Nalchik resident obtains compensation for illegal conscription

The Nalchik City Court ordered the Russian Defense Ministry to pay compensation to Eldar Pshibiev, who was called up for service despite a diagnosed heart defect.

In the fall of 2023, Nalchik resident Eldar Pshibiev went to the military registration and enlistment office to get a certificate for his employer. Although they confirmed his earlier diagnosis, which is officially the reason for recognizing him as unfit for service, the medical commission in Nalchik found Pshibiev fit and sent him to the unit.

Pshibiev served eight months and ended up in the hospital. Although he had been seeing doctors regularly since December 2023, Pshebiyev was only expelled from the unit in July 2024, the Kabardino-Balkaria Human Rights Center reported on August 6.

According to the case file on the court's website, Eldar Pshebiyev's litigation with the Defense Ministry began back in August 2024. The plaintiff argued that the illegal conscription had harmed his health: having a heart defect, he was forced to endure the stress associated with service, without having a real opportunity to avoid it. The court found that the draft boards of Nalchik and Kabardino-Balkaria violated Pshebiyev's right to health care, the decision says.

Eldar Pshebiyev demanded compensation for moral damages from the Ministry of Defense in the total amount of 1.5 million rubles, as well as compensation for lost profits due to loss of work (362 thousand rubles), legal costs (50 thousand rubles) and travel expenses (3.8 thousand rubles) incurred upon returning from the place of service. The court reduced the total amount of compensation to 762 thousand rubles, of which moral damages were estimated at 350 thousand, the organization noted in a statement.

"Kavkazsky Uzel" also wrote that Rostov Region resident Anatoly Cherepnin obtained compensation from the Ministry of Defense for the death of his 24-year-old son in a helicopter crash in Chechnya in April 2007. The Ministry of Defense and the command of the Southern Military District demanded that this decision be overturned, but the appellate court sided with Cherepnin.

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