Russian President Vladimir Putin presented a plan to increase the Russian army by about 30% - up to 1.5 million people. When and how the Russians will be able to achieve this is unknown, British intelligence reports..

In particular, the head of the Russian Ministry of Defense, Sergei Shoigu, said that they were going to expand the army with the help of two brigades in northwestern Russia in order to increase the size of the division.. According to him, this decision was made allegedly because of the threat of Finland and Sweden joining NATO..

“This is one of the first glimpses of how Russia is seeking to adapt its forces to the long-term strategic challenges posed by its invasion of Ukraine.. It remains unclear how the Russian Federation will find recruits to complete such an expansion at a time when its forces are under unprecedented pressure in Ukraine..

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Analysts at the American Institute for the Study of War (ISW) do not believe that Russia will be able to implement such a plan to increase the size of the army..

After all, Russia was not even able to fully staff the brigades and regiments before a full-scale invasion and did not fully build a new division, the formation of which she spoke in 2020. ISW believes that Shoigu's proposals could become an overture to calm the community of mild bloggers who accused the Kremlin of not taking the war seriously or taking measures necessary to win the war.. It also sets out the information conditions for the Kremlin to conduct future mobilization waves under the rubric of manning these formations and a substantial Russian military build-up in the long term..