Window on Eurasia: A Foreign Legion in the Russian Army Could Create Serious Problems for Moscow, Russians and Russia's Neighbors

Paul Goble

 

            Staunton, November 10 – Reports that the Moscow is again considering allowing foreigners to serve in the Russian military reflect Russia’s difficulties in filling the ranks of its soldiers because of Russian demographic decline.  But such a “foreign legion,” were it to be formed, could constitute a serious danger in and of itself.

 

            On the one hand, it seems certain that Vladimir Putin would use this unit, supposedly to be composed of soldiers from countries in the Moscow-dominated Organization for the Collective Security Treaty to press ahead for the restoration of a Russian empire on their territories.

 

            And on the other, the existence of a force not made up of Russian citizens but under Russian command would deprive the Russian people of what leverage they have over the use of force by their leaders – if people refuse to serve, that can affect policy – and thus open the way for more “plausibly deniable” Russian intervention in other states.

 

            The latest push to allow foreigners to serve in the Russian military is different from earlier ones in that it would involve the formation of units of foreigners under the command of Russian officers rather than just the integration of individuals in Russian units, as some in the Duma have proposed in the past.

 

            According to “Izvestiya” as reported by Radio Ozodi and Centrasia.ru, the man behind the new notion is Roman Khudyakov, a Duma deputy who is part of Vladimir Zhirinovsky’s Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, an outrageously misnamed but often extremely influential bellwether organization (centrasia.ru/news.php?st=1415598960).

 

            Khudakov says that the formation of a Russian foreign legion in Central Asia would help the countries there repel Islamist threats and that he is convinced Uzbeks and Tajiks would join it “with joy,” even though they would be under the command exclusively of Russian officers.  And he says that creating such a force would be relatively inexpensive.

 

            The deputy says that the Tajikistan army now is in effect a Russian foreign legion. “All Tajik military personnel are instructed only in Russian military schools,” and consequently, the Russian defense ministry has all the experience it needs to create this larger formation, one that would defend not only Central Asia but Russia as well.

 

            Not everyone familiar with this idea is enthusiastic.  Aleksandr Skakov, a specialist on Central Asia at the Moscow Institute of Oriental Studies, for example, says he is against it because Central Asians who received training in such units might simply defect to the forces of the Islamic Khalifate and fight Russians with the skills and weapons Russia had given them.