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Putin’s War Is Intensifying Russian Economy’s Labor Shortage

  • More than 500,000 may have entered military service last year
  • Mobilization, exodus from Russia are adding to labor pressures
The Kremlin is now seeking 400,000 more contract recruits this year to fight in Ukraine as Putin digs in for a long fight, according to people familiar with the plan. 

The Kremlin is now seeking 400,000 more contract recruits this year to fight in Ukraine as Putin digs in for a long fight, according to people familiar with the plan. 

Photographer: Yuri Kadobnov/AFP/Getty Images

By
Bloomberg News
Updated on

President Vladimir Putin’s drive to expand Russia’s armed forces is adding to labor shortages as his war in Ukraine draws hundreds of thousands of workers into the military from other sectors of the economy.

Federal Statistics Service data suggest a net increase in the military last year of approximately 400,000 amid already record-low unemployment, Bloomberg Economics estimates, after Putin ordered the call-up of 300,000 reservists in the country’s first partial mobilization since World War II.