Like Others in Russia, Migrants There Finding It Easier to Acquire Guns Since Start of Putin’s Expanded War in Ukraine, Moscow Commentator Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Oct. 30 – It is widely recognized, Sergey Ishchenko says, that since the start of Putin’s expanded war in Ukraine in 2022, it has become easier for Russian residents to acquire weapons because guns and other munitions have flooded back into the country and led to the expansion of a lively black market in them.

            But the Svobodnaya Pressa commentator says that it is less widely understood that among the groups taking advantage of this situation are immigrants from Central Asia and the Caucasus, many of whom are prepared to defend their independence and isolation from Russian life with guns in their hands (svpressa.ru/society/article/488253/).

            According to Ishchenko, as many as one immigrant in four does not recognize the supremacy of Russian law in their lives and are ready to defend their “traditions with arms in their hands,” a threat that has prompted FSB raids on underground armorers and proposals that migrants should not have the right to own guns at all.

            But in addition to the flow of illegal guns into the hand of migrants, some of them are acquiring guns in an additional way, the commentator says. Many are becoming citizens of the Russian Federation, something the Kremlin very much wants; but that means that they can buy guns without additional restrictions, something he says many of them are doing.

            Several members of the Duma have proposed legislation that would restrict gun purchases by migrants who become citizens until they have had that status for at least five years; but bills to achieve that end have gone nowhere as many migrants and human rights activists worry about what would happen if citizens were thus divided into two categories.

            It is unclear just how large a problem this is – Ishchenko gives no statistics – but it is enough of one to worry many Russians and will undoubtedly add to the anti-immigrant sentiment now roiling much of Russian society – and could even give Russians yet another reason to oppose Putin’s war in Ukraine given that it is bleeding back into their country in this way.