Kremlin's plan to change the rules for using reservists allowing them to be called up not only in wartime but also in peacetime is now taking concrete form.
According to media, after the legislative amendments came into force on November 4, a large-scale recruitment campaign for reservists began across several russian regions.
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Officially, this additional recruitment is said to strengthen defenses against long-range Ukrainian drones, form mobile fire groups, and conduct counter-sabotage operations. During this service, russian reservists receive full military status with all corresponding payments, guarantees, and benefits. The contracts signed by reservists are for six months or one year, with service limited to their home region essentially copying the model of territorial defense units.
However, attention should be paid to which regions have started recruitment. Instead of a nationwide rollout, the campaign has been announced in select areas. Some are indeed deep rear regions: Krasnoyarsk and Perm Krais, Tyumen, Samara, Nizhny Novgorod, Tula, Yaroslavl, and Tver Oblasts, as well as Bashkortostan and Chuvashia all home to critical rear infrastructure and oil refineries.
Yet, many other regions involved are border ones not only those bordering Ukraine like Rostov, Kursk, and Bryansk, but also Smolensk, Pskov, Leningrad, and Kaliningrad Oblasts. In other words, nearly the entire western frontier of russia, except for Karelia and Murmansk along the Finnish and Norwegian borders, is now covered.
Whether this trend continues or it's just an organizational phase remains to be seen. Still, a simple question arises: whom exactly are they planning to defend against in Kaliningrad Oblast?
Meanwhile, the latest legislative changes in russia now officially allow reservists to be deployed in combat operations outside the country. Experience with other russian contract soldiers shows that despite fixed terms written in the contract, its duration is automatically extended.
Thus, this campaign to recruit rear defense reservists could easily become a prelude to sending them to the front lines.
At the same time, recruiting such reservists is much cheaper for the Kremlin than hiring regular contract soldiers. The signing bonus from russia's so-called Ministry of Defense is just 150,000 or 300,000 rubles for six- and twelve-month contracts respectively ($1,850 or $3,700).
By comparison, a standard contract with the Ministry of Defense includes a 400,000-ruble ($4,940) signing bonus, but most of the payout actually comes from regional governments often reaching several million rubles depending on the region. Regular salaries also differ significantly, making these new reservists a more economical resource for the Kremlin
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