Russian military intends to recruit 420,000 contract personnel by late 2023 – UK intel
The relevant statement was made by the Ministry of Defence of the United Kingdom on Twitter, referring to the latest Defence Intelligence update, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.
On September 3, 2023, Russia’s security council deputy chairman Dimitry Medvedev stated that 280,000 personnel had been recruited so far. However, these numbers cannot be independently verified.
Russia’s conscription continues to have negative effects on its industry workforce. The Yegor Gaidar Institute for Economic Policy found that Russia’s industry shortage of workers reached a new high of 42% for July 2023, which is 7% higher from April 2023.
In contrast to conscription efforts elsewhere, in the IT sector Russia has taken steps to preserve the workforce. This likely highlights the particularly acute shortages in the sector after about 100,000 IT workers left Russia in 2022.
This equates to 10% of the IT sector workforce. On September 4, 2023, Putin signed a decree to increase the exemption age of military recruitment for IT professionals from 27 to 30.
According to the UK intelligence, this shows that mobilisation and conscription within Russia has worsened non-defence workforce shortages. In the run-up to the Russian presidential elections scheduled for March 2024, Russian authorities will likely seek to avoid further unpopular mobilisations.
