WSJ: Russian Defense Ministry pressures Putin to announce new mobilization

A few months before his "inauguration" for his 5th presidential term, Russian leader Vladimir Putin met with officials of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, and they tried to convince him to conduct a new mobilization.

This is reported by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) with reference to sources.

The meeting took place earlier this year, and Defense Ministry officials told Putin that he should use his "inauguration" and the associated surge in popular support to explain the need for a new mobilization, the WSJ source told. Thus, according to him, the military department expected to compensate for Russiaʼs losses at the front.

Then Putin rejected the offer, the media source said. The leader of the Russian Federation told officials of the Ministry of Defense that he wanted only those who voluntarily signed the contract to go to war.

However, six months later, the problem of the lack of troops is intensifying, forcing the Russian military leadership to insist on mobilization again, 3 WSJ sources say. More than a month has passed since the start of the Armed Forces operation in the Kursk region, and Moscow has still not organized a major counteroffensive to push Ukrainian troops abroad, the newspaper writes.

"For now, the forces are not enough to achieve the initial goals of the war, to knock Ukraine out of the war, to undermine its military potential, or to protect the border regions of Russian territory. More and more people are saying that mobilization is inevitable," says the WSJ interlocutor.

• The only official mobilization of 300 000 people in the Russian Federation was held in the fall of 2022. Then it caused a mass flight of men of military age from the country. However, the media, as well as Ukrainian and Western officials, have repeatedly reported that Russia has been conducting secret mobilization throughout the war, involving foreigners, in particular, in the war.
• After the so-called elections in the Russian Federation in the spring of 2024, Verstka wrote that the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation plans to send another 300 000 people to the war against Ukraine in the near future. According to the publication, first of all, the authorities will focus attention on reservists, as well as on citizens who are in reserve.