Foreign nationals who join the Russian armed forces will be able to apply for Russian citizenship, according to a decree signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday.
Russia is increasingly trying to attract foreign recruits to fight in Ukraine while trying to motivate domestic ones as well.
On December 14th, Putin said that there was no need for a second wave of mobilization in Russia, a claim he made in a similar way before the announcement of the first wave of mobilization in September 2022.
The new decree stipulates that while the invasion of Ukraine is ongoing, foreigners who join the Russian army will be able to obtain Russian citizenship. Their relatives, including children of foreign fighters, will also be entitled to Russian citizenship, the decree states.
The decree also allows foreign fighters who have been discharged from the army due to health reasons, age, contract expiration, or the end of the state of emergency to request citizenship.
The United Kingdom (UK) Ministry of Defense reported in September that Russia was trying to recruit foreigners and migrant workers to avoid announcing a new mobilization campaign ahead of the March 17th presidential election.
The report said that advertisements targeting men in Armenia and Kazakhstan appeared online and that the Kremlin likely sees the six million Central Asian migrants currently in Russia as “potential recruits”.
Russia is also looking to countries far beyond its borders, with Nepal and Cuba where smuggling rings aimed at recruiting people to fight for Russia in Ukraine have been uncovered in recent months.
Moreover, Russia could begin full mobilization after the Russian presidential elections in 2024, warned Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council.
“That gives Ukraine and its partners three to four months to prepare before Russia moves to a “total war offensive,” Danilov said, Klix.ba writes.
E.Dz.
