MOSCOW, January 17. /TASS/. The need to expand the Russian army comes from the West’s proxy war against Moscow, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday.
"It stems from the war that the countries of the collective West are waging [against Russia]," he said, when asked about the reason behind the decision to increase the size of the Russian armed forces to 1.5 mln troops.
He specified that it was a proxy war, "which includes indirect involvement in military activities and elements of an economic war, a financial war, legal warfare, steps that go beyond the legal field and so on." "This is what such measures stem from," the Russian presidential spokesman added.
Peskov particularly emphasized that "our country’s security should be fully guaranteed." "In this regard, the Defense Ministry is doing its [job]," he noted.
When speaking about how the size of the Russian Armed Forces is planned to be increased in 2023-2026, the Kremlin spokesman pointed to the proposals on raising the draft age brought forward by the Defense Ministry. Peskov added that those proposals would be elaborated further.
Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu announced earlier on Tuesday that the president had decided to expand the size of the country’s armed forces to 1.5 mln troops and the changes were expected to take place in 2023-2026. The defense chief first presented an initiative to beef up the army’s size at the ministry’s annual board meeting on December 21, 2022. Two more military districts, the Moscow and Leningrad districts, will be created in Russia. Shoigu also announced the formation of three motorized rifle divisions and two air assault divisions and the transformation of seven motorized rifle brigades into divisions, as well as steps to boost "the combat capabilities of the Navy, the Aerospace Forces and the Strategic Rocket Forces."