Russia Needs 7 Million Professional Soldiers
A senior lawmaker, Leonid Slutsky, said that Russia needs seven million professional soldiers to maintain national security.
These professional soldiers are needed because there are no more mercenary groups after the departure of the Wagner Group from Russia.
At the end of last week, Russia was shaken by the failed uprising by Yevgeny Prigozhin and the mercenary forces of the Wagner Group.
Prigozhin's army briefly assumed command of the military in the Rusia-Ukraine war.
Wagner made a march to Moscow to stage the coup before it was finally called off.
Slutsky, who at the start of the war took part in peace negotiations with Ukraine, said that Russia needed a contract army of at least seven million military and civilian personnel.
In addition, conscription soldiers are also needed today.
"The country doesn't need mercenaries (the Wagner Group, private military companies) and the like," Slutsky, chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party, said on messaging app Telegram.
"There are problems in the regular army, but the PMC can't solve them."
President Vladimir Putin said in a speech on Monday that he deliberately allowed a one-day uprising by the Wagner Group to avoid bloodshed.
He said Wagner fighters could continue fighting the Russian army by coming home or going to Belarus.
While sending troops to Ukraine in February 2022, Putin assumed that the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, would fall within days.
But the war has not ended until now.
The many weaknesses of the Russian army and internal disputes about how the Russian leader should be
By the end of 2022, Putin wants the number of Russian troops to be increased to 1.5 million combat personnel, including 695,000 contract troops, from the current 1.15 million.
With a target of 7 million troops, it will require a very large budget.
Russia's economy, currently crippled by the war and subsequent Western sanctions, contracted 2.2 percent last year and is expected to recover only modestly this year.
Russian President Vladimir Putin thanked his country's security forces for upholding the constitutional order and showing loyalty to the people.
He also credited his troops with helping end the civil war in Russia.
The remarks were made by Putin at a meeting in the Kremlin in the presence of members of the Defense and Interior Ministries, the Russian Guard, the Federal Security Service (FSB), and the Federal Guard Service (FSO).
"Here, in the Cathedral Square of the historic Moscow Kremlin, stand soldiers of the Russian Armed Forces, employees of the Russian Guard, FSB, Ministry of Internal Affairs, FSO, soldiers and officers, true defenders of the fatherland, who together prevented riots," Putin said.
"You have protected the constitutional order, life, security, and freedom of our citizens, saved our homeland from chaos, and stopped civil war," Putin added.
Putin also praised the security forces' accurate and well-coordinated efforts.
He said that the soldiers had proven their loyalty to the Russian people and their military oath.
The ceremony ended with a moment of silence to honor the pilots who died during the mutiny.
Earlier on June 24, the leader of the Wagner paramilitary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, accused the Russian Ministry of Defense of attacking its fighters and declared a March of Justice by deploying its troops towards Moscow.
Prigozhin said in a statement that he would overthrow the military leaders.
The Federal Security Service labeled the actions of Wagner's group an armed rebellion and urged the agency to open a criminal case against Prigozhin.
However, before arriving in Moscow, Prigozhin and his troops decided to withdraw to avoid bloodshed in Russia.
Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko said he helped resolve the conflict by holding talks with Leader Wagner, which led to Prigozhin's decision to accept a de-escalation deal.
