Russian Regions Offering Ever Higher Bonuses to Those who Sign Up for Military, Causing Some to Travel to Those who Offer More and Others who Took Lesser Amounts Earlier to Regret They Did, ‘SibReal’ Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Oct. 17 – Rarely a day goes by when one or another region increases the bonuses it is prepared to pay for those who sign up on their territories to serve in the Russian military, a situation that is prompting some men to travel enormous distances to get more money and others, who took lesser amounts earlier, to suffer buyer’s remorse.

            The Kremlin has stimulated this by signaling that it will evaluate governors and lower-ranking officials in terms of how many men they sign up, regardless of whether they are registered as residents of the place where they do (sibreal.org/a/kak-glavy-regionov-sorevnuyutsya-v-verbovke-kontraktnikov-na-voynu/33153191.html).

            This gives some better-off federal subjects real advantages not only in terms of the number of men they will be able to sign up but also in terms of the future prospects of the officials in them who at a minimum can expect to remain at the same level they now are and more likely can expect preferment, while those in poorer regions will have poorer prospects

            But the amounts now being offered are so large that they are having a negative impact on regional budgets; and the rapid rise in such bonuses is having another consequence already that may prove more serious in the future and even make it more difficult for the regions at Moscow’s urging to sign more men up for military service.

            According to several people the SibReal portal spoke with, some men who signed up earlier when bonuses were lower now regret that they did not wait and get still more money. If such attitudes are widespread, that suggests that some men who might be willing to serve will now delay in the hopes that the authorities will offer them even more money to do so.

            That could mean that in the short term at least many regions will face ever greater difficulties in meeting the quotas the Kremlin has assigned them – and that could both harm the recruitment levels Moscow is counting on and the prospects of regional leaders who fall short on this measure.