Skip to content
Search
Human content, AI powered search.

Latest Stories

popular

Putin reaches (carefully) for a larger army

Vladimir Putin, hands crossed

Vladimir Putin, hands crossed

REUTERS
Willis Sparks
By Willis SparksJuly 25, 2023
Willis Sparks
Willis Sparks is a senior editor for GZERO Daily. He is also a Director in the Global Macro practice at Eurasia Group, where he has worked since 2005. He has made speeches on international politics on every continent except Antarctica. Willis holds degrees from Brown University, the Juilliard School, Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs, and the Institut d'Etudes Politiques in Paris. He also holds an honorary degree from the Moscow Art Theatre School. A native of Macon, Georgia, Willis has worked as a stuntman at New York's Metropolitan Opera. As a child, he declined an opportunity to spend an afternoon riding the Great American Scream Machine, a rollercoaster, with Ronald McDonald, for money. He has never regretted that decision.
See Full Bio
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin faces a dilemma. He needs more soldiers to boost his chances of winning what may well become a years-long war of attrition with Ukraine, but he also wants to avoid a general mobilization that would force a generation of young Russian men (and their families) to decide how they really feel about Putin’s war.

That’s the backdrop for Russia’s latest move toward force expansion. Russian men are required to perform one year of military service. This week, Russia’s lower house of parliament passed a new law that would both expand the age range of draft-eligible men from 18-27 to 18-30 beginning in 2024 and create penalties for men who try to leave the country to avoid the draft. By one estimate, this would increase the number of conscription-eligible men from 6.8 million to 9.14 million by next year. The plan will now pass the upper house, and Putin will sign it into law.

This move signals that Putin hasn’t given up on the idea that he can mobilize Russian society just enough to win his war without provoking a revolt against conscription. Whether it works will depend in part on just how much damage Ukraine’s current counter-offensive can inflict on Russia’s military.

russiarussia ukraine warvladimir putin

Latest Videos

Trump, Russia, and a deal Ukraine can’t acceptplay icon
Quick Take

Trump, Russia, and a deal Ukraine can’t accept

Trump threatens regime change in Venezuela
ask ian

Trump threatens regime change in Venezuela

Crisis en Venezuela: Trump, Maduro, Xi, y Putin CANTAN!!!
Puppet Regime

Crisis en Venezuela: Trump, Maduro, Xi, y Putin CANTAN!!!

Turkeys reject Trump's pardon
Puppet Regime

Turkeys reject Trump's pardon

Bolsonaro reacts as Trump scraps Brazil tariffs
Puppet Regime

Bolsonaro reacts as Trump scraps Brazil tariffs

Is Trump’s trade strategy backfiring abroad?
ask ian

Is Trump’s trade strategy backfiring abroad?

More For You

Why won’t the right unite in Western Europe?

​Reform UK leader Nigel Farage in London, United Kingdom, on Nov. 26, 2025.

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage holds a post-budget conference in London, United Kingdom, on Nov. 26, 2025.

Phil Lewis/WENN
After months of rumors, Nigel Farage has reportedly said the quiet part out loud: the Reform UK leader told donors that he plans for his far-right party to join forces with the center-right Conservative Party, according to the Financial Times. If the two parties strike such a deal, it will likely mean the British right will return to power at the [...]

The Ukraine peace push is failing. Here's why.

Trump, Putin, and Zelensky surrounded by tanks and negotiators.

Trump, Putin, and Zelensky surrounded by tanks and negotiators.

Nearly four years into Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the push to end the war is intensifying. The past few weeks produced not one but two proposals. Summits convene near daily. American envoys are shuttling between Kyiv and Moscow. Public displays of applause for President Trump's efforts to stop the bloodshed while everyone scrambles to shape the [...]

What We’re Watching: Haredi conscription issue threatens Israel’s government again, Xi hosts Macron, Putin visit Modi

​Ultra-Orthodox Jewish children hold makeshift gallows as part of a protest against attempts to change government policy that grants?ultra-Orthodox?Jews exemptions from military conscription, in Jerusalem, March 20, 2024.

Ultra-Orthodox Jewish children hold makeshift gallows as part of a protest against attempts to change government policy that grants?ultra-Orthodox?Jews exemptions from military conscription, in Jerusalem, March 20, 2024.

REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
Ultra-Orthodox conscription to divide Israel’s parliament againHere we go again: Israel’s Knesset is once more considering a bill that would force certain ultra-Orthodox Jewish men, who are part of the Haredi sect, to serve in the military – just like the rest of the country. There’s a difference this time: support for Haredi conscription jumped [...]

Then & Now: Can Haiti's government hold an election?

Police officers pass a burnt police armoured personnel carrier after gunmen kidnapped several people from an orphanage in a mountainous community that has been under deadly attacks by armed gangs since the start of this year, on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince, in Kenscoff, Haiti August 4, 2025.

Police officers pass a burnt police armoured personnel carrier after gunmen kidnapped several people from an orphanage in a mountainous community that has been under deadly attacks by armed gangs since the start of this year, on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince, in Kenscoff, Haiti August 4, 2025.

REUTERS/Fildor Pq Egeder
Last fall, Haiti created a transitional presidential council tasked with regaining control over the gang-ravaged Caribbean country and ushering in elections by February 2026. On Tuesday, the transitional government passed a law calling for elections in August, missing the original deadline but calming fears that leaders intended to indefinitely [...]