British Intelligence: Moscow's strategy with Central Asian migrants

Moscow is redirecting thousands of migrants from Central Asia to war with Ukraine to avoid conscripting individuals who are politically active.

This information was reported by the Ministry of Defense of Great Britain on Twitter.

According to the summary, during his speech at the St. Petersburg International Legal Forum on June 27, 2024, Alexander Bastrykin, the head of Russia's Investigative Committee, stated that the Russian authorities identified 30,000 migrants who recently became Russian citizens and are not on military records.

Bastrykin also boasted that 10,000 of them have already been sent to Ukraine. He claimed that these migrants will dig trenches and perform other duties in rear areas.

According to British intelligence, Russian independent media previously reported that law enforcement agencies are conducting a campaign of legal persecution against migrants, especially from Central Asia, in an attempt to encourage them to join the Russian army in exchange for citizenship or to avoid arrest on fabricated charges.

"This is likely yet another inventive means of bolstering military recruitment while attempting to limit the impact on those parts of the Russian population that have greater political agency," noted the Ministry of Defense of Britain.

It is worth recalling that the Kremlin seeks to avoid a second wave of unpopular mobilization after a call for 300,000 Russians in September 2022 provoked panic and emigration from the country. Instead, the authorities are trying to lure people into the army with money.