Russian President Vladimir Putin has issued a little-publicized decree final month that requires many international males who search everlasting residency or citizenship to signal a contract with the army within the midst of Moscow’s struggle in opposition to Ukraine, an RFE/RL investigation has discovered.
State-run and privately owned Russian media shops have made virtually no point out of the requirement, which is very uncommon in worldwide follow, since Putin signed Decree No. 821 on November 5.
But the brand new measure is already pushing migrants who’ve constructed their lives in Russia to decide on between conscription and leaving the nation, Systema, RFE/RL’s Russian investigative unit, and Azattyq Asia, its Russian-language unit protecting Central Asia, have found.
Akif, a 48-year-old who got here to Russia from Azerbaijan 4 years in the past, discovered in regards to the requirement when he visited a Federal Migration Service workplace just lately to ask what paperwork he wanted to use for everlasting residency, his spouse, Maria, informed RFE/RL. She spoke provided that their final names be withheld.
‘Pawns In The Meat Grinder’
Akif and Maria, a Russian citizen, have been married three years in the past and have constructed a home and farm within the Nizhny Novgorod area, the place they hold sheep, goats, and rabbits. Akif had met different necessities, passing a Russian language take a look at and receiving short-term residency.
But the couple has determined to depart the nation, abandoning Akif’s plan to hunt everlasting residency. “We don’t know what to do — we’re pawns on this meat grinder,” Maria stated.
A everlasting residence allow offers migrants authorized stability: they’ll depart and reenter Russia with out further visas and work with out a separate work allow. For many migrants from different former Soviet republics, it’s the solely path towards citizenship.
Under Putin’s decree, with a view to apply for everlasting residency, sure classes of males should current a army contract for at the least one yr of service, a contract for service within the Emergency Situations Ministry, or a certificates from a army enlistment workplace stating that they’re unfit for service.
Similar guidelines apply to males searching for Russian citizenship: They should current a certificates stating that they’re unfit or proof that they’ve served within the army or Emergency Situations Ministry and have been discharged earlier than February 24, 2022, the primary day of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
These necessities apply to males searching for everlasting residency or citizenship based mostly on long-term residency or household circumstances. Applicants in different classes, akin to extremely certified specialists and people searching for paperwork based mostly on research in Russia, are exempt.
The decree doesn’t apply to males from Belarus, Russia’s army ally. And for residents of Kazakhstan and Moldova, the requirement is in place just for purposes for citizenship, not everlasting residency. Separate guidelines exist for residents of Ukraine. The decree says the measures are short-term, however offers no timeframe.
‘I Forbade Him To Sign’
Another migrant who discovered of the requirement unexpectedly is Burxon, 24, who got here from Tajikistan a couple of yr in the past and works within the oil-producing Khanty-Mansiisk area. He was informed at a authorities workplace that he would signal a army contract to use for everlasting residency, in response to his father.
“He listens to me. And I forbade him to signal a contract,” Burxon’s father informed Azattyq Asia in Tajikistan.
Other than a repeat of the unpopular September 2022 mobilization drive that prompted many to flee the nation, the Russian army has left few paths untrodden in its effort to take care of manpower within the struggle, through which Western intelligence businesses and others say greater than 1 million Russian troopers have been killed or wounded.
Russia has recruited males from across the world and sought to draft male migrants for the reason that begin of the full-scale invasion.
Some foreigners have signed contracts voluntarily in alternate for giant funds or simplified citizenship procedures. Moscow has steadily expanded such incentives because the struggle has dragged on.
Foreign troopers preventing in Ukraine don’t have to move the Russian-language examination for citizenship, for instance. And Russian lawmakers have just lately thought of a draft regulation clarifying that foreigners who fought on Russia’s aspect wouldn’t be extradited to different international locations that search them for legal prosecution or enforcement of a sentence.
In May 2025, Russian Investigative Committee chief Aleksandr Bastrykin stated that at the least 20,000 naturalized males from Central Asia have been preventing on the entrance, whereas one other 10,000 had been despatched “to dig trenches.”
Not The Norm
Newly naturalized residents have been summoned to migration workplaces and threatened with shedding their citizenship in the event that they refuse to combat. Recently, naturalized migrants have additionally been detained in large-scale raids and pressured to signal army contracts.
Officially, the decree marks the primary time the stress is reaching non-citizens. It marks a departure from widespread follow globally: In most international locations with necessary army service, it applies to residents and, much less usually, to everlasting residents.
The information protection, or lack thereof, can also be uncommon. Russian shops routinely publish or describe Putin’s decrees, however on this case, studies on the decree in main print and digital media didn’t point out the requirement instantly, saying {that a} simplified process to obtain residency or citizenship was in place for foreigners who be part of up.
Temur Umarov, a fellow on the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center in Berlin, stated there seemed to be two motives behind the decree.
“With these guidelines, the Russian authorities solves two issues,” Umarov informed Systema. “It will increase mobilization on the expense of people that have restricted capacity to defend their rights, and it makes long-term migration to Russia much less engaging.”
“Migrants sooner or later must come to Russia solely as a labor useful resource and workforce,” he stated.
