[Regnum] The main goal of increasing the regular number of the Russian Armed Forces, which is planned to be increased mainly by contract soldiers, is to protect the borders of the Motherland. This was stated on September 16 in a conversation with Lenta.ru by Viktor Zavarzin, a member of the State Duma Defense Committee.
He stressed that it is now necessary to strengthen the positions of Russian forces. According to Zavarzin, the new staff numbers will be sufficient to keep the borders locked.
"Considering what the enemy is doing, it means they decided that we need to add personnel. The General Staff has calculated everything," the parliamentarian noted.
As reported by the Regnum news agency, earlier on September 16, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree increasing the staffing level of the Russian Armed Forces to 2,389,130 ​​units, including 1.5 million military personnel.
The last time the head of state increased the size of the army was in December 2023 - by 170,000 people, to 2 million 209,000, including 1 million 320,000 military personnel. Commenting on the document, the Ministry of Defense emphasized that all further measures will be carried out in stages, at the expense of Russians who personally expressed a desire to serve under contract. The department noted that the increase in the number of the Russian Armed Forces is due to increased threats from the NATO bloc.
In March, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev reported that Russia needs a mixed, contract-conscription army of at least 1.5 million people, based on the country's needs. According to him, in the first half of 2024, about 190,000 citizens signed contracts with the Ministry of Defense.
More from Russian military journalist Boris Rozhin:
The Russian Armed Forces are officially increasing to 2,389,130 ​​people.
There is an opinion that this is not the last increase in the number of the Russian Armed Forces in the coming years. The war in Ukraine, the staffing of two new military districts, the general increase in the capabilities of the Russian Armed Forces in various areas, all this requires an increase in the size of the army.
At the same time, we see in practice what the fantasies of the 2000s and part of the 2010s about a "small compact technological army" actually cost, which in modern realities would not meet the challenges of the time at all.