Recruitment machine for the war: in Russia, expenses for bonuses for contractors reached 2 billion rubles per day.

According to the Russian Ministry of Finance and regional budgets, expenses for army recruitment have risen to 2 billion rubles per day, covered by taxpayers. This information was calculated by Janis Kluge, a research fellow at the German Institute for International Security, reported The Moscow Times.

According to Kluge's calculations, about 1.5 billion rubles of the total expenses are paid by regional authorities, which accounts for approximately 3% of their budgets. The remaining 0.5 billion rubles is financed from the federal budget.

The campaign to recruit new soldiers into the Russian army, according to Kluge, brings in between 1,000 and 1,500 people daily. This influx of 'volunteers' has remained at a steady level, although the amount of bonuses in the regions has stopped and is now 1.4 million rubles per contract.

Compared to last year, the number of recruited soldiers has nearly doubled, fully compensating for losses on the front, which NATO estimates at about 1,000 people per day.

Recruitment expenses are rising rapidly, and if this trend continues, by the end of the year they will reach 730 billion rubles. This is half of the annual budget for the entire higher education system in Russia and twice the annual spending on the national project 'Healthcare'.