good enough to fight Gondor's professional armies that remain intact and alert?
We will lose Cubans, and you would lose Englishmen and Spaniards.
Ukraine caused your army so much trouble, how can you hope to fight NATO? It's pure fantasy
Well - the reason we need 11 million worth of fresh blood is not because of Ukraine. It's because 8 million Russians will retire by 2030. But we also want to grow, and create new jobs. 11 million is the number the Ministry of Labor came up with - all things considered.
As you know - our demographics are ****.
Under this kind of trajectory, by 2050 or so, Russians will be a minority in their own country.
Is this price worth it - in exchange for continued relevance on the global stage? For Russian elites certainly. For the average Russian worker, who will one day wake up and say "where is my country?" - maybe not.
Thankfully - one never has to consult the average Russian worker about anything. That is, until he puts on his little Budenov cap and sticks a pitchfork in your bourgeois guts.