Earlier this month, Tajik migrant workers in the Russian city of Samara were scared after Sunatullo Nazriev, the leader of the local Tajik diaspora, called on Tajiks who have Russian citizenship and those who want to get Russian passports in an expedited way to join Russia’s armed forces fighting in Ukraine. According to the migrant workers, Nazriev warned that those who evade recruitment, and their family members, will be deported to Tajikistan. After being challenged by migrant workers, Nazriev said he was misunderstood and meant only Tajiks holding Russian passports needed to heed the warning. The case was reported by RFE/RL’s Tajik Service.
As Russia’s so-called “special military operation” in Ukraine enters its third year on February 24, there have been numerous media reports on Russia trying to lure Central Asian migrants to work in the parts of Ukraine it occupies, as well as authorities’ efforts to recruit migrants to join the Russian army in Ukraine. The fear of potential mobilization looms over thousands of Kyrgyz, Tajik, and Uzbek migrant workers that have obtained Russian citizenship. Many Central Asian immigrants have been pressed to leave Russia for their home countries since the start of the Ukraine war. This could have a negative effect on the economies of Central Asian countries, which are largely dependent on money remittances migrant workers send back home.
According to the National Bank of Kyrgyzstan, migrant workers transferred $2.7 billion to Kyrgyzstan in 2023, a 12% or $380 million decrease compared to a year earlier. The most of that money — $2.5 billion — was transferred from Russia.
Uzbekistan was the leader among Central Asian countries in terms of remittances in 2023. Uzbek labor migrants abroad (mainly in Russia) transferred more than $16 billion back home. In Tajikistan, according to official statistics, labor migrants transferred back home $5.7 billion last year – which is almost half of the country’s GDP. The volume of remittances to Kazakhstan amounted to $670 million, declining by more than half on the previous year.
Besides the economic dimension, there are also political aspects of the participation of citizens of the Central Asian countries in the Ukraine conflict. None of the Central Asian countries has openly supported or condemned Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, with Kazakhstan firmly refusing to recognize Russia-backed separatist entities in eastern Ukraine.
Authorities in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan have warned their citizens against participation in the Ukraine conflict on either side. In Kyrgyzstan, there is criminal responsibility for being a mercenary and taking part in military conflicts abroad. The Criminal Code of Kazakhstan punishes for participation in armed conflicts abroad with prison terms of five to nine years. In the fall of 2022, the Tajik Embassy in Russia warned Tajik citizens temporarily living and working in the Russian Federation of criminal responsibility for participating in military conflicts abroad.
Media reported that the Russian private military company Wagner recruited Kyrgyz nationals serving sentences in Russian prisons and sent them to Ukraine in 2022. There were reports in Kyrgyz media of several cases in which Kyrgyzstanis died in the war in Ukraine.
Courts in Kyrgyzstan have sentenced several Kyrgyz citizens to prison terms for their participation in the Ukraine conflict. In the spring of 2023, the National Security Committee of Kazakhstan reported on ten criminal cases opened against citizens of Kazakhstan for their participation in the Ukraine war. The first Uzbek citizen who was sent to prison for joining Russian troops fighting in Ukraine was Ildar Khairulin, who in October 2023 was handed a five-year prison term after an Uzbek court found him guilty of being a mercenary in Ukraine’s Donetsk region in 2014-15, as reported by RFE/RL’s Uzbek Service.
Some analysts believe the Central Asian governments are intolerant to their citizens’ participation in the Ukraine conflict because upon their return, such people could become a factor of instability in their home countries.
