Russia's costly recruitment: Soaring costs strain budgets
The mass recruitment into the Russian army is increasing the financial burden on taxpayers. According to estimates by German expert Janis Kluge, approximately 2 billion rubles are spent daily on bonuses for contract soldiers.
Of this total amount, Kluge estimates about three-quarters (1.5 billion rubles, or approximately 18 million USD) are covered by regional authorities, which are forced to allocate nearly 3 percent of their budgets to the recruitment campaign. The remaining portion—0.5 billion rubles—is financed by the federal budget.
The war is becoming increasingly costly. Russians are running out of money and people
Kluge's calculations show that currently, the recruitment campaign provides the army with 1,000 to 1,500 new soldiers daily. The influx of "volunteers" remains at the level seen at the end of last year, even though mass increases in regional bonuses have been halted. The average bonus in 37 entities of the Russian Federation is currently 1.4 million rubles.
Compared to last year, Kluge's calculations indicate that the influx of contract soldiers has almost doubled and fully compensates for the frontline losses, which NATO estimates at about 1,000 people daily.
Expenditures on the "recruitment machine" have increased nearly fivefold compared to April 2024, and—if the current pace continues—by the end of the year will cost the Russian budget 730 billion rubles (approximately 8,9 billion USD). This is half of the annual budget of the entire higher education system in the country (1.5 trillion rubles annually) and twice the annual expenditures on the national "Health" project, which for the current year amount to 369 billion rubles.
The recruitment machine is stalling. Russia is consuming its reserves
Last year, the Russian Ministry of Defense managed to recruit 440,000 people for the war with Ukraine, an average of about 1,200 a day. However, according to George Barros, head of the Russia team at the American Institute for the Study of War (ISW), the Kremlin will not be able to sustain the current recruitment pace indefinitely. According to the expert, Russia still has 12 to 16 months to conduct military operations in the current mode.
ISW reports that budgetary problems and the depletion of reserves in the National Wealth Fund will hinder further increases in bonuses. Over three years of war, the NWF's liquid assets have decreased threefold—by 106 billion dollars—and the remaining available funds are about 40 billion dollars—the lowest since the fund was established in 2008.
"The soldier recruitment system operated smoothly for two and a half years, but now it is starting to collapse," says Barros, adding, "The laws of economics and resource shortages constrain Russia. Moreover, Russia does not have unlimited human reserves."
