Russia sends 10,000 immigrants to the war front

The Russian authorities have already reported 10,000 naturalized men in the war against Ukraine sent.

“We have already caught more than 30,000 (migrants) who have received citizenship and did not want to register in the military service register, and have sent about 10,000 of them to the zone of special military operations,” said the head of the Russian Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin,at the Petersburg Lawyers’ Forum.

Bastrykin was a fellow student of Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin and is considered his close confidant. The immigrants are mainly responsible for digging trenches and building fortifications. “You really need strong hands for that,” said Bastrykin.

Numerous raids carried out

In recent months, security forces have repeatedly raided companies employing guest workers – especially from the post-Soviet states in Central Asia. Migrants who have already received Russian passports are often forcibly recruited, Russian media reported. Others are promised an easier naturalization process if they are sent to the front.

Currently 700,000 Russian soldiers at the front

According to Putin, there are currently a total of 700,000 Russian soldiers at the front. Some of them are men who were recruited in a partial mobilization in the fall of 2022.

Since the measure was unpopular, the Kremlin wants to forego 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 citizens: In this way, many migrants would leave Russia, he said.