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Russia needs soldiers, and its authorities are increasingly turning to migrants to fill the military’s ranks. Guest workers from Central Asian countries are often rounded up on the street, taken to recruitment offices and pressured into signing contracts with the Russian Defense Ministry. This process can involve threats and violence. At the same time, migrants are offered a quick path to Russian citizenship if they join the military.
The news of Russia trying to enlist migrants first reached the public just days before its troops invaded Ukraine. On February 20, 2022, Uzbeki blogger Bahrom Ismailov published a video on his YouTube channel urging migrants to sign a contract with the Russian Defense Ministry and promised they would receive Russian citizenship in six months.
After that, reports started pouring in about defense officials pressuring migrants to join the armed forces, activist and lawyer Valentina Chupik told DW. This included citizens of Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Armenia and people from other migrant communities
“My colleagues and I found a video recorded by somebody from Tajikistan, who was behind a wheel of a truck in Ukraine and was saying he didn’t know what was happening — he joined the Russian army and now he doesn’t know if he will survive,” the Uzbekistan-born lawyer said.
In response, Chupik and her associates launched a campaign to inform people and dissuade them from enlisting. The recruiters’ success rate went down
But in the summer of 2022, the Ministry of Defense started recruiting laborers to do construction work in the Russian-controlled areas of Ukraine, such as Luhansk, Donetsk and Mariupol. According to the activist, large groups of people from Central Asia signed up without understanding what was happening.
“In October, some guys from Uzbekistan rang me up and asked, ‘Is Mariupol in the Moscow region?’” she said, referring to the coastal Ukrainian city that was reduced to rubble before being captured by Russian forces last year.
The workers were apparently told they would be working in the Moscow Oblast.
“They were put on buses with taped up windows and taken in an unknown direction — 20 buses with 53 people on each one. After they arrived, they saw it was just ruins all around, and they started to figure out that this was not the Moscow Oblast. Somebody had my phone number and they got in touch,” Chupik said.
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This is the best summary I could come up with:
Guest workers from Central Asian countries are often rounded up on the street, taken to recruitment offices and pressured into signing contracts with the Russian Defense Ministry.
After that, reports started pouring in about defense officials pressuring migrants to join the armed forces, activist and lawyer Valentina Chupik told DW.
“My colleagues and I found a video recorded by somebody from Tajikistan, who was behind a wheel of a truck in Ukraine and was saying he didn’t know what was happening — he joined the Russian army and now he doesn’t know if he will survive,” the Uzbekistan-born lawyer said.
“This practice has now grown especially common,” said Svetlana Gannushkina, chair of the Civic Assistance Committee and member of the Memorial Human Rights Center.
In mid-August 2023, Russia’s Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights suggested changing the law to make military registration mandatory for those applying for a Russian passport.
By the end of the month, Communist lawmaker Mikhail Matveev introduced a bill that would allow for a loss of citizenship for draft dodgers and those seeking to evade registration and mandatory military training.
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