Russia’s regions have been tasked with recruiting 409,000 contract soldiers this year — FT

Russia’s regions have been tasked with recruiting 409,000 contract soldiers this year — FT

The Kremlin and the Defense Ministry have instructed regional officials to meet recruitment quotas for new recruits as part of this year’s target of 409,000 people, Financial Times sources familiar with the situation said.

Russians can also receive bonuses for bringing other people into service, which has given rise to an entire industry of remote headhunters who call potential recruits.

“It is becoming harder and harder for the Russian army to find people with every year and every month,” said Grigory Sverdlin, head of “Get Lost.” “Putin is clearly putting off a new wave of mobilization, so the Defense Ministry has to put more pressure on all sorts of people to get them to sign contracts.”

In recent months, the pressure has intensified. Activists describe these efforts as an attempt to help Putin avoid another politically unpopular mobilization campaign — the first since the fall of 2022, when hundreds of thousands of men left the country.

According to a source close to the Defense Ministry, another mobilization would carry at least as much risk for Russia as benefit: “The political consequences of heavy losses among mobilized soldiers, combined with likely significant desertion, could be very negative domestically.”

“Local authorities are under enormous pressure to recruit enough soldiers every year,” says Janis Kluge, a research fellow at the Institute for International Security Affairs (SWP, Berlin). “They know who has debts, who is under police investigation, and who has recently lost their driver’s license, and they focus on these people.”

How Russians are being sold off to the front to fulfill the plan — watch in our explainer on TV Rain’s YouTube.