“It’s Good to Be a Soldier Now”

Recruitment Methods in the Russian Armed Forces

Abstract

The Russian armed forces lost at least one million people in the first three and a half years of their full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Replacing these losses is in the Kremlin’s vital interest. Based on public data and mainly media sources, the study presents the positive, financial incentives and coercive measures that encourage people to become contract soldiers, and describes how the cult of heroism surrounding soldiers is being built. It describes what Russian domestic propaganda shows the population about soldiers and how recruitment from prisons takes place. The aim of the study is to outline what drives those who join the Russian armed forces of their own free will and those who are forced to do so in their decision.