If Mobilization Occurs without Bonuses, Moscow will Have a Deeply Divided Military, Inozemstev Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Aug. 7 – If the military conducts a mobilization without providing bonuses to the new soldiers, Moscow will find itself with an army “in which 500,000 people are fighting for money and another 500,000 are fighting for an idea which they don’t have,” Vladislav Inozemtsev says.

            “It is impossible to imagine” how anyone could expect that to work, the Russian economist and commentator says, given that members of each of these groups would look at those who are members of the other with suspicion or disdain and not cooperate (echofm.online/video-dnya/hvatit-li-u-vlasti-deneg-na-novuyu-mobilizacziyu-vladislav-inozemczev).

            He says that there is a way out: Moscow could cut back on signing bonuses and even more on death benefits and raise the pay for those soldiers who are sent to the front lines. Most men entering military service don’t expect to die, but they would be far more enthusiastic about doing so if they were paid depending on whether they fought at the front or not.

            But that may be too rational a move for the Kremlin given its confidence that money can solve everything and that now Russians are becoming more patriotic as the war with Ukraine extends into its fifth year, two illusions for which the Russian leadership may very well have to pay dearly in the future.