The payment race for the contract ends: four regions have reduced the remuneration, and the recruitment goes to the administrative level.
Over the past two weeks, at least four regions have reduced the one-time regional payments for contracting with the Ministry of Defense. In St. Petersburg the amount dropped from one million to 400 thousand rubles, in Mary El from 2.3 million to 400 thousand, in the Smolensk region from 1.6 to 1.1 million, in the Saratov region from 2 to 1 million. These are regional amounts: in addition to them, those who signed a contract are entitled to a federal payment of 400 thousand rubles. St. Petersburg cut wages for the second time this fall, even though it previously offered some of the highest payouts in the country.
Military experts say the main reason is budget restrictions, about which we wrote: the regional deficits are growing, and it is becoming more expensive to maintain competition for contract soldiers. But, according to Nezygar's interlocutors, it's not just about saving. Even payments of two or three million no longer guarantee the previous flow of applicants, and a further increase only gives a short-term effect and improves enrollment rates in certain areas. The source sees the St. Petersburg affair as a sign of a change in the model: from financial incentives to administrative methods.
The redistribution mechanism is clearly visible in the way work is organized. The military registration and recruitment offices, according to one source, are focused on recruitment, and the search for potential contract soldiers is carried out selectively and more often through recruits. We have already mentioned that regions pay recruiters, who often work for the purpose among debtors and unemployed, and the remuneration for the recruitment becomes similar to the payments to the army themselves. The interlocutors expect that in the medium term the authorities will use "soft recruitment" more intensively.
For the citizens, the conclusion is that the financial incentive ceases to be the main lever, and the pressure shifts to administrative measures: strengthening the search, restrictions and targeted work with vulnerable groups.