On Thursday, SibVO Commander, General-Lieutenant Vladimir Chirkin told reporters:

“The military expected a dramatic decrease in this type of offenses, but, regrettably, hazing remains an acute problem. The conscripts, who now have to serve 12 months, regard themselves as ‘old timers’ after serving 6 months, and the same thing continues. Apparently, this virus is transmissible.”

National News | 2010-03-03

The first of July this year Sweden will phased out the system of general conscription. Instead, the sub-officers, soldiers and sailors will be employed in war units. Next year the Armed Forces will thus become one of the country´s largest recruiters.

According to a parliamentary decision taken last year, a new system for supplying the Armed Forces with personnel will now be introduced. But according to the Armed Forces, the staffing of the war units will not be fully filled until 2018. The fighting force will however be mostly set up in 2014.

According to the Belarusian Telegraph Agency, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko gave an instruction to develop a law on alternative service. This instruction followed a report on alternative service presented by State Secretary of the Security Council Leonid Maltsev on 18 February.

There have been several reports in recent months that Afghanistan might move to introduce conscription in the near future, to increase the strength of its Armed Forces. According to BBC News, Afghan President Hamid Karzai has told a conference of the world's top defence officials in Germany that he is considering introducing conscription. The Afghan president said at the summit in Munich he wants to build an army and police force of 300,000 by 2012.