Officials of the conscription service also came to St. Petersburg for the ceremony where citizenship certificates were handed out. In a video of the ceremony released by the police, several men can be seen and heard swearing allegiance to the Russian constitution and then holding up a notice of conscription.
At the end of the video, everyone sings the Russian national anthem.
The migrants swore to “defend the freedom and independence of Russia” in order to obtain citizenship. The media reports that the new citizens are immigrants from Russia’s neighboring countries.
The incident was widely discussed in the Russian media. In the past, cases where migrants were recruited into the Russian army also caused a stir.
Russian dictator Vladimir Putin recently invited foreigners to join the war in Ukraine and offered those who volunteer to join the war an easier way to obtain Russian citizenship.
Observers believe that Putin wants to avoid a new wave of mobilization at least until the presidential elections scheduled for March. The last mobilization in the fall of 2022 caused panic in the society and mass flight of young men from Russia.
2023-12-20 19:22:40
#Russia #migrants #receive #notice #military #conscription #citizenship
