Russia has a labor shortage. Hear about it at urban legends and stranger truths Russia faces a labor shortage as workers are increasingly required to work for the arms industry. President Vladimir Putin has pointed to the country's top line GDP growth as proof of their resilience to Western sanctions. But those numbers are bolstered by defense spending, the Financial Times report it, and mask structural problems in the wider economy, that being that 300,000 men were mobilized last year and many more