Russia Presses Regional Officials to Recruit 409,000 Soldiers to Avoid Nationwide Draft

The Kremlin and the Russian Ministry of Defense have instructed regional officials to recruit 409,000 contract soldiers this year under regional quotas.

Pressure on local authorities has increased in recent months as Russian leader Vladimir Putin seeks to avoid announcing a new wave of official mobilization, according to Financial Times on August 10.

Despite sending newly enlisted personnel to the front lines without creating capable combat reserves, Russian territorial advances have slowed. Data from the Institute for the Study of War indicates that Russian forces captured only 81 square kilometers in the first half of the year.

“Local authorities are under immense pressure to recruit the necessary number of soldiers annually,” says Janis Kluge, a research fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, who calculates contract recruit numbers based on budget data.

“They know who has debts, who is under investigation, who recently lost their driver’s license, and these are precisely the people they are hunting. Officials are trying to squeeze as much as possible out of every category of men,” says Artem Klyga, head of the legal department at the Movement of Conscious Objectors and program coordinator for Eastern Europe at Germany’s Connection e.V.

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Methods used by authorities include street detentions, such as those conducted by police in Penza and Ulyanovsk, as well as the detention of 35 factory workers in Rostov.

Local officials also conduct home and workplace meetings with targeted individuals, including people on probation, debtors, and recently discharged conscripts. These efforts frequently fall short of target quotas.

Police in the Khabarovsk region reported conducting 2,500 recruitment talks last year, which resulted in only 32 people signing military contracts, 28 of whom were suspects in criminal cases. New contract enlistments primarily cover active personnel losses.

In Moscow, 1,708 contract soldiers were sent to the front in April and 1,378 in May, showing a significant monthly drop from the previous year. Nationwide recruitment fell by roughly a third as local authorities struggled to attract new recruits, leaving some military units manned at only 30% to 40% of their full strength.

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