August 30, 2024: The Russian war in Ukraine is currently not popular with most Russians. The government cannot hide the large number of Russian men who have died in Ukraine or returned disabled. After two years of futile fighting in Ukraine the Russians found that they could not get enough Russian men to join or stay in the military. Russian mothers are in an uproar over the government using conscripts to fight in Ukraine. The law specifies that conscripts cannot be used in a foreign war, only for the defense of Russia. Putin declared Ukraine to be a wayward part of Russia where conscripted soldiers must fight to make it part of Russia once more.

Few Russian soldiers were willing to fight in Ukraine and the government solution was to pay the reluctant soldiers to do so. Military men were also offered large sums of cash to join the army. In major cities, men of military age often have the financial means to leave the country, legally or illegally, if the recruiters come after them. Many of these men have technical or professional skills that the government needs, so the military recruiters have to concentrate on rural areas where there are more men who need jobs and money. In the countryside the Russian practice of buying soldiers was more effective. The amount of money offered, which was often $20,000 or more, was a life changing sum for most Russians. Even if the soldiers died or were disabled, that amount of cash took care of his family. If the soldier returned from Ukraine, which some did early in the war, they had enough money to start a business.

After the first year of the Ukraine War, the money offered increased, but so did the chances of getting killed in Ukraine. By 2024, there were few men in the provinces willing to fight in Ukraine for any amount of money. At that point the government began looking at men from other former parts of the Soviet Union. The five Central Asian states had plenty of poor, Russian speaking locals looking for work. They were willing to take the money to fight in Ukraine because Russia offered them residency permits to live and work in Russia after their military service. This attracted some recruits, even though these men knew their chances of surviving Ukrainian service were not high.

Russia ultimately recruited soldiers from African or Asian countries, often without telling the local governments. These countries often exported, via local brokers, men for jobs in foreign countries. There were more applicants than jobs so when the Russian military recruiters showed up there were some men willing to take the money and fight in Ukraine. When a lot of these men got killed in Ukraine, it became a political embarrassment back home and the local governments began to ban the Russian recruiters. With large enough bribes, the local authorities could be persuaded to ignore Russian recruiting. This only lasted until a lot of local men were getting killed in Ukraine. At that point too many locals actively opposed the Russian recruiting and that was that. With all these problems, Russian personnel experts believe Russia will be out of soldiers by 2026.