Over 230,000 contract soldiers have been recruited by Russian army since beginning of year – Medvedev

Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of the Security Council of Russia, has claimed that since the beginning of 2023, the Ministry of Defence of Russia has recruited more than 231,000 contract soldiers to the Russian army. The recruiting system for contract service has allegedly been adapted to the conditions of the war against Ukraine.

Source: Russian Kremlin-aligned Russian media outlets TASS and BBC

Quote from Medvedev: "The task has not changed – to make the contract service as prestigious as possible. For this, during the last few months, organisational, economic, social and technological decisions have been made. First and foremost, we managed to successfully adapt the contract service recruiting system to the conditions of the special military operation [the war in Ukraine – ed.]; it has its results."

Details: In spring, the media reported that the Russian authorities were planning to recruit 400,000 new contract soldiers to the army. A massive advertising campaign for contract service was indeed in place in Russia. These numbers were not officially disclosed. The same sources called Medvedev the head of the campaign.

The recruiting of contract soldiers was also seen as an alternative to the forcible mobilisation announced on 21 September, which bothers the population less and is still formally ongoing.

Meanwhile, during the last few months in Russia, a series of laws that make military evasion more difficult have been implemented. Mainly, the register of electronic draft notices to military enlistment offices has been created. These electronic draft notices restrict many civic rights for conscripts, including leaving the country.

According to the BBC, the number of 231,000 people does not necessarily mean that all these people were recruited directly from their civic life: a certain number of soldiers from "volunteer corps" (in other words, the Wagner Private Military Company) who agreed to work under the Ministry of Defence of Russia may be included in the total number, as well as conscript soldiers (whom Putin had promised not to send to the war) who received the right to sign a contract on their first day on service.

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