MOSCOW, Sept 17 (Askume) – Russian President Vladimir Putin needs to order the transformation of Russia’s military into the world’s second-largest army to deal with growing threats on Russia’s western borders and instability in the east, the Kremlin said on Tuesday.
Putin on Monday ordered the size of Russia’s regular military to be increased by 180,000 to 1.5 million active troops , a move that will make it the world’s second-largest army after China’s.
“This is due to the large number of threats on our borders,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call.
“This is due to the extremely hostile environment on our western border and instability on our eastern border. This requires appropriate measures.”
Such a growth would see Russia overtake the United States and India in terms of the number of active combat troops, making it the second-largest military power after the United States and India, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), a leading military think tank.
It is Putin’s third military escalation since sending troops into Ukraine in February 2022, as Russian forces advance along parts of the vast 1,000-kilometer (627-mile) border in eastern Ukraine and try to push Ukrainian troops out of Russian reservists.
Andrei Kartapolov, chairman of the defence committee of Russia’s lower house of parliament, said on Monday the expansion was partly to create new institutions and military units to improve security in northwest Russia after neighbouring Finland joined the NATO alliance.
Russia has also expressed concern about the growing US-backed militarization of Japan and possible plans to deploy US missiles there.
