Kremlin Wants Central Asians who’ve Taken Russian Citizenship to Fight in Ukraine but Some Fear Such People will Turn Their Guns on Russians

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Oct. 7 – Russian officials and commentators want Central Asians who’ve taken Russian citizenship, even if they have retained citizenship in their homelands, to be forced to participate in Russian military units now fighting in Ukraine. But some Russian experts fear using them could prove counterproductive.

            Sergey Ivanikov, a specialist on immigration and crime, says that sending large numbers of such newly naturalized men to fight in Ukraine, especially if they are concentrated in special units, could lead to a situation in which these new Russians could turn their guns against commanders and other Russians (stoletie.ru/tekuschiiy_moment/migrantskij_legion_164.htm).

            Concerns like his have led some Russian military planners to insist that newly naturalized men be spread throughout the Russian army rather than concentrated in large numbers in special units and to suggestions by other observers that using them even in that way could lead to disasters for the Russian military and Russian society.

            Stoletiye commentator Andrey Ofitserov argues that Moscow must move cautiously if it is going to use such people in its forces. In contrast to Soviet times, he says, most Russians thought of Central Asians as far closer to themselves than were Arabs or Pakistanis. But now the situation has changed.

            Those Central Asians who come to Russia now and even those who have chosen to take Russian citizenship for pragmatic reasons, mostly were born after 1991and are far less closely related to Russians than were previous generations, he says. They are more hostile to Russians for religious and cultural reasons, an attitude true even of those taking Russian citizenship.  

            Such considerations may not stop the Kremlin from using migrants who have taken Russian citizenship in the Russian army in Ukraine, but it may slow the process especially as the view Ofitserov manifests is likely to be felt by Russian commanders. And consequently, if more Central Asians do end up in the Russian army there, unit cohesion may decline still further.