In November 2022, President Putin approved the establishment of the Moscow Government Security Force (MGSF), a new organization to guard the capital’s infrastructure. From July 2023, the MGSF has assumed a more paramilitary character, including receiving a remit to use firearms. It has likely attracted several thousand recruits out of a planned strength of 15,000, the UK Defense Intelligence reports.
The MGSF represents another example in russia’s long tradition of paramilitarization: the proliferation of armed organizations outside of the regular military. However, the MGSF has highly likely been strengthened partially in response to concerns about the preparedness of Moscow’s local security forces in the face of advancing, mutinous Wagner Group troops in June 2023.
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The project also provides an opportunity for Muscovites to volunteer for patriotic war time duties – while avoiding front line service in Ukraine. Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin has been successful in limiting the direct impact of the conflict on the capital’s relatively well-off population. The majority of russian casualties in Ukraine have come from poorer, provincial regions.
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