The Kremlin has begun offering migrant workers from Central Asia cash bonuses and a Russian passport if they join the depleted ranks of its forces now fighting in Ukraine. Recruiters have approached potential recruits at migration offices, homes and even mosques to try to lure them into the Russian armed forces.
Moscow hopes to recruit 400,000 more soldiers this year to fight in Ukraine, but tens of thousands of draft-age Russian men have already fled the country following President Vladimir Putin’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Now, Russia is struggling to ensure it has sufficient troops in place to fight off an expected counteroffensive from Kyiv.
Recruiters on Russian city streets have been spotted passing out brochures offering potential recruits an initial one-time payment of more than $2,300, followed by salaries of up to $4,160 a month, according to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
RFE/RL’s Tajik-language news service has a video that appears to show a Russian military recruiter giving a speech at a popular mosque in the city of Chelyabinsk, located in west-central Russia near the Ural mountains.
“You don’t have to wait five years to become Russian citizens. Instead, you can sign a contract for military service for six months or up to one year in exchange for fast-track citizenship for yourself and your families,” a man in a military uniform tells the congregation in the mosque.
Another video shows a man in a Russian uniform promoting military service to a group of men, some of whom were speaking Uzbek. The recruiters are telling them they don’t even have to take a mandatory medical check-up.
“They only need to sign a paper saying, ‘I am healthy,’” Jurabek Amonov, a migrant rights advocate in Russia told RFE/RL last month. “I always tell the migrants that 99% of those who went to war in the hope of getting Russian passports were killed in Ukraine.”
Authorities in Moscow are “almost certainly” seeking to delay any new mandatory mobilization effort for as long as possible to minimize domestic dissent. The high monthly salary and sign-on bonuses will likely entice some Central Asian migrant workers to sign up, British officials said.
“These recruits are likely sent to the Ukrainian frontlines where the casualty rate is extremely high,” U.K. military intelligence officials said Monday in their latest assessment of the battlefield in Ukraine.
• Mike Glenn can be reached at mglenn@washingtontimes.com.
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