4 October 2026

The FSB has proposed changing the standards for providing military personnel with uniforms, citing the need to “optimize budget expenditures,” according to Parlamentskaya Gazeta. The agency has prepared two drafts that would reduce the number of certain items of clothing issued.

Thus, only contract soldiers will receive dress caps, wool jackets, white shirts, and ties with gold-colored pins. They and officers will also retain their ties with shiny pins. In the Russian National Guard, conscripts will also be able to receive these, but only those serving in the honor guard company.

Female service members of the FSB, the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), and the Main Directorate of Special Programs (GUSP) will be given the opportunity to receive an additional wool cap and skirt only once every five years. The same applies to jackets. However, no monetary compensation is provided for these items, and their issuance will depend on the decision of the leadership of the relevant agencies. 

The changes will also affect conscripts. They will be issued a portion of their everyday uniform—jackets, trousers, white shirts, T-shirts, ankle boots, and gloves—only in their second year of service, and will be replaced with field uniforms whenever possible. For contract soldiers of the FSB Coast Guard, their wool dress uniforms will be replaced with jackets, and their winter ankle boots with fur-lined mid-calf boots.

State Duma Deputy Anatoly Vyborny explained the initiative’s practical implications: field uniforms, he said, are better suited for conscripts’ training sessions, while dress uniforms are generally rarely used. “All the proposed innovations have been developed from the perspective of the rational use of budgetary funds,” he emphasized.

https://ru.themoscowtimes.com/2026/10/04/fsb-predlozhila-sokratit-vidachu-formi-voennosluzhaschim-iz-za-nehvatki-byudzheta-a207724