Russian President Vladimir Putin has set the authorized strength of the Russian Armed Forces at 2.441 million personnel, including 1.550 million service members. The decree was published on September 28 on the legal acts portal.

The Russian president instructed the government to ensure that the Ministry of Defense receives the necessary budgetary allocations from the federal budget to implement the decree.

The strength has increased by 15,500 personnel. The previous decree, dated July 27, 2026, has been repealed. That document set the authorized strength of the Armed Forces at 2.426 million personnel, of whom 1.535 million were military personnel. The Ministry of Defense explained the increase in strength by citing the formation of military construction units.

The increase in the authorized strength of the Armed Forces is linked to the formation of military construction units. A separate regulatory framework is being developed for them, and recruitment is underway. Once this work is completed, military district commanders should gain an additional tool for constructing facilities that are most critical to the needs of the troops. Budgetary support is required not only for the numerical expansion but also for the launch of these units and the associated military infrastructure tasks.

Following the dissolution of Spetsstroy in 2016–2017, the military construction complex consolidated the functions of state procurement, design, construction, and operation of military facilities. At the same time, the direct execution of a significant portion of the work remains the responsibility of specialized contracting organizations, which means that the new in-house units do not replace the entire civilian construction sector.

Defense Minister Andrei Belousov has set the goal of improving the complex’s efficiency, clarifying the division of responsibilities among its participants, and reducing the volume of uncompleted construction by transitioning to a new model for organizing the work.