Putin expands Russian military by 15,500 troops in fourth increase this year

The decree was published on the official portal of legal acts and took effect on September 28. The government has been instructed to allocate additional budget funding to the Defense Ministry to cover the increase.

The new document adds 15,500 service members to the figure set by the previous decree. On July 27, the authorized strength was raised by 25,000 positions to 2,426,130 personnel, with the number of service members increased by 25,000 to 1,535,000. The Kremlin attributed that increase to the creation of military construction units, and the decree took effect on August 1.

In March, Putin set the authorized strength at 2,391,770 personnel, including 1,502,640 service members. In June, it was raised to 2,399,130 personnel, of whom 1,510,000 were service members. Since March, the authorized number of service members has grown by 47,860.

Pavel Luzin, a senior researcher at the Saratoga Foundation, told The Insider that the latest increase does not mean the army has gained an additional 15,500 real service members. He described it as a paper expansion: authorized positions primarily signify funding rather than the presence of personnel. Luzin attributed the frequent changes in authorized strength to a bureaucratic process in which different structures prepare and coordinate documents at different times.

The authorized strength of 1.55 million service members set by the decree does not correspond to the actual number of people in the army, according to Luzin. He said the military seeks to guarantee itself increased funding over the long term regardless of the war.

The new decree appeared alongside preparations for the federal budget for the next three years. The current budget plan allocated 12.93 trillion rubles to the National Defense section in 2026, 13.57 trillion in 2027 and 13.05 trillion in 2028. On September 28, Reuters, citing materials from the new draft budget, reported that the authorities intend to raise that spending to 17.1 trillion rubles in 2027 and 16.6 trillion in 2028. Detailed materials for the new 2027-2029 budget have not yet been officially published.