Paul Goble
Staunton, July 28 – As part of his most recent expansion of the size of the Russian military, Putin has restored the military construction battalions (stroybats) he disbanded in 2006. These institutions were notorious in Soviet times for their involvement with corrupt schemes and as places to keep non-Russian draftees away from a more active military role.
The need for some kind of construction capacity in the military, of course, never disappeared; and in 2019, Moscow restored stroybats in all but name and in the view of critics for much the same reasons they existed in the Soviet military (windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2019/12/notorious-soviet-style-construction.html).
But now the Kremlin leader has formally restored them, nominally in order to cope with war damages especially from drone attacks as well as to create a ready reserve to fill losses at the front, according to Vladimir Mukhin, an observer for Nezavisimaya Gazeta (ng.ru/armies/2026-07-28/1_9547_army.html).
However, while Mukhin does not address this issue, the restoration of stroybats now may lead not only to a revival of the same abuses that happened before 1991 but also and perhaps more importantly to the creation of a new matrix for a broader militarization of Russian life.
According to a recent Vyorstka analysis, such a militarization of what is now civilian life in the Russian Federation is one of the things many Russians now fear may take place following the Duma elections (windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2026/07/russians-fear-kremlin-will-take-harsh.html).
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