Russia's Conscription Problem

Author(s): Rod Thornton
Editor(s): Stephen Aris, Aglaya Snetkov, Matthias Neumann, Robert Orttung, Jeronim Perovic, Heiko Pleines, Hans-Henning Schröder
Series: Russian Analytical Digest (RAD)
Issue: 116
Pages: 5-7
Publisher(s): Center for Security Studies (CSS), ETH Zurich; Research Centre for East European Studies, University of Bremen; Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies, George Washington University
Publication Year: 2012

The attempts by Russian politicians to end conscription in the country have proved problematic. After the Cold War ended, a plan was put in place to ensure that the armed forces would be completely manned by professional, contract personnel. But not enough young men have volunteered to join the military to make this possible and conscripts are still being used. The issue now, though, is that there is also a shortage of conscripts. A supposed million-strong military actually has a strength of only 800,000. The army is especially short of troops. Some difficult political decisions lie ahead for the Russian government in terms of trying to alleviate this problem.

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