Russian authorities say they have already sent 10,000 naturalized men to the war against Ukraine. It is often said that these are forced recruitments. A confidant of Putin speaks of ‘strong hands’ for the front.
“We have already rounded up more than 30,000 (migrants) who received citizenship and did not want to enter the military service register, and sent about 10,000 of them to the special military operations zone,” said the head of Russia’s Investigative Committee, Alexander. Bastrykin the Lawyers’ Forum in Petersburg.
Bastrykin was a fellow student of Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin and is considered his closest confidante. The immigrants are primarily responsible for digging trenches and building fortifications. “You need very strong hands for that,” Bastrykin said.
Forced recruitment is now part of everyday life
In recent months, security bodies have repeatedly raided companies employing migrant workers – mainly from post-Soviet states in Central Asia. Migrants who have already received a Russian passport are often forcibly recruited, Russian media report. Others are promised an easier naturalization process if they are sent to the front.
According to Putin, a total of 700,000 Russian soldiers are currently at the front. Some of them are men recruited during a partial mobilization in the fall of 2022. Because the measure was unpopular, the Kremlin wants to refrain from further waves of mobilization and is looking for other ways to make up for the losses.
Bastrykin saw another advantage in the forced recruitment of naturalized people: In this way, many migrants would leave Russia, he said.
Source: Krone
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