Russia and Ukraine flashpoint

[Bofferbrauer2]

SecondWar said:

Bofferbrauer2 said:

If Russia is forced to cut the sign-up bonuses, this could be huge.

But considering recruitments are down by 60% already before the incentive drop it doesn't look like it's related to imminent financial woes - more like a way to save money from a policy that shows signs of outliving it's usefulness since it doesn't seem to attract much interest anymore.

Usually thought if interest is waning then it's typical for the financial incentive to be increased rather than cut so it may allude to some financial issues.

I think they've reached a point where even a substantial increase wouldn't do much anymore to incentivize more people from those regions to sign up.

Keep in mind that some of those have a significant non-Russian population, especially in Tatarstan and Chuvashia (just ~30% Russian, 50%+ Indigenous People by 2019 census), but also Mari El to a lesser degree (only 50% Russian), and I doubt those non-Russians are very fond to join up for a very Russian war either way. As for Belgorod, they got counter-invaded twice and are probably the most weary of the war in Russia as many also got evacuated twice.

So yeah, I think the Kremlin realized that throwing money at the problem simply won't solve it in those regions anymore and cut their losses.