According to Sergei Shoigu, Russia plans to increase the size of its armed forces to 1.5 million.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Wednesday that new armed forces must be formed in the northwestern part of the country as NATO strengthens its armed presence on Russia’s borders. According to the state news agency RIA Novosti, Shoigu specifically referred to NATO’s “expansion” to Finland and Sweden.
This is yet another way out, with which Russia reminds us of its attitude towards Finland and Sweden’s NATO application process, says a senior researcher Jussi Lassila From the Foreign Policy Institute.
– Let the actions speak for themselves. So much has been heard from Shoigu’s mouth along the way that it will be interesting to see if the talk leads to concrete results.
According to Lassila’s interpretation, Shoigu was referring to the Moscow and Leningrad military districts in his speech, which Russia once abolished when the country formed even larger military districts. The speeches would therefore indicate that Russia would return to some kind of old, more regional military structure.
However, Shoigu did not say anything concrete about, for example, troop movements, but in practice announced the establishment of a new unit under the Western Military District.
– In other words, a new bureaucratic body will be created, the details of which will remain at the level of the plans, Lassila sums up.
Russia claims to be building up its armed forces
On Wednesday, Shoigu also told about Russia’s intentions to increase the total strength of the armed forces from one million to 1.5 million soldiers. According to Shoigu, this would include almost 700,000 contract soldiers.
In addition, the upper age limit for conscripts should be raised to 30 years, Shoigu said.
According to Lassila, the threat of increasing the troops may be realistic, but based on recent evidence, not very credible, at least in the short term.
In recent months, the Russian military leadership has been repeating messages about how the offensive operation and troop movements are progressing as planned, although the reality has been different.
– This sort of thing erodes the credibility of everything that the Russian military command says, says Lassila.
Russia has so far also failed to keep the movements of its forces a secret.
Defense Minister Shoigu also said that Russia plans to establish naval bases in the captured port cities of Berdyansk and Mariupol in Ukraine.
Lassila is also suspicious of this claim.
– I doubt what kind of time frame such things will be implemented and where, for example, the resources will be taken from.
Shoigu met the president in Moscow on Wednesday Vladimir Putinwhich is said to have accepted the defense minister’s proposal.
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