Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday ordered the country’s military to increase the number of troops by nearly 170,000 to a total of 1.32 million, as Moscow’s military action in Ukraine continues into its 22nd month.
Putin’s decree was released by the Kremlin on Friday and took force immediately. It brings the overall number of Russian military personnel to about 2.2 million, including 1.32 million troops.
It is the second such expansion of the army since 2018. The previous boost by 137,000 troops, ordered by Putin in August 2022, put the military’s numbers at about 2 million personnel and about 1.15 million troops.
The Defense Ministry said the order doesn’t imply any “significant expansion of conscription,” saying in a statement that the increase would happen gradually by recruiting more volunteers. The ministry cited what it called “the special military operation” in Ukraine and the expansion of NATO as the reasons for beefing up the army.
NATO’s “joint armed forces are being built up near Russia’s borders and additional air defense systems and strike weapons are being deployed. The potential of NATO’s tactical nuclear forces is being increased,” the statement read.
Boosting Russian troops is an appropriate response to “the aggressive activities of the NATO bloc,” the ministry said.
Last December, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu declared the country needed a force of 1.5 million “to guarantee the fulfillment of tasks to ensure Russia’s security.” He didn’t say when the military would reach that size.
The Kremlin previously considered the size of its military as sufficient, but the math changed after hopes for a quick victory over its neighbor were shattered by fierce Ukrainian resistance.
Amid the continued hostilities, Russia and Ukraine both have kept a tight lid of secrecy on their military casualties. The Russian military has confirmed only just over 6,000 military casualties, but the West had much higher estimates. In October, the U.K. Defense Ministry tweeted in a regular update that Russia has “likely suffered 150,000-190,000 permanent casualties,” a number that included troops that have been killed and permanently wounded.
The Russian authorities have undertaken various efforts to give a boost to the army.
In August 2022, Putin ordered an increase in the size of the Russian military to 1.15 million starting from Jan. 1, 2023. The following month, he ordered the mobilization of 300,000 reservists to beef up his forces in Ukraine. That number is counted as part of the military’s current strength.
While Putin said there was no need to round up more, his mobilization decree is open-ended, allowing the military to call up additional reservists when needed. That decree also banned volunteer soldiers from ending their contracts.
Regional authorities have tried to help beef up the ranks by forming volunteer battalions for deployment to Ukraine. All across Russia’s vast territory, a campaign to entice more men to enlist has been underway for months, with advertisements promise cash bonuses, recruiters making cold calls to eligible men and enlistment offices working with universities and social service agencies to lure students and the unemployed.
The deputy chair of Russia’s Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev, said Friday that more than 452,000 men have enlisted in the army as contract soldiers this year.
Some media reports say the efforts come on top of the regular draft, which calls up around 120,000-140,000 men twice a year for a one-year tour of compulsory service.
Russia’s best-known conductor Valery Gergiev has been named head of Moscow’s Bolshoi Theatre, alongside his current role at Russia’s other top theatre, the Mariinsky in St Petersburg.
The two powerhouses of Russian culture combine ballet, opera and orchestras.
Gergiev was appointed by Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, replacing Vladimir Urin, who stepped down at his own request, the government said.
For years he has been an active supporter of President Vladimir Putin.
But his star has fallen in the West.
When Russian forces began their full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year, he was fired as chief conductor of the Munich Philharmonic because of his backing for the Russian leader.
He was dropped from La Scala in Milan when he failed to respond to a request to strongly condemn the invasion. Gergiev had also openly backed Russia’s seizure of Crimea in 2014.
Ties with the maestro were also cut by the Rotterdam Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic and Edinburgh International Festival.
Since then his only performances outside Russia have been in China. Recently he took the Mariinsky’s ballet, opera and orchestra on a tour of six Chinese cities with performances ranging from Swan Lake and Wagner’s Ring Cycle to Stravinsky’s Firebird.
Gergiev, 70, has been artistic and general director of the Mariinsky since 1996 but now has the daunting task of running Russia’s two biggest ballet and opera theatres. Reports suggest he has sought the Bolshoi role for many years.
His predecessor at the Bolshoi, 76-year-old Vladimir Urin, did not explain why he was stepping down after 10 years in the job. Although he joined a number of cultural figures in signing an anti-war letter at the start of the war, he later admitted that some names had been removed from Bolshoi posters because they had made anti-war statements.
Last May, the Bolshoi cancelled performances by two of Russia’s best-known modern directors who had spoken out against the war, Kirill Serebrennikov and Timofey Kulyabin.
Meanwhile, Valery Gergiev has received a string of awards under President Putin over the years, including an Order of Merit to the Fatherland this year. He took the Mariinsky Symphony Orchestra to perform in the ancient ruins of Palmyra, when Russian air strikes helped drive out so-called Islamic State in 2016.
Within weeks of the start of the war, President Putin touted the idea to Gergiev of placing the Bolshoi and Mariinsky theatres under a joint directorate, suggesting that was how they were organised before the 1917 Russian Revolution.
According to a Kremlin transcript of the meeting, the maestro gave a long-winded but favourable response, pointing out that the two theatres represented “one of the most powerful musical or musical theatre traditions on Earth”.
“Perhaps the time has come to think about how to coordinate efforts,” he is quoted as saying.
But Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova denied the two historic institutions would unite.
“The Bolshoi and Mariinsky Theatres have existed and will continue to exist as independent legal entities,” she said, according to Ria news agency.
Gergiev told his new colleagues at the Bolshoi that the change was “very good news”, in remarks quoted by Interfax news agency.
“We can exchange performances, we can tour on the stages of both theatres.”
