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Putin Restores Soviet-Era Military Construction Battalions Abolished in 2006
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Russia is formally restoring Soviet-era military construction units within its armed forces through a decree expanding army staffing, marking their first official return since the formations were eliminated in 2006.
The Moscow Times reported the move on July 28.
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The Russian leader, Vladimir Putin, signed the decree on July 27, raising the army's authorized strength by 27,000 people—25,000 service members and 2,000 civilian staff. The document formally reinstated the construction battalions, known in Russian as "stroybaty," into the structure of the armed forces.
According to The Moscow Times, the revival forms part of a broader overhaul of the military construction sector that the Defense Ministry announced in 2025.
The ministry's head, Andrei Belousov, had described the units as an "additional instrument" for building the "most important" facilities in the interests of the troops.
The outlet noted that Russian authorities justified the reform by pointing to persistent problems in the sector.
After Belousov took over, the Defense Ministry sharply escalated its legal claims against one of its key contractors, the Military Construction Company, with the value of lawsuits climbing steeply across 2024 and into 2026.
The Moscow Times detailed the formations' history: Soviet construction battalions once numbered as many as 200,000 people and built military settlements, ranges, warehouses, and other defense infrastructure.
The system survived the Soviet collapse, but during a 2006 reform, then-defense minister Sergei Ivanov declared that the construction battalions would be "liquidated as a class," handing part of the work to civilian contractors.
The most sensitive projects, including silos for ballistic missiles, were later assigned to Spetsstroy, the federal agency responsible for cosmodromes and special installations, the report added.
After that body was dissolved in 2016 and 2017, its functions passed to the Defense Ministry, which established a Military Construction Complex, though specialized contractors continued to handle much of the work.
The expansion fits a broader pattern of the Russian leader steadily enlarging the personnel of forces under his command since the start of the war in Ukraine.
In late June, Putin ordered a fourth increase to the central staff of the Federal Protective Service, the agency safeguarding him and senior officials, lifting its limit from 785 to 812.
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