Russia is inflating the true number of new contract soldiers it is recruiting by one-and-a-half times, according to a joint investigation by Important Stories and the Conflict Intelligence Team (CIT) published on Aug. 1. The Russian Defense Ministry announced in December that there were 640,000 soldiers serving under contract. But citing data from Russian federal budget expenditures, Important Stories and CIT said only 426,000 Russians had received a one-time payment for signing a contract during the period from autumn 2022 to April 2024. According to the outlets, this leaves a discrepancy of …