The contents of this article are written with authoritative materials and personal opinions. The source of the literature has been marked at the end of the article, so please know.
Today, Putin will have more military power. He does not need to announce a national mobilization order or declare war on foreign countries. With just one order, Russia's contract reservists can return to the army.
After the new decree was passed, this "shadow army" of 2 million people was officially placed in the hands of the president.
The bill was passed by the State Duma a few days ago. Although it seems to be an ordinary legal provision, it actually changes the power structure of the Russian army.
In the absence of war, the president can mobilize contract reservists to carry out national defense tasks, such as overseas activities, anti-terrorism operations and quelling riots. In other words, as long as he exists as a "special military operation", Putin can mobilize troops at will without going through cumbersome mobilization procedures.
What Putin wants is this resilience, the Russian-Ukrainian conflict has been fighting for three years. Despite the stalemate on the battlefield, the Kremlin has never declared a "state of war".
This will not only cause domestic panic, but also violate the law. But with the new bill, this word can be bypassed and the army can still be pushed to the front line.
Russia’s contractual reserve system is not new. Before 2015, the Russian army had already created a contractual reserve force based on the traditional reserve system.
Citizens who have received military training can voluntarily join the army and sign contracts. The members were not named, they had to complete two to three days of military training each month and attend 20 to 30 days of training during the year.Training includes tactical operations, communication command, weapons maintenance, etc., and is directly allocated to active forces once called.
For them, it is both an obligation and an income. The Russian government has set up a subsidy system for contract reserves. In 2018, a sergeant in the Central Military Region could receive a monthly salary of about 25,300 rubles, equivalent to about 2500 yuan at that time.Though small, they remain attractive in the local economies and retain the social status of the military during peacetime.
However, there is a fatal loophole in this system, and the law does not clarify how to mobilize it in "peacetime". In the past three years, the Russian Ministry of Defense has been wavering about this.
The front line lacked a major general, but did not dare to recruit a reserve, and the last time shouted 3 million people were upset.At this point, the legal barrier has been completely removed, and Putin has also relaxed his hands.
First Deputy Chairman of the Russian Defense Council Zhulaev directly pointed out that: The old laws make the space of the Ministry of Defense too narrow.After the introduction of the new law, the problem was resolved.
Russia currently has about 2 million contractual reservists, which is approximately five times the number of active troops.Theoretically, as long as the president signs, Russia can quickly raise 2 million army reserves.
This is surprising, but the reality is much more complicated. The consumption of materials used by the Russian army has exceeded expectations. There is a shortage of artillery shells and serious damage to tanks. Even the "tank cemetery" in the Far East has been excavated and used.
Russia can only buy artillery from North Korea and Iran to secure the supply of front-line firepower.To equip two million soldiers with ammunition and vehicles in a short period of time is a task that is almost impossible to complete.
Outside of equipment is the money issue, each gathering should be given to the reserve officers a month's salary, and the treatment after recruitment should be improved.
At the same time, the company from which they left should also receive "absence compensation" to fill the vacant workforce. These two expenses add up to a large amount. Russia's finances are not affluent to begin with. In the past two years, it has been continuously raising taxes and cutting the civilian budget. Large-scale conscription will only make things worse.
This is also Putin's dilemma. Theoretically, there are two million reserve troops, but in fact, every troop has to be carefully calculated. Russia's economic structure is thin, and the proportion of young people engaged in manufacturing and construction industries in private enterprises is high.
The unemployment rate across the country has now reached a record low, and many companies are short of people. If millions more people are transferred to the army, the entire industrial system will be paralyzed. This is a devastating blow to countries that are making artillery shells, drones and tank parts on the front lines.
Therefore, the Russian Ministry of Defense is also adjusting its strategy. Starting this year, they have implemented a system called "special assembly", which allows Russia not to issue a call to mobilize anyone. It is possible to intensify training for a part of the reserve personnel.
The general training period of two months, at the end of which it can be deployed, and compared with the comprehensive mobilization, this approach is more flexible, also more low-level, not so easily to cause social unrest.
But the problem is still accumulating. "Meduza" website reported that, The number of new contracts signed by Russia in the second quarter of 2025 was only 3,79 million, the lowest level since two years ago.
The longer the war lasts, the lower and lower people's willingness to join the army will be. Many people would rather endure high prices than return to the battlefield. Even if the Kremlin increased its propaganda, it could not cover up people’s tiredness.
But Putin was prepared. According to reports, by mid-2025, about 29,2 million Russians had signed new military service contracts.But most of them were not sent to the front line, but were arranged in the so-called strategic reserve system. These people are reserves and backup players. When they are really needed, they will be replenished and sent to the war zone in batches.
In this way, the entire Russian army has become a layered machine. The front line is active duty troops, behind them are contracted reserves, and behind them are 2 million "shadow troops."
Putin’s goal is not to use all of his forces at once, but to control all of the potential warriors. Allow the president to expropriate some manpower at any time without risking the political risk of full mobilization.
But this institutionalized preparation for war also reveals Russia's anxiety. In the past three years, the battlefield has not won decisive victories, but has put unprecedented pressure on the military and society.
Putin then expanded military powers, on the one hand, defending the out-of-control front, and on the other hand, safeguarding domestic stability. He could not let the war wipe out the regime, nor dare he burn the war on the streets of Moscow.
For the outside world, the law has increased the resilience of Russia's war machine, while domestically, It is like a double-edged sword. If it is used carelessly, it will lead to a series of problems such as financial collapse, population outflow and social unrest.
Putin understood this, so he would not move the two million “shadow armies” at will, and what he wanted was not a one-off military force, but a system of war that would work all the time.
Such a systemic reform may have indicated that Russia has entered a "par-war state", the surface is quiet, and in fact the tide is flooding, and the contractual reserve is no longer just storing reserve military resources, but becomes a huge state machine. Putin holds three lines in his hands: military resources, finance, and legal principles, which also grasp the direction of Russia's future development.
From a legal point of view, the two million “shadow armies” have already been set up; and from a practical point of view, their actual appearance may be longer than expected.
reference
"18-30 years old, 13,500,000, Russia's largest autumn recruitment in nine years begins" 2025-09-30 17:45
The Comprehensive Operation of the Russian "Wage" Reserve" 2018-05-05 10:57 PM Source: Xinhua Net