"Hostile environment"

Russia strengthens army along its borders

Russian soldiers

(Bild: AP)

On Tuesday, Russia justified its plans to expand its armed forces - as reported by krone.at - to become the second largest army in the world with growing threats on its borders.

"This is due to the number of threats that exist on the periphery of our borders," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday during a conference call with reporters.

Peskov: "Extremely hostile environment"
"It is caused by the extremely hostile environment on our western borders and instability on our eastern borders." This requires appropriate measures, added Peskov.

On Monday, President Vladimir Putin ordered the regular size of the Russian army to be increased by 180,000 soldiers to 1.5 million active soldiers. The number of people employed by the military should be just under 2.4 million from December, including 1.5 million soldiers, according to a decree issued by the Kremlin chief.

Troop numbers increased for the third time
It was only in December last year that Putin increased the target number of troops in the armed forces to 2.2 million, including 1.33 million soldiers. At the start of the war in 2022, the number of soldiers in Russia was just over one million. In comparison, the new target would mean a 50% increase in troop strength.

This would make it the second largest army in the world after China, which would be ahead of the USA and India in terms of the number of active combat soldiers, according to data from the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS).

With regard to its neighbors, Russia recently criticized Finland's accession to NATO and accused Japan of increasing militarization with the support of the USA.