Frag Out! Magazine
Issue link: https://fragout.uberflip.com/i/1532587
influx of workers for the defense industry without leading to social unrest. Russia has begun recruiting women from Africa aged 18–22 (from Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya, South Sudan, Sierra Leone, and Nigeria). This move is driven by the perception that female immigrants generate less social concern and that Africans may be more accepted than Central Asians, whose growing presence in Russia has been controversial (especially given the high number of those people)[6]. However, these efforts may fall short of Russia's needs. Given the continued expansion of the armed forces and population aging, the Russian economy will require hundreds of thousands of additional workers annually just to maintain current employment levels. Summary Russia has significant demographic reserves, and current wartime losses are not substantial enough to critically deplete them (in purely demographic terms, excluding trained military reserves). However, a prolonged war and an aging population will exacerbate Russia's labor market crisis. By 2024, the number of people in the workforce is expected to decline by 400,000–500,000. Meanwhile, military expansion and replenishment efforts will further deplete the civilian labor pool by several hundred thousand. This trend could hamper Russia's ability to sustain its wartime economy, though not severely enough to prevent it from continuing the war. Additionally, hopes for widespread Russian public discontent due to war casualties appear unrealistic. This stems from the fact that the relative scale of losses (compared to Russia's total population) remains low, and, as per numerous think-tanks' suggestions, many of the killed and wounded soldiers come from small towns and peripheral regions, whose residents lack the capacity to ignite a nationwide anti-war movement. Demographics ANALYSIS