On Monday, Putin ordered the army to increase its troops by 180,000, per a decree published by the Kremlin. This will raise the overall number of Russian military personnel to 2.38 million people, with 1.5 million of them being active soldiers. AdvertisementThe gear coming off the production line "will still be substantial," Reynolds told BI in an interview on Wednesday. Russia has "adapted much better than predicted to some of the pressures it's been put under," Reynolds told BI. Other experts BI spoke to said that while Putin might still be able to grow Russia's army, it may only add more strain to the already-stretched Russian labor force.

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Persons: —, Vladimir Putin, Putin, Nick Reynolds, Reynolds, That's, It's, it's, Artem Kochev, Kochev, Benjamin Hilgenstock, Jeremy Morris Organizations: Service, Kremlin, Business, International Institute for Strategic Studies, Royal United Services Institute, Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, Kommersant, Kyiv School of Economics Institute, Bloomberg, Russian Armed Forces, Aarhus University Locations: Russia, China, India, Ukraine, Moscow