Russia intensifies its efforts to increase the size of the army – DW – 04/08/2023

Russia’s annual spring Draft Work began on April 1 when President Vladimir Putin signed a decree requiring 147,000 men to enroll in the compulsory year of military service. That’s about 8% more on average than in previous years. In the spring of 2022, for example, the number was 134,500.

Accompanying this year’s spring draft is a marketing campaign in hopes of winning over more young men and persuading them to serve in the military on a contract basis. According to Bloomberg news agency, the Russian army aims to recruit about 400,000 new contract soldiers to send them to fight in The war against Ukraine.

But the Russian Defense Ministry dismissed rumors and reports that the country is Planning another fill. Our general staff doesn’t plan for a second packing Wave. The number of people who have already been recruited and volunteered for the special operation is sufficient, ” insisted Vladimir Tsimlyansky, head of the Main Organization and Mobilization Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces. Russiathe country’s invasion of Ukraine can only be referred to as a “special military operation”.

Army marketing

Sergey Chernyshov, director of a higher educational institute in Novosibirsk, told how the school was required to advertise a military career among its students through promotional materials sent by local officials. Chernyshov then posted on social media extolling the benefits that young men are supposed to have if they pledge to serve in the Russian army.

Chernyshov did not mince words about the recruiting campaign. “Government officials chose the wrong target audience for this marketing campaign in my opinion, because students only have to do military service later. It is crazy to ask them to drop [their studies] And switch to the army. Are they looking for complete idiots? Moreover, it is totally against our values, which maintain that politics and education should be kept separate.”

the gate Taiga.info It reported that the city of Novosibirsk sent similar leaflets to the city’s property managers, who were told to put them “on bulletin boards, on house doors, and in stairwells.”

The Kremlin intends to strengthen the army

In January, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu a Reforming the nation’s army. The goal is to increase the army’s forces by 350,000 soldiers, from 1.15 million to 1.5 million, although experts consider it unrealistic to recruit so many soldiers in such a short time.

The Kremlin has also proposed raising the military age – currently between 18 and 27 – to between 21 and 30. Members of the Russian Duma, the country’s lower house of parliament, want to raise the age limit only for now. This will increase the pool of people who can be drafted in the short term, while also setting a minimum gradual rise.

This reform has nothing to do with the current spring project, said Alexey Tabalov, a human rights activist and director of an organization that helps Russian conscripts. It is believed that recruitment into the Russian military service “is carried out according to the old rules.”

Sergey Krivenko, director of the human rights group Army Citizen Law, agrees with Tabalov’s assessment. “This is it [probably] The last or next enlistment in which only those under the age of 27 are enlisted.”

Shortly before the spring draft, the Department of Defense began a campaign urging men to join the military as contract soldiers. According to human rights advocates, materials promoting such a move are sent along with draft notifications. In addition to government officials doing advertising on Telegram, marketing materials are also being placed on various local websites, as well as in libraries, government offices and college athletics.

Will conscript soldiers be sent to Ukraine?

Despite repeated statements by Russian officials claiming that those doing compulsory temporary military service will not be sent to fight. UkraineCivilian reports to the contrary appeared frequently in the media. They state that family members were in fact deployed to, or near, the combat zone.

A woman named Galina complained that her son threatened to be deported from Novosibirsk, where he was doing his military service, to the Belgorod region. “Why is he being sent there after only three months of military service? The president has ordered that no recruits be sent to the combat zone,” she said.

Conscripts are being sent to the conflict zone despite Putin’s statements to the contrary, something Alexey Tabalov can confirm: “We regularly receive reports about conscripts being sent to regions bordering Ukraine for military service.”

At the beginning of March 2022, Putin claimed that no conscripts would take part in the conflict in Ukraine. However, the Ministry of Defense soon admitted that mistakes had been made and admitted that recruits were indeed being sent into the combat zone. This was also verified by the family members of the dead Russian soldiers who were on board the Moskva Battleship sunk Due to the launch of Ukrainian missiles in the Black Sea in April 2022.

In recent months, it has been revealed that conscripts were ordered to dig trenches and trenches on the border with Ukraine. This was confirmed by numerous photos posted on the Internet by members of the military forces.

“The desire of the Russian Defense Ministry to replace mobilization by getting more people to sign contracts as servicemen suggests that conscripts are probably the most important target group in this advertising campaign,” said Tabalov. He fears that in the future there will be more examples of conscripts being forced into the Russian military forces.

This article was originally published in German.