The Yabloko faction which has declared its intention to submit once again a draft law to the State Duma on granting a deferral on army recruitment for male teachers was supported the deputies of other Duma factions. 

 On February 19, 2002, the draft law on granting a deferral on army recruitment to male teachers was once again submitted to the State Duma. The amendment to Article 24 to the Law "On Military Duty and Military Service" was submitted to the Duma by the Yabloko deputies Alexander Shishlov and Alexei Arbatov, Ivan Melnikov (CPRF), Gadzhimet Safaraliyev and Alexander Shelekhov (Unity), Andrei Kokoshin (Fatherland-All Russia), Irina Khakamada and Eduard Vorobyev (the Union of Right-Wing Forces), Nikolai Ovchinnikov (People's Deputy), Flura Ziyatdinova (Russia's Regions) and Vladimir Pashuto and Oleg Smolin (the Agro-Industrial Deputy Group).

 The initiative of the Yabloko deputy and Deputy Chair of the Duma Committee on Education and Science Alexander Shishlov was also supported by the Russian Public Council for the Development of Education and the State Duma Committee for Education and Science.

 After only 184 Duma deputies voted for adoption of the draft law in the first reading on September 27, 2001, below the required minimum of 226 votes, the Yabloko faction called on its colleagues to reconsider the draft law.

 "A teacher is more needed at school than in the army," said the author of the draft law Shishlov. He is also certain that "the adoption of this law will attract young men teachers to schools," and also "push the government to take more active measures for the transition of the Russian army to a contract basis."

 See also:

The Russian Army