Russia offers cash rewards to boost military recruitment levels

Each resident of the Yaroslavl Oblast, near Moscow, will receive approximately £940 for bringing a recruit to the military enlistment office. A similar initiative has been implemented in the Republic of Tatarstan. In this way, Russia aims to attract more men to the army, who will then be sent to Ukraine.

"Russian politicians are offering around £820 for every recruit enlisted into the military by an acquaintance," reports polsatnews.pl. According to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), the problem related to recruitment is intensifying. Fewer and fewer Russians are willing to go to the front and are reporting to the enlistment offices.

Therefore, Mikhail Yevrayev, who manages the Yaroslavl Oblast near Moscow, proposed that one can receive the equivalent of around £940 for bringing an acquaintance or family member to the military enlistment commission.

However, according to Yuri Sinelshchikov, deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on Construction and Legislation, this solution is risky. He believes that Russians might abuse it. The second issue is the budget, which could be problematic if there are a large number of volunteers.

And there is no shortage of them. As reported by the Russian opposition portal Cherta, a large portion of individuals sign contracts to make money to pay off debts incurred from gambling.

Russians want to keep conscripts in the country. Therefore, the Kremlin is developing a system to prevent potential soldiers from leaving. Moscow is implementing an "information exchange system" between the Ministry of Defence and the Federal Security Service (FSB), aimed at transferring data on potential conscripts to the FSB Border Service, preventing them from leaving the country. This system is to be fully operational before this year's autumn conscription.

Russia conducts two drafts per year, resulting in more than 250,000 people being conscripted into the military annually.