Vladimir Putin signed a decree setting the authorized strength of the Russian Armed Forces at 2,391,770 personnel, of which 1,502,604 are service members. This represents an increase of 2,604 military personnel. The previous decree, signed in September 2024, set the authorized strength at 2,389,130 personnel, including 1,500,000 service members. In December 2023, the size of the armed forces was increased to 2,209,130 personnel, including 1,320,000 service members. One month before the start of mobilization in August 2022, Putin increased the size of the RuAF by 137,000 personnel, bringing the total to 2,390,000, including 1,150,000 service members.
In 2025, Russian banks granted 244,000 payment holidays to participants in the war against Ukraine and their family members, according to Central Bank data analyzed by Mediazona [independent Russian media outlet]. The peak came in the third quarter, when 69,000 such benefits were issued. In the fourth quarter, the figure declined to 62,500. Since the program was launched following the announcement of mobilization in September 2022, more than 720,000 payment holidays have been granted, covering loans worth over 342 billion rubles [$4 billion]. Under the law, payment holidays cannot be issued for loans taken out after a serviceman has been deployed to the frontline. As a result, the statistics indirectly reflect the number of new contract...
Russia’s Ministry of Labor and Social Protection plans to expand the list of professions for alternative civilian service by adding 363 new roles, such as concertmaster, forester, educational psychologist, meteorologist, disability rehabilitation specialist and mail carrier. The Federal Service for Labor and Employment reports that more than 2,000 people perform alternative service annually, with participation reaching 2,439 in the first half of 2025 and 2,722 as of Aug. 1.
In a single session, the State Duma [lower house of Russia’s Federal Assembly] approved the second and third readings of a bill that would prohibiting authorities from extraditing to other countries, for criminal prosecution or sentence execution, foreign citizens and stateless persons who have signed contracts with the Russian Ministry of Defense. The bill adds a new clause to an article of the Criminal Procedure Code titled "Refusal to Extradite a Person." This legislation explicitly prohibits Russia from handing over any foreigner or stateless individual who is currently serving or has previously served on a contract basis in the Russian Armed Forces and other military formations, or who participated in combat operations within their...
Russia’s Ministry of Defense proposes amending the Military Conscription and Military Service Act to raise the maximum age limit for admission into military academies. The current system caps the entry age at 22 for applicants without military experience and at 24 for those who have previously served in the military. The new amendments would increase these age limits to 24 and 30, respectively, to "guarantee the fulfillment of the personnel order in the interests of staffing the Russian Armed Forces with officers."
Recruiters continue aggressively pressuring students to sign contracts with Russia’s Ministry of Defense, ostensibly for service in the Unmanned Systems Forces.
The State Duma [lower house of Russia’s Federal Assembly] unanimously approved the first reading of a bill to expand the scope of crime prevention activities. Legislators propose adding two new clauses to Article Six of the law "On the Basics of the Crime Prevention System" that aim to "prevent and suppress evasion of the duty to defend the Fatherland" and "counter the distortion of historical truth." The initiative would allow authorities to establish preventive supervision over people convicted of rehabilitating Nazism, insulting veterans, and evading military service. Law enforcement officers would gain the ability to conduct "preventive conversations" with these individuals, deliver warnings against breaking the law, place them...
Aleksandr Kurenkov, the head of Russia’s Ministry of Emergency Situations, announced that his agency and the Ministry of Defense had agreed to deploy conscripts to serve in units of the Federal Fire Service. The agencies plan to assign draftees to fight fires, manage emergencies, and conduct rescue operations amid a personnel shortage, which Kurenkov attributed to low wages. Under the Law on the Status of Servicemen, conscripts may fulfill their statutory military service in the agency’s rescue and military formations by applying to the relevant draft offices. However, a professional degree is required to hold military positions within the ministry.
Russia’s Ministry of Defense has drafted a bill counting each day of military service by "participants in the special military operation" as three days of civil service, professional experience, and general labor seniority when calculating service-based pensions. The bill also triples the credited service time for insurance pensions, replacing the existing double-credit standard.
Lawmakers have introduced a bill in the State Duma [lower house of Russia’s Federal Assembly] to expand social guarantees for Rosgvardia [Russian National Guard] and Interior Ministry employees taking part in the war against Ukraine. The measure would provide travel compensation for two family members or close relatives to visit personnel who are injured or fall ill during their service. This proposed legislation would extend a benefit that currently applies only to the families of military personnel.