Russia has Nearly 500,000 More Combat Veterans Now than in 2005

Paul Goble

            Staunton, May 15 – The number of Russians registered with the government as having combat experience has risen from 878,000 in 2005 to 1,368,156 now, the result of Vladimir Putin’s military actions in Georgia, Ukraine and Syria and more elastic definitions by the defense ministry of who is a combat veteran and thus entitled to receive benefits.

            The number of such people has risen by just under 33,000 in the last year alone, Russian blogger Denis Mokrushin reports in a post that was published by the Moscow newspaper Vzglyad yesterday.  He suggests the late rise reflects the number of those who have served in Syria (twower.livejournal.com/2262483.html and vz.ru/news/2018/5/14/922688.html).

            In his original post, Mokrushin gives the following annual figures for those registered as combat veterans:

2005 – 878,081
2006 – 1,023,400
2007 – 1,097,482
2008 – 1,140,639
2009 – 1,177,219
2010 – 1,209,037
2011 – 1,238,820
2012 – 1,270,661
2013 – 1,290,629
2014 – 1,296,235
2015 – 1,312,071
2016 – 1,323,472
2017 – 1,335,776
2018 – 1,368,156