Russia is recruiting foreign fighters from as far afield as Cuba and Nepal to plug manpower gaps as the Kremlin seeks to avoid another round of mobilisation for the war in Ukraine that could be politically damaging. Hundreds of migrant workers from central Asia have been rounded up in raids in Russian cities and taken to military recruitment offices over recent weeks, according to Russian media reports.
Russia has offered fast-tracked citizenship for foreign fighters since last year, hoping to tempt recruits from neighbouring countries as well as immigrants living in Russia. Central Asians have also been recruited from prisons to fight in Ukraine. Foreign nationals are also being pressured to sign up for military service as volunteers, according to human rights groups.
“Labour migrants are reaching out constantly due to the fact that they, non-citizens, are forced to sign contracts for voluntary military service when applying for all sorts of documents, from work patents to residence permits,” Valentina Chupik, a human rights lawyer at migrant rights group Tong Jahoni, told independent Russian outlet Meduza.
Russia does not release casualty figures for the war in Ukraine but they are thought to be heavy. In August, BBC Russia estimated at least 80,000 deaths and the US government gave a figure of 300,000 dead and wounded.
Such losses have triggered speculation in Russian media and among military analysts that another round of mobilisation is imminent, after a first wave in September recruited around 300,000 civilians. Russian newspaper Izvestia reported on Tuesday that new assault units were being created “designed to storm fortifications and conduct reconnaissance”, equipped with tanks, artillery, and drones.
Russia has sought to limit the impact of the war on mainstream Russian society with recruitment and casualties of ethnic minorities from the provinces disproportionately higher than from the major cities. Tens of thousands of prisoners have also been conscripted.
At least 93 fighters from central Asian countries have been killed in Ukraine, a BBC Russia investigation found, based on figures for bodies repatriated and buried in Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan. Russia has also sought to recruit more widely. The Cuban government announced earlier this month that it had broken up a human trafficking ring sending Cubans to fight for Russia in Ukraine.
Hacked documents from Russian military officers purported to show that 199 Cubans had enlisted. Two teenage recruits from the island recently claimed they were tricked into signing military contracts written in Russian that they believed were for construction work.
Investigative outlet Bellingcat has also found evidence of Nepali soldiers training at a military camp geolocated to the Moscow region after similar reports surfaced in Nepali media. The scale of foreign recruitment is difficult to gauge, says Dr William Farrell, a professor of international affairs at the University of Maine who has researched Russia’s recruitment of central Asians.
“But we are seeing bodies coming back to central Asia, and an apparent desire from Russia to ensure a steady flow of manpower that does not create dissatisfaction among its population,” he told i. “Russia wants to see its own population going to the mall not worrying about what’s happening in Ukraine.”
Russia has previously recruited central Asians for military operations in Syria, Dr Farrell added. Migrants from the region are often vulnerable due to low incomes and a need to support families at home, he added. Such recruitment serves the Kremlin’s political needs, says Anton Barbashin, editorial director of Russian political analysis journal Riddle.
“It is clear as daylight that they are going to do whatever is possible to avoid a second mobilisation before the presidential election next March,” he told i. “But there is a huge demand for soldiers. We are seeing reports that they were able to recruit back some Wagner group fighters.”
Despite his monopoly on power, President Vladimir Putin was likely to have been shaken by the protests that greeted the first round of mobilisation as well as the Wagner uprising in June, the analyst said. “I believe the data the Kremlin is operating with indicates that if they do another round it could drastically alter the state of passive acceptance of this war,” Mr Barbashin said.
“They could be drawing a little feedback from the Wagner mutiny, when there were no pro-Putin rallies or even desire to stop the march to Moscow. They understand the regime’s stability is good as long as people are passive. And to keep them passive you have to avoid doing things that might mobilise them to action.”
Source: INEWS
