People vs. Drones: Why are the Russian authorities increasing payments to contract soldiers and how does this affect Russians' attitude to war?
The ‘contract race’, which started at the beginning of the year, intensified in May and June: regions are competing to increase payments to those who sign up for the war. In some places these payments reach 1.5 million rubles ($16,000) and even exceed this threshold. Since last summer, the average size of a lump-sum regional payment has increased 1.7 times.