Paul Goble
Staunton, May 31 – Moscow drafted and sent to fight in Ukraine a disproportionate number of non-Russians and now it is discriminating against them at the other end as well: Only 66 percent of POWs Ukraine has held are ethnic Russians, but among those Moscow has sought to have returned in prisoner exchanges, 83 percent were members of that dominant ethnic group.
That is a clear sign of ethnic discrimination, according to the I Want to Live project which examined statistics on returnees between 2022 and 2025; and it is certain to further exacerbate ethnic tensions in the Russian Federation (svoboda.org/a/pochemu-semji-voennoplennyh-iz-natsrespublik-govoryat-o-diskriminatsii/33764665.html).
Mariya Vyshkova, a Buryat expert on the ethnic composition of those killed on the Russian side, says that she and other observers “have noticed all this time that representatives of the indigenous peoples of Siberia and other national minorities, when captured, are much less likely to be exchanged than ethnic Russians.”
Until now, however, this was “more of an intuitive feeling based on news reports and stories we received; but now these figures confirm that. Why is this the case? On the one hand, she says, “we can say that this is discrimination on ethnic groups: representatives of ethnic minorities are considered less valuable.”
“But it seems to me, she says, “that this is a matter of political visibility, of what political consequences there may be if this particular individual is not exchanged and thus is also a matter of how noticeable his story is” and how likely it will attract media or at least public attention.
She adds that non-Russians “really get used to the fact that they are second-class citizens and that they are much less likely to be heard … In general, this reflects reality.” Consequently, it is difficult to say which plays the larger role: the way they are viewed or the fact that they have fewer opportunities to get publicity.”
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