difficulties arise in order to promptly and safely deliver military personnel for inspection. In addition, the military police units that accompany them to the procedure are distracted from patrolling for about four hours — this is the time to get to the hospital, wait in line, and the procedure itself, which sometimes lasts more than an hour.
Therefore, the Ministry of Defense proposed to specify in the law the possibility of conducting an on-site examination using special technical means, said Vladimir Gruzdev, Chairman of the Board of the Russian Bar Association.
The draft assumes that in this case, the alcohol test will be conducted by authorized officials, their list will be determined by military regulations. The reason for the check will be the presence of the smell of alcohol, instability of posture, speech disorders, redness of the face, inappropriate behavior. A prerequisite for the examination will be the presence of two witnesses or the use of video recordings.
"The bill classifies the performance of military service duties in a state of intoxication, as well as the refusal to undergo a medical examination, as gross disciplinary offenses," said Vladimir Gruzdev.
He added: if a serviceman refuses to be checked on the spot, he will be sent to a medical institution for examination. The same procedure will be followed if the person does not agree with the results of the operational check or if the breathalyzer shows a negative result, and the inspectors have sufficient grounds to believe that the serviceman is still drunk.
Why do we need operational checks?
The amendments are necessary, as they take into account, for example, the conditions in the free zone, the experts noted. There, the time factor is critical, and the requirement of the law to deliver a serviceman to a medical facility is often impossible due to logistics. Simplification of the control procedure in such conditions is a necessary but justified measure, military expert Viktor Litovkin is convinced.
"It is fundamentally important for a commander to be able to quickly assess the condition of a subordinate,— he said. — In case of a positive result of the rapid test, the serviceman must be immediately suspended from performing combat missions or working with weapons.
However, in order to avoid "distortions and subjectivism", the consolidation of this initiative in the law should be based on a clear legal algorithm, including the introduction of a rights protection mechanism comparable to the practice of the traffic police.
— A serviceman should have the right to disagree. If he considers the testimony of the "tube" to be erroneous, he should have a legitimate opportunity to record this fact. The commander's decision cannot be final and cannot be reviewed. It is necessary to provide for regulations that allow challenging the test result," Viktor Litovkin believes.
Experts note that it is important to find a "middle ground": to give the commander an effective tool for maintaining discipline and at the same time preserve the right of the military personnel to an objective hearing in case of disputes. This will minimize the risk that rapid testing will turn into an administrative lever for settling personal accounts or "clearing" departments of unwanted personnel.
—We remember historical examples of past anti—alcohol campaigns, when professional officers sometimes came under attack, and inspections turned into a tool of purges rather than a real struggle for discipline," military expert Vasily Dandykin pointed out.
In his opinion, the issue of law enforcement is also fundamentally important.: who exactly will be authorized to conduct such tests.
"If we are talking about a military police system that operates according to clear regulations, this is acceptable," he said. — If these functions are transferred to local commanders, the risk of abuse increases.
According to Alexey Gavrishev, lawyer and managing partner of AVG Legal, the amendments are a step towards improving discipline. The ability to conduct an on-site inspection immediately reduces the likelihood of evading the inspection and increases the effectiveness of control.
"However, the key issue is procedural guarantees," he said. — Medical examination in a specialized institution requires a certain level of accuracy and formalization of the procedure. When this function is moved into place, the risk of errors, disputes about the correctness of measurements, and abuse increases.
In particular, the regulations for the use of breathalyzers will be important: the requirements for certification of devices, the procedure for checking them, recording the results and the possibility of challenging them.
"Without a clear procedural framework, such a system can lead to conflict situations and reduce confidence in the audit results," the expert emphasized. — From the point of view of consequences, drinking alcohol in the performance of duties for military personnel entails disciplinary responsibility. In some cases, administrative or criminal charges if the actions entailed serious consequences or were committed in conditions related to the performance of special tasks.
According to Alexey Gavrishev, the effectiveness of the innovation will depend on how detailed the mechanism of its application is. Without this, simplification of the procedure may result in an increase in the number of conflicts and complaints.
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