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The Kremlin plans to increase the size of the Russian army to one and a half million servicemen. It is assumed that contract soldiers will make up a significant part, about 700 thousand people. Now there are actually about a million servicemen in the Russian army, informs FREEDOM.
But despite the plans of Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, even now, against the backdrop of huge losses in Ukraine, there is a catastrophic shortage of soldiers in the Russian Federation, analysts say.
“A normal army structure is like a pyramid. There are very few generals, more colonels, and so on, the pyramid expands towards the base. And the Russian army began to look more like an oval, the base was removed from the pyramid. There are too many mid-level officers. They have no one to command. It got to the point that some of them only had warehouses with equipment under their control, ”said Dmitry Gorenburg, a military expert at the American analytical center CNA.
To remedy the situation, Russia decided to reform the army. And to increase its number by a third. For this, the bar of military age will be raised to 30 years. But this is unlikely to help satisfy the shortage of personnel, the American expert believes.
“What reform are you talking about? In my opinion, this is a gesture of desperation. They lack human resources,” said Steven Blank, an analyst at the International Policy Institute.
150,000 mobilized people are already being trained at military training grounds. This is a strategic reserve for conducting the so-called military special operation in Ukraine. To continue it further, the Kremlin needs to increase the size of the army.
It is unlikely that it will be possible to do this at the expense of contractors, as they plan in Moscow. Former Russian Economy Minister Andrei Nechaev believes that this will weaken the country’s economy and lead to numerous negative consequences.
“Everything is clear here. At the same time, the budget deficit will increase. So far, it is not dramatic – up to 3%, and for about a year and a half it is possible to hold out even without borrowing, only at the expense of the “pod” – the National Welfare Fund. But if everything drags on, then the Ministry of Finance will have to actively enter the capital market and make loans, which, of course, will be more and more expensive, ”the ex-minister noted.
The Kremlin considers the mobilized to be a good alternative to contract servicemen. Therefore, the plans include a second wave of mobilization, which Putin may begin in the near future.
