The News
Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the country’s military Monday to add 180,000 troops, bolstering its active-duty forces to 1.5 million.
The expansion, the third since the Ukraine invasion, would make Russia’s military the second largest in the world in terms of manpower after China. It is set to take effect in December.
The move came as Moscow continued to push back against a Ukraine offensive in Russia’s Kursk region. Sustaining such numbers could strain Russia’s budget, a Carnegie researcher argued: “Expanding the force would require significant investment in the production of new equipment, the recruitment of additional professional soldiers in a society that has recently grown accustomed to high wages and expensive social entitlements and benefits, as well as the construction of new military base infrastructure. These expenses would coincide with procurement pressures on an already bloated defense budget and an already strained male labor force.”
