The increase of 180,000 russian military personnel is due to the "hostile environment at the borders", said kremlin spokesperson dmitry peskov on September 17, as cited by pro-russian media.
According to peskov, the expansion of russia's army is driven by "the number of threats that exist around the perimeter of our borders".
"This is caused by the extremely hostile environment on the western borders and instability on the eastern borders, which requires taking appropriate measures", - he stated.
He did not specify the reasons behind the "hostility" and "instability" on russia's borders.
As reported earlier, on September 16, putin signed a decree regarding the new staffing levels of the russian Armed Forces. Starting on December 1, the overall size of the military will increase to 2.389 million people, with 1.5 million of them being military personnel. This will make the russian army the second largest in the world in terms of military personnel, after China.