Paul Goble
Staunton, Mar. 14 – To meet Moscow-assigned quotas, Russia’s federal subjects have been forced to increase payments to those who sign up by 50 percent over the last year, an indication that interest in joining the military is declining and a policy change that means regions will be forced to cut spending further on social needs, the Important Stories portal reports.
Both last year and this, the central government has offered payments of 195,000 rubles (2000 US dollars) to those who sign up as professional soldiers, but Moscow has encouraged regions with higher quotas to offer more so as to attract more men to the colors, the investigative journalists found (istories.media/news/2024/03/14/chtobi-privlech-novikh-kontraktnikov-regioni-uvelichili-yedinovremennuyu-viplatu-za-podpisanie-kontrakta-v-srednem-za-god-ona-virosla-v-15-raza/).
Most federal subjects have, but ten have not, including the city of Moscow where the Kremlin is not seeking to recruit as many professional soldiers. But in the rest, the size of payments has jumped by 50 percent or even more over the last year, the Important Stories portal says.
In Moscow oblast, these regional payments have now reached the level of 805,000 rubles (81,000 US dollars. Other leaders include Astrakhan and Nizhny Novgorod oblasts where the bonuses are now 500,000 rubles (5,000 US dollars), the portal says. A year ago, none of the federal subjects offered more than 300,000 rubles (3,000 US dollars).
Regional governments have undoubtedly concluded, under Moscow’s prodding, that they need to offer more if they are to meet the center’s requirements. But boosting spending in this way will leave them will even less money to spend on other more popular social programs, although it will allow Moscow yet another means of hiding the true cost of its war in Ukraine.
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