- Moscow mayor promises to pay new recruits huge bonus
- The bonus is equal to twice the average Russian annual salary
- Britain has been warned it faces ‘all-out war’ with Russia
The mayor of Moscow has agreed to give the city’s residents double the average Russian national salary as a bonus for signing up for military service, in yet another sign of desperation in the form of Vladimir Putin’s brutal invasion of Ukraine.
Mayor Sergei Sobyanin today signed a decree saying Muscovites who join Putin’s bloody war in Ukraine will receive an extra 1.9 million rubles (£16,760).
According to Statista, the average annual salary of a Russian is around 880,000 rubles (£7,767).
The new bonus will be added to the existing salaries and benefits of Russian soldiers, the mayor’s office said, bringing their total salary to 5.2 million rubles (£46,000).
Generous payments for volunteers helped Russia avoid another nationwide mobilization after a troubled campaign in 2022 led to a mass exodus of people to neighboring countries.
However, some economists say the payments create risky imbalances.
Moscow’s mayor has agreed to pay city residents double the average national salary in Russia as a bonus for signing up for military service
Mayor Sergei Sobyanin (pictured, behind Putin) today signed a decree saying that Muscovites who agree to Putin’s bloody war in Ukraine will receive 1.9 million rubles (£16,760)
They argue that the high wages for soldiers serving in Ukraine have become a benchmark for the rest of the economy, leading to wage increases across all sectors as workers increasingly demand that their pay be more in line with what the military pays.
Russian officials say some 190,000 people have volunteered to fight in Ukraine this year in what Moscow describes as a “special military operation.” That, they say, compares with 490,000 contracts signed in 2023.
The city of Moscow, where a large part of Russia’s highly educated workforce is concentrated, lags behind many other regions in the number of volunteers joining the army as a percentage of the total population.
There is no official data on the number of volunteers from Moscow, but city officials estimate the total number of Muscovites fighting in Ukraine on June 13 at 45,000.
The new bonuses come after Ukraine’s ambassador to the UK warned that Britain could soon face “all-out war” against Russia.
Speaking in London, General Valerii Zaluzhnyi told the Land Warfare Conference that the West needed to “wake up” and realise what was needed. He added: “Modern wars, unfortunately, are total.
A handout photo provided by the Special Forces Battalion Donbas of the 18th Slavic Brigade of the National Guard of Ukraine
The new bonuses come amid warnings from Ukraine’s ambassador to the UK that Britain could soon face an “all-out war” against Russia
Britain’s new defence chief John Healey said the government has committed to investing 2.5 percent of GDP in the military
‘They require not only the commitment of the army, but also of society as a whole.
‘Therefore, society must be prepared to give up some freedoms in order to survive, while politicians can and must mobilize the nation.’
The UK’s new defence secretary, John Healey, said the government had committed to investing 2.5 per cent of GDP in the military. However, he gave no indication of when Labour would meet this commitment.
No major spending decisions are expected until a Strategic Defence Review, presented last week, is completed.
Mr Healey also called on the armed forces to work together to end decades of internal fighting over who gets the most money.
He said: ‘The days when we could afford to get bogged down in inter-service rivalry are over. We need to be fit to fight, not to fight amongst ourselves.’