According to Felgenhauer, the decision is mainly based on the need to send home the one-year conscripts that form the backbone of the Russian army and focus energies on drawing up this year's class.
"Here are Nipper and Ginger: two cheery conscripts from Up North.
Although the draft had been cancelled in 2013 as part of reforms to build a professional fighting force, the army remained full of poorly trained conscripts as the political regime changed in February 2014.
Other military analysts believe that the new arrivals may well include battalions comprising mostly professional "contract" soldiers - far more effective than the conscripts that make up most standard Russian army units.
With the draft reinstated last year, the defence ministry plans to call up 40,000 conscripts and recruit 10,500 contract soldiers in 2015.
Foreign diplomats suggest that its counter-insurgency tactics amount to shelling the hillsides and forests from which attacks are thought to have come, and then sending in conscripts in tanks to flush out the fighters.
One comparison between the incomes of men with high lottery numbers (who were likely to be drafted) and those with lower ones showed that the conscripts earned about 15% less than they would otherwise have done, and that the difference persisted in every year they worked after they came home.
The shocking, institutionalised abuse of Russian army conscripts is, he says, exaggerated: besides, military bullying "exists in any army".According to some, Mr Ivanov and Mr Medvedev are now competing in a Russian-style primary: their performance in office over the next year may determine which man gets Mr Putin's nod.
Mr Ivanov's main task reform of the armed forces, particularly the drafting of extra conscripts, while reducing their term of service from two years to one could yet make him unpopular.
A common refrain by the police around the country is that they "do not want to be dragged into politics".Mr Morsi's administration is wooing the police by promising them more handguns, passing a law to restrict protests, making promotion easier and improving conditions for conscripts.
Some 8,000 fewer conscripts than planned will be called up next year; some facilities will close, ending certain civilian jobs; the army will start charging for services like flood relief and emergency transport that it used to offer free.
