Who Will Take Responsibility for the Foreign Fighters Recruited for Russia’s War? |
Azerbaijan and Iran have responded very differently to reports that Russia is recruiting their citizens to fight in Ukraine, which Moscow denies. Tehran has remained silent. Baku, by contrast, has warned that participation in foreign armed formations is a criminal offense.
The Russian Embassy in Tehran denied having any connection to flyers recruiting for the Russian military that had appeared in the city, offering Iranian men aged 18 to 45 sign-up bonuses of up to $20,000 and monthly salaries of around $2,000. Although Moscow denied the recruitment scheme, an investigation reached out to alleged recruiters in Moscow, whose Telegram group attracted more than 2,000 subscribers since its creation on Nov. 4.
The primary criterion recruits have in common is desperation. Multiple documented cases in Azerbaijan suggest that, despite Moscow’s denials, illegal recruitment mainly targets people under the pressure created by imprisonment, immigration and unemployment.
One such case is that of Ismail Hasanov, an Azerbaijani citizen imprisoned in Russia who applied twice to serve the remainder of his 3.5-year sentence in Azerbaijan. Both........