Moscow: A senior Russian lawmaker who has participated in numerous negotiations regarding Moscow's campaign in Ukraine called for a professional army that is seven million strong late on Monday in order to ensure that mercenary groups are not required for the security of the nation.
Yevgeny Prigozhin and his Wagner mercenary troops attempted a failed mutiny over the weekend, briefly seizing control of the military command overseeing Moscow's campaign in Ukraine, before beginning a march on Moscow and aborting it.
In addition to the current conscript army, legislator Leonid Slutsky stated that Russia needs a contract army of at least seven million military and civilian personnel. Slutsky participated in peace negotiations with Ukraine early on in the 16-month conflict.
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The leader of the Liberal Democratic Party, Slutsky, stated on the messaging service Telegram that "the nation does not need any PMCs (private military companies) and their likes." The PMCs are unable to address the issues in the regular army.
In a defiant speech on Monday, President Vladimir Putin claimed that he had purposefully allowed the one-day mutiny to continue for so long in order to prevent violence. He stated that Wagner combatants could remain in the Russian army, return home, or travel to Belarus.
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Putin believed he would capture Kiev in a matter of days when he sent troops to Ukraine in February 2022, but the conflict is still far from over due to numerous weaknesses in the Russian army and internal disagreements over how to conduct the offensive.
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Putin supported expanding the army's combat strength from 1.15 million to 1.5 million by the end of 2022, including 695,000 contract soldiers. Seven million contract soldiers would require a sizable budget allocation. The war and subsequent Western sanctions crippled the Russian economy, which shrank by 2.2 percent last year and is only marginally expected to grow this year.