A military recruiting poster in Kursk, Russia, in August. President Vladimir V. Putin has ordered the ranks of Russia’s army to increase by 180,000 service members to 1.5 million.Credit…Nanna Heitmann for The New York Times
“Russians Can Serve the State in Battle or in Childbirth”
What the Kremlin wants from Russians now boils down to two things.
Men should join the army.
Women should have more children.
In recent months, the Russian government has doubled sign-up bonuses for contract soldiers and blanketed the airwaves, social media and city streets with recruitment ads. And a new law allows criminal suspects to avoid trial if they sign up to fight.
At the same time, President Vladimir V. Putin has decreed that increasing births is a national priority, an effort that entered a newly repressive phase last week with a bill that would outlaw any advocacy for a child-free lifestyle.
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