Russian Army's Racism Problem Is Backfiring on Putin's War

Russia's apparent targeting of ethnic minorities in Vladimir Putin's war and partial mobilization will continue to backfire on the Russian leader's war efforts, a human rights group has said.

"Putin definitely thinks that ethnic minorities are expendable," Vladimir Budaev of the Free Buryatia Foundation, a pro-democracy group based in the United States, told Newsweek.

"We are now seeing the second step of mobilization. The first step was to start from ethnic minority republics," said Budaev, chief operating officer of the advocacy group, which was formed after Putin launched his full-scale invasion against neighboring Ukraine in February.

Russia's Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said on September 21 that Russia would be targeting 300,000 reservists and ex-military personnel with "certain military specialties and relevant experience." However, the figure in Putin's decree has not been disclosed to the public.

Many who have been drafted so far are from Russia's ethnic minority republics. Activists and local officials say the populations are disproportionately being drafted.

Even before the announcement of partial mobilization, these regions had experienced the largest number of deaths and casualties from the war in Ukraine.

Russian Republics

According to military analysts from the Conflict Intelligence Team (CIT), since Putin's partial mobilization order was announced last month, the majority of people have been drafted from Russia's republics, including Dagestan in the Caucasus, Yakutia in northeastern Siberia, Buryatia, near the Russia-Mongolia border, and the Krasnoyarsk territory.

In Dagestan, a predominantly Muslim region, heated anti-war protests erupted amid reports that men were forcibly drafted after sent to fight in Ukraine.

Former Mongolian President Elbergdorj Tsakhia has also said Mongol citizens in Russia are being forced to fight in Putin's war.

"I know, since the start of this bloody war, ethnic minorities who live in Russia suffered the most. The Buryat Mongols, Tuva Mongols and Kalmyk Mongols have suffered a lot," he said on September 23. "They have been used as nothing more than cannon fodder."

Budaev, whose group has reported on the draft in the region, said mobilization efforts first began in Buryatia, and then in Yakutia.

"The most common reason is it's just the colonial policy of the Kremlin—for Putin, it's kind of reasonable to send one ethnic minority group to conquer another ethnic minority group," he said.

Budaev explained that many people in these regions have been handed summons, despite not meeting criteria set out by Russian defense officials, such as to have had relevant experience.

"These things are happening more and more," he said. "I know that the military service came to a family to get a man who already died two years ago from COVID in Buryatia."

"A friend's brother was sleeping in his apartment, and someone knocked on his door at about three in the morning. The military gave him this ticket saying that you've been drafted, you have to come to the military office in the morning," said Budaev, recalling another incident.

"People tell me that it is actually common thing. They [military officials] have started to go through apartment buildings, going to every apartment, knocking on the door at night just to give all these tickets to people."

Belgorod Shooting

On October 15, during a firearms training session in Russia's Belgorod region, near the Ukraine border, two men opened fire on a group who had volunteered to fight in Ukraine, killing 11 and wounding 15 others, according to Russian media.

Russia's defense ministry said the men were from a former Soviet republic and said it was a "terrorist" attack.

Journalists from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's Tajik service identified the family of one of the possible gunmen—a 24-year-old Tajik citizen named Ehson Aminzoda. The outlet said people who knew Aminzoda said he didn't intend to join Putin's war, and that he wasn't a religious radical.

Meanwhile, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a U.S. think tank, has also said the shooting was likely a consequence of the Kremlin's policy of using poor and minority communities to bear the brunt of force-generation efforts while protecting ethnic Russian and wealthier Russian citizens.

"Russian President Vladimir Putin's unequal implementation of partial mobilization is causing social fractures that are driving the Russian information space to further marginalize ethnic minority communities," the ISW said on October 18.

Budaev agreed, and said more incidents such as the Belgorod shooting are likely to occur should Russia's ethnic minorities continue to be disproportionately affected.

"There are going to be more incidents like that. And a lot of people, who just got mobilized, they do not actually realize what has happened yet," he said. "But when they will realize that they are cannon fodder, and no one cares about their lives—yeah, of course, those incidents are going to increase and increase."

'Partial' Mobilization

Putin claimed on October 14 that "all mobilization activities" in the country would be completed in about two weeks.

"This work is already coming to an end," Putin said at a press conference in Astana. "There are now 222,000 people mobilized in the troop formations, out of 300,000."

"Nothing further is being planned...within the foreseeable future," Putin said.

Budaev said the Kremlin will end up sending a lot more Russians to fight than the 300,000 figure set out by defense officials.

"Putin, he definitely lost in Ukraine [prior to mobilization]. He lost a lot of positions there, he lost a lot of people. So yeah, he needs more resources."

"It's [mobilization] not stopping, actually. We don't know when when the mobilization is going to stop—probably never. Putin definitely needs more than 300,000 soldiers. The Russian army has had a lot of losses from mobilized people already."

Budaev said there has been an increase in protests in Russian republics over the war and mobilization, while many are fleeing the country to neighboring nations such as Mongolia and Kazakhstan to avoid being conscripted.

"There have been a lot of protests in Yakutia. It was women's marches, they realized that men in the region were in danger. I heard in Dagestan, women didn't let military officers get to their husbands," he said.

"In Buryatia, the mobilization was so cruel, a lot of people just decided to leave the country to Mongolia. Basically, because it's safer."

Budaev, who deals with legal matters with the Free Buryatia Foundation, said that when Putin first announced mobilization, he was receiving 15 calls in an hour from people asking for assistance to flee elsewhere.

End Game

Nikolay Zakharov, author of Race and Racism in Russia, told Newsweek that Putin is attempting to mobilize different minorities to show that "all of Russia is against [Ukraine]."

"But then there is another dimension that they have been keen and already wanted to be enrolled in this war because of poor standing, because of money, and then, if it works, to mobilize people, let's say from Buryatia here, then he will proceed with this."

"He doesn't want to take people from major Russian speaking cities, like Moscow and St. Petersburg, it's better to take people from rural areas, those who will not protest, and those who are possibly even eager to be involved in this because of economic incentives."

Budaev added that Putin is likely to go all-in in his war against Ukraine, which he started eight months ago, including mobilizing as many as two million people.

"His [Putin's] life depends on his war. If he's going to lose [the war], he's probably not going to be a president anymore," Budaev said. "He would probably sacrifice anything for winning."

Newsweek has contacted the Russian defense and foreign ministries for comment.