Russian regions are dramatically increasing the amount of money they pay to new military recruits as analysts say “ideological” recruitment campaigns are no longer enough to motivate people to fight in Ukraine.
Considering how cheap life is in Russia, and how expensive recruitment bonuses are, I’m surprised they haven’t already switched to conscription which they have a long history of.
They have conscription, but Russia can’t send conscripts abroad unless they’re at war, and this is a special military operation, not a war. The real question is “Why don’t they go to war, and send the conscripts?” And the answer why people don’t understand why Russia doesn’t is because they think Russia is a single country. That’s a very normal thought to have when you live in the west, because say, France or Poland, are a single country.
But Russia is basically two countries. You’ve got Moscow, which has 20 million people and is slightly bigger than the Netherlands, and Saint Petersburg which has 6 million people but is also somewhat smaller. Those two cities are where the government sits, it’s where all the decisions are made, where all the companies are, where all the capital sits and all the investements get made. Moscow has technology, internet, plumbing, subways, etc etc.
And then there’s the entire rest of Russia, which you can sorta-kinda view as a massive colonial empire of Moscow. They get to decide nothing, they exist to provide labour for all of Moscow’s capital and to have resources that can be exploited. It’s where all the GDP comes from, yet they have no money because all that mineral wealth immediately goes back to Moscow.
Declaring war and sending in the conscripts would mean people from Moscow (read: People who actually matter) would get send to war, as opposed to the “colonial troops”. Literally nobody in Russia cares about what happens to the 4 million people living in de Federal Republic of Bashkortostan (it’s a real place, I promise), but everyone cares what happens to the people in 140.000 people in Kolpino, because it’s part of St. Petersburg.
Considering how cheap life is in Russia, and how expensive recruitment bonuses are, I’m surprised they haven’t already switched to conscription which they have a long history of.
They have conscription, but Russia can’t send conscripts abroad unless they’re at war, and this is a special military operation, not a war. The real question is “Why don’t they go to war, and send the conscripts?” And the answer why people don’t understand why Russia doesn’t is because they think Russia is a single country. That’s a very normal thought to have when you live in the west, because say, France or Poland, are a single country.
But Russia is basically two countries. You’ve got Moscow, which has 20 million people and is slightly bigger than the Netherlands, and Saint Petersburg which has 6 million people but is also somewhat smaller. Those two cities are where the government sits, it’s where all the decisions are made, where all the companies are, where all the capital sits and all the investements get made. Moscow has technology, internet, plumbing, subways, etc etc.
And then there’s the entire rest of Russia, which you can sorta-kinda view as a massive colonial empire of Moscow. They get to decide nothing, they exist to provide labour for all of Moscow’s capital and to have resources that can be exploited. It’s where all the GDP comes from, yet they have no money because all that mineral wealth immediately goes back to Moscow.
Declaring war and sending in the conscripts would mean people from Moscow (read: People who actually matter) would get send to war, as opposed to the “colonial troops”. Literally nobody in Russia cares about what happens to the 4 million people living in de Federal Republic of Bashkortostan (it’s a real place, I promise), but everyone cares what happens to the people in 140.000 people in Kolpino, because it’s part of St. Petersburg.