Russia has sent around 10,000 naturalized citizens to fight in Ukraine, a top official said Thursday, adding that some had chosen to leave the country rather than face being enlisted.
Moscow has been accused of pressuring Central Asian migrants to join its armed forces amid an intense recruitment drive to boost troop numbers for its military offensive on Ukraine.
The head of Russia’s Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin said that Russia was cracking down on migrants who had received Russian citizenship but were not registering with military authorities.
“We have caught more than 30,000 who had received citizenship but did not want to register for military service and put them on the list,” he said, referring to a database of men who could be eligible to be drafted.
“Already around 10,000 have been sent to the zone of the special military operation,” he said, using Russia’s official language for its Ukraine campaign.
Millions of migrant workers, mostly from Central Asia, live in Russia, many doing low-paid jobs and living in poor conditions in order to send their salaries to families back home.
Facing labor shortages, Russia has made it easier for them to obtain Russian citizenship in recent years.
Russian citizenship is an attractive proposition to many as it significantly reduces the bureaucracy associated with living and working in the country.
But it also obliges migrants to register with military authorities and, if called up, to serve in the army.
Bastrykin said that some had started “slowly leaving” amid an intensification of inspections.
Anti-migrant attitudes are also running high in Russia after a terror attack on a Moscow city concert hall that killed more than 140 in March.
Police have arrested several suspected gunmen and plotters from Tajikistan over the massacre.
Raids of migrant workplaces and dormitories, already prevalent, have also stepped up, while politicians have been pushing the Kremlin to take a harder line on migration.
