Putin insists a new military draft is out of the question. The Kremlin said the exact same thing before the 2022 mobilization.
Speaking at the Eastern Economic Forum, Russian President Vladimir Putin ruled out a new wave of military mobilization.
There is no scenario at this point that would require mobilization. This is an information attack by the adversary ahead of elections to the State Duma aimed at influencing the outcome. This is simply a deliberately orchestrated information operation.
Putin acknowledged that waging war is “a difficult, complicated matter” in which “a lot of problems arise,” but said having enough troops isn’t one of those “problems.”
It was the second time in a matter of days that Putin denied plans for a new mobilization. At the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit on September 1, he dismissed talk of preparations for a post-election mobilization as “utter nonsense” and “an information attack on Russia.”
Sources for Meduza and other media outlets have reported since early summer that officials are weighing a new wave of mobilization. The reports come amid a steady decline in people willing to serve under contract in the armed forces and rising losses in the Russian military.
The Wall Street Journal reported in late August that, according to Western intelligence, the Russian military is conducting exercises rehearsing mobilization procedures. Sources for the outlet stressed that this reflects only practical preparation, and that no decision on mobilization has been made yet.
Putin is not alone — other officials have directly denied mobilization plans in recent weeks as well. Russia’s permanent representative to the U.N., Vitaly Nebenzya, said in mid-August that mobilization “is not planned and is not expected.” In late July, Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, called talk of mobilization “hogwash” and “a lying provocation.”
Russia’s last wave of mobilization was announced in September 2022, shortly after officials had denied plans to carry it out. That mobilization is officially still in effect — no presidential decree has ever formally ended it — though large-scale mobilization measures wrapped up within a few weeks in 2022.
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