The Kremlin and the Defense Ministry have instructed local officials to recruit contract soldiers according to quotas under a target of 409,000 people set for this year, people familiar with the situation told the Financial Times.

Axar.az reports, citing The Moscow Times, that pressure on the regions has intensified in recent months, which observers attribute to Vladimir Putin’s efforts to avoid a new mobilization.

“Local authorities are under enormous pressure, forcing them to recruit the required number of soldiers every year,” said Janis Kluge, a researcher at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs who calculates the number of contract soldiers recruited into the military based on budget data.

“They know who has debts, who is under investigation, who has recently had their driver’s license revoked, and these are precisely the people they target,” he added.

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