Russian conscript dies after beating:Tass

MOSCOW (Reuters) - A young Russian conscript died in hospital on Monday after two drunk officers at a space forces base beat him with belts and caused severe head injuries, Itar-Tass news agency reported.

An officer and warrant officer at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in the Arkhangelsk region of northern Russia beat up conscript Sergei Sinkonen after heavy drinking at a party on Aug 14.

"Despite all efforts, Sergei Sinkonen died today in the Plesetsk Cosmodrome hospital," space forces spokesman Alexei Zolotukhin was quoted by Tass as saying.

Local officials said the officers went on the rampage after drinking at a celebration of another officer's wedding.

They came across three conscripts, one of whom fled. Sinkonen, born in 1986, and another conscript were badly beaten. Zolotukhin said the other conscript's condition was not serious.

The press office of the space forces, which operate Russia's early warning system against missile attack, had said earlier that a probe into the beating had been launched.

Bullying and abuse is commonplace in Russia's military, where recruits serve 18 months and face hazing by other soldiers called "dedovshchina," or "rule of the grandfathers."

Serious injury or even death sometimes results from the beatings conscripts receive, even though the space forces pride themselves on high levels of discipline and are considered an elite branch of the armed forces.

Doctors last year had to amputate the legs and genitals of a conscript who was abused at the Chelyabinsk Tank Academy.