Russian military planning is preparing for a confrontation with NATO

The new Russian military planning emphasizes deterrence as well as increasing the format of forces, with a view to a possible confrontation with NATO. However, the way to achieve this is still unclear, while the announced objectives are very ambitious, perhaps too much for the country's economy.

As every year, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the Russian Armed Forces General Valery Gerasimov presented President Vladimir Putin with the synthesis of the state of the forces, as well as the axes retained for the Russian military planning to come.

Surprisingly, given the news since February 24, this exercise was held in an almost traditional way this year. As in previous years, Sergei Shoigu's speech showed a lot of progress.

This is particularly the case with the modernization of the strategic forces which now exceed, according to the ministry charts, a modernization rate of 91% for the whole of the nuclear triad, as well as the arrival within the forces of new equipment, including a Boreï-A class nuclear ballistic missile submarine and a Yassen class nuclear attack submarine.

However, the announcements made this year, if in form they respected the framework defined for this exercise in recent years, present an entirely new situation and ambition for the Russian armies.

A massive increase in staff announced by Sergei Shoigu

A single objective, presented by the Russian minister, sums up in itself the change of ambition of the Kremlin for its armies. The Russian Armies will, in fact, go from a format of one million men, excluding reserves, to a format of 1,5 million men, an increase of 50%.

To achieve this, the Russian Defense Ministry intends to expand the number of contract servicemen to 695.000, as well as conscription, moving from a minimum age of 18 to 21, and raising the maximum age to 30. .

In addition, special efforts will be made to allow conscripts to sign a contract of engagement, including by exempting them from the period of national service, which constitutes a strong argument in view of the differences in pay between the two categories. .

Recall that a few weeks ago, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced that the defense budget would be increased in 2023 to more than 4 billion rubles, or more than $700 billion, an increase of almost 75% vis-à-vis 50. We can see a relationship with the beginning of the collapse of the ruble, which has lost 2021% in recent weeks.

This extension of the forces will make it possible to create or develop numerous units, with the creation of three motorized infantry divisions in the oblasts of Kherson and Zaporozhye, as well as an army corps in Karelia, the region which borders the Finnish border.

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