Page 11 - bneIntelliNews monthly country report Russia May 2024

Friedman himself used similar arguments several times in interviews with Western media, including in the famous “I don’t know how to live.” The decision on the claim of Fridman’s partner Peter Aven contains essentially the same justifications, but tied to other episodes - for example, Aven’s work with Putin in 1992 and his close acquaintance with the head of Rosneft, Igor Sechin.
2.4 Russia's military forces are 15% biggest than they were at the start of the war - US intelligence
Russia is reconstituting its army far faster than initial estimates suggested, US Army General Christopher Cavoli, Nato's Supreme Allied Commander in Europe said in a statement on April 10.
Russia’s Armed Force has taken heavy casualties but a campaign to recruit volunteers in Russia is going very well and more than making up Russia’s battlefield losses, according to US intelligence. Cavoli estimates that Russia’s army has grown from around one million at the start of the war, with some 300,000 men serving on the front line at the start of the invasion of Ukraine just over two years ago.
The top American military commander in Europe told the House Armed Services Committee in a hearing on April 10 that the Russian army "is actually larger by 15%" than it was when it invaded Ukraine back on February 24, 2022.
"Over the past year, Russia increased its front-line troop strength from 360,000 to 470,000," Cavoli continued, adding that the bolstered numbers stemmed from Russia raising its conscription age from 27 to 30.
The increase, Cavoli said, meant that Russia was able to enlarge "the pool of available military conscripts by 2mn for years to come." "In sum, Russia is on track to command the largest military on the continent," Cavoli said. He also added that regardless of the outcome of the war in Ukraine, "Russia will be larger, more lethal, and angrier with the West than when it invaded." Ukraine’s position in the conflict has significantly weakened since the start of this year when the US ran out of money for Ukraine and halted military supplies. As bne IntelliNews reported, Ukraine is now in an ammo crisis as it starts to run out of long-range missile and ammunition for its air defences.
2.5 What do we know about the Russian IT market and emigration
It is very difficult to assess the real scale of Russian IT emigration during the two war years. And there are several reasons for this:
Firstly, many of those who left Russia after the outbreak of the war, and then the announcement of mobilisation, actually subsequently returned. Some live
11 RUSSIA Country Report May 2024 www.intellinews.com