The economics of death: Why Russians from poor regions sign up for war in huge numbers

Alexey drove his bus through the morning rush hour in Kazan, Russia with skill and more than a dash of aggression.

He shook his head with resignation when asked about the Russian army’s lucrative signing-on bonuses, sighed and gave a half-shrug.

“Sure, I know people who have signed up but it’s not for me. Many just go for the cash,” he said.

Then, a ponderous silence. Rather like his driving, the conversation had veered speedily, but carefully, around obstacles until it reached this cliffhanger, a sensitive subject that the silence suggested should have been avoided in public.

But Alexey, who was driving delegates from their hotels to an economic conference run by the Kremlin, was the chatty type. The small bus juddered to a halt at a traffic light.

“Look,” said Alexey. “I know men who have died on the front. I have a family, three children. Fine, the money is less, but at least I am alive.”

With the Kremlin and regional governments offering huge signing-on bonuses for army recruits, this is a calculation that hundreds of thousands of households across Russia are having to make.

Sit tight, or, hoping for the best, take the cash. And it is a lot of cash, depending on where you live and where you sign up.

In Kazan, about 550 miles east of Moscow, adverts offered men a signing-on bonus of the equivalent of £15,500 to join the army, as much as several years’ salary for the average Russian.

Pay can be as little as a few hundred pounds per month, so it is often an offer that is too good to refuse.

A source in Moscow who spoke on condition of anonymity said that, for many Russians, joining the army – which is losing 2,000 men a day, killed or badly injured – is a risk worth taking. Even if the husband is killed, the payout is lucrative.

“Russia is a poor country, people who live in small towns don’t have enough money for food. Often, two or three generations of one family live in one little flat. When people have a chance to do more, they go,” the source said.

Testimonies backing this litter the internet. The Kremlin’s ideal is that fit young men join up to serve in its army out of patriotic fervour. But the reality is that people want the cash, particularly those from the country’s poorer regions.

On an internet noticeboard linked to the Russian Orthodox Church, “Sergey” was having nagging doubts about his motivations for signing up for a career in the military.

Under a post titled “Is it worth serving a contract just for the money?”, he worried that he may have signed up for the wrong reasons.

“I have no desire to serve. Like many here, the only thing that motivates me is that in civilian life a poor life awaits me, and here you can earn money for a car and an apartment,” he wrote.