During the Petersburg Lawyers’ Forum, Alexander Bastrykin, head of the Russian Investigative Committee, revealed that over 30,000 migrants who had received citizenship and refused to register for military service had been found. Out of this group, around 10,000 men were sent to the conflict zone in Ukraine. Most of these naturalized citizens were assigned tasks like digging trenches and constructing fortifications. Bastrykin emphasized the physical strength required for such duties.
Reports in the Russian media indicated that authorities had been carrying out raids on companies that employed migrant workers, particularly those from post-Soviet states in Central Asia. Many migrants who already held Russian passports were being forcibly recruited, while others were promised an easier path to citizenship if they joined the military. This recruitment strategy was adopted following a partial mobilization of 700,000 Russian soldiers in the fall of 2022.
Bastrykin also suggested that the forced recruitment of naturalized citizens could result in a significant number of migrants leaving Russia, which he viewed as a positive outcome. This approach was seen as an alternative to further waves of mobilization to make up for military losses. The Kremlin’s decision to utilize naturalized citizens in the conflict was a controversial one, with implications for both the migrant population and the ongoing hostilities in Ukraine.