Moscow Sending in More Troops into Circassian Regions of North Caucasus to Forcibly Recruit Men to Fight in Ukraine, Activists Say

Paul Goble

            Staunton, June 29 – Moscow is currently sending more troops into Circassian regions in the North Caucasus, specifically, the republics of Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachayevo-Cherkessia and Adygeya to forcibly recruit men of that nationality to fight in Putin’s war in Ukraine, Circassian activists say.

            For the KBR alone, the troops have a quota of 3500 men, activists there say, an enormous number relative to the size of that national component in that republic’s population (abn.org.ua/en/news/war-at-the-cost-of-enslaved-peoples-circassian-activists-warn-of-mobilization-pressure/).

            In the first several years of the expanded war, Moscow recruited more heavily from non-Russian nations than from the ethnic Russian majority both in order to hide the extent of the conflict and of the losses the Russian military was taking. But at that time, the Circassians were not the focus of as much attention as they are now.

            Circassian activists say that this new effort has three goals: reducing the number of Circassians in the North Caucasus, providing cannon fodder for its war, and sowing discord between the Ukrainians and the Circassians, both of whom, they say, have been victims of Russia’s genocidal wars.