By October 2025, every third Russian region introduced payments for «assisting in attracting citizens to sign a contract for military service», calculated «Important Stories».
At least 2 billion rubles have already been spent from regional budgets on payments to recruiters, journalists note that this amount is only for 11 regions that reported these expenses.
In 21 regions of the Russian Federation, recruitment bonuses are in effect throughout the territory, and in another 10 — in certain districts or cities.
In some regions, bringing a person from another region or even a foreigner is more profitable, and citizens of far-abroad countries cost more than CIS citizens. For example, in the Ryazan region, they pay 574.7 thousand rubles for someone from another region of the country or a foreigner not from the CIS, and seven times less, 80.4 thousand, for a migrant from post-Soviet countries. Ryazan residents themselves are valued the least in the Ryazan region — only 57.4 thousand rubles are paid for their recruitment.
Regions often pay recruiters from reserves set aside for emergency response. In the Saratov region, 400 million rubles were spent on such bonuses. The region spent the same amount on building houses for relocating citizens from emergency housing. In the Saratov region, 150 thousand rubles are paid for one new contractor, and in certain municipalities — up to 250 thousand rubles for people from other regions and foreigners.
In Ulyanovsk — more than 370 million, the same amount was spent on payments to rural teachers. The region pays 200 thousand rubles for each recruited individual. Thus, local recruiters could earn by attracting 1864 contractors to the army. At the same time, after the introduction of recruitment bonuses, the region wants to stop indexing payments to home front workers, labor veterans, and the repressed.
Expenditures on recruiter bonuses in the Perm region (146 million rubles) are comparable to the region's spending on the operation of all emergency medical services or subsidies for transport development in the region.
* Recognized in Russia as «foreign agents» and an undesirable organization.