This article is confused. It is conflating the size of the “Russian Army” by which I assume they mean the ground forces, with the size of overall “Armed Forces”, which includes the Navy, Air Force, etc.. By what I’ve been able to find, the actual “army” has/had less than 300k troops, not over a million.
Spot on ! The Russians, similar to US, invest large number of personnel in naval, strategic, and tactical air and missile forces. Though the US does invest in a larger more deployable ground force.
“By what I’ve been able to find, the actual “army” has/had less than 300k troops, not over a million.”
According to Putin’s decree, which comes into force from the beginning of next year, the full-time strength of the Russian army increases to 1,150,628 people. !!!!
He will ‘proclaim’ larger army force by end of year!?!
The RGF had 250,000 professional or contract personnel in Feb - do not think that they are all infantry as only 40% sometimes 50% are infantry - all the rest are support, air defense, armored, artillery, etc. There is so much misinformation out there about the make up of present-day Russian forces, it becomes difficult to ascertain the reality.
The million or sometimes millions you see on some places are based on the old Soviet Army figures - now long defunct. Some people even use the long-ignored 2012 S.Shoigu proposal to create BTGs in the RGF. That sort of military division is good, if you are fighting a low level insurgency like Afghan - Iraq, but not so good fighting a real intense war. Therefore, the General Staff of the RGF reverted to the standard military designations of Army, Division, Brigade, Battalion, Company etc.