How Kazakhstanis Are Being Targeted to Join the Russian Military

On April 1, the Ukrainian center "I Want to Live" published a list of citizens of Kazakhstan who are fighting or have fought on the side of Russia.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan responded that the information still needs to be verified.

Meanwhile, ads trying to lure Kazakhstanis to serve in a foreign army have been surfacing. 

Orda.kz has investigated.

At the end of winter, advertisements about invitations to military service under contract in the Russian army began appearing in Kazakhstani VK users' feeds.

Some were illustrated with photographs of a soldier in a Russian military uniform; sometimes, they were generated by artificial intelligence. Our readers brought our attention to several versions.

According to some, this was in the VK feed of their children.

Almost always, they indicated that they were intended for citizens of the CIS countries. Therefore, it can be assumed these ads have been set up via geotargeting, including for Kazakhstan.

When concluding a contract with the RF Armed Forces, they most often promised a payment of 3.5 million rubles.

Later, we were sent an advertisement, but the compensation was a million.

Orda.kz decided to respond to one of these ads. To do this, we created a fictitious VK account.

We posed as a 37-year-old man named Alisher, an Oral resident with pro-Russian views, who once worked in Samara and wanted to sign a contract with the armed forces of the Russian Federation. "Alisher" simply clicked on the link, which opened a short form that needed to be filled out.

The form immediately indicated the phone number to which the VK account was linked, despite having been concealed on the page. Then "Alisher" had to answer a couple of questions — whether they had a criminal record or HIV. 

Then came the communication option — WhatsApp, Telegram, or a call. WhatsApp was chosen. The application then ended.

A couple of days later, a message from "The Volunteer Recruitment Center" account arrived at the number indicated in the form:

The communication fell silent after "Alisher's" confirmation. 

We waited a couple of weeks and later planned to try again, posing as a different person.

But suddenly we received a message:

Good afternoon. My name is Ekatrina. You submitted an application to conclude a contract with the Ministry of Defense. Tell me, is this correct? 

This time, the volunteer recruitment center was not indicated. However, she mentioned this center in further communication, and a soldier as the profile picture was also there; a photo from one of the ads.

"Alisher" again answered affirmatively, and Ekaterina sent a message with a rather detailed description of the path of the one who decides to sign the contract.

Given that the message mentions Nizhny Novgorod, it can be assumed that those who agree are sent to the Russian Armed Forces training center in the city of Mulino in the Nizhny Novgorod region. In mid-March, it was reported that a military unit there was attacked by a Ukrainian drone.

The amount that the interlocutor wrote turned out to be two times lower than the advertisement “Alisher” responded to.

We decided to find out the details by asking a few naive questions: What documents were needed? The answer was only an ID and a military ID, if "Alisher" had one.

In Kazakhstan, participation in a military conflict on the side of other countries is punishable, along with having a second citizenship. Responding to an inquiry about this, they said Russian citizenship would be granted:

At the same time, Ekaterina claimed there was no need to renounce Kazakhstan citizenship in advance.

We also inquired when a potential contract soldier could be sent to war, or more precisely to the SMO (Special Military Operation - Ed.), as the war in Ukraine is called in the Russian Federation.

Ekaterina responded to this with a voice message.

Ekaterina's complete answer:

Unfortunately, I can’t give you any exact dates here. Because you arrive, pass a medical examination. They prepare all the necessary documents for you. Our foreign citizens wait about a week for all the documents to be ready. You sign a contract and go to the training center. You will be there from two weeks to three months. You understand that all candidates arrive with different levels of training. Some already know and can do everything, they need little time. Well, just to refresh their memory. Some need quite a lot of time to prepare. After that, they first distribute you among units. And this does not mean that you will be sent to the SMO zone right away. That is, you can even stay in the unit for some time. And only if a situation arises where there is a need for this, then in this case you will be sent. We also have many tracks. Well, let’s say, if you get on a UAV, that’s what you want, then in general they do not work in the SMO zone. Well, sort of, if you understand the specifics. They are always away from the combat zone.

We also asked what skills are needed for the drone training. Ekaterina responded again with a voice message:

I can't list any specific skills for you. Because we train even candidates from scratch on UAVs. So if you want, then, of course, we can provide you with training at the training center.

After that, "Alisher" wrote that they would consider it. Ekaterina is still waiting for a response, which she will never get.

We, in turn, are waiting for a response from the Vkontakte website, whose press service was sent a request to comment on the situation.

Kazakhstan's Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan has Article 172 “Participation in Foreign Armed Conflicts”.

It states:

Intentional unlawful participation of a citizen of the Republic of Kazakhstan in an armed conflict or military actions on the territory of a foreign state in the absence of signs of mercenarism shall be punishable by imprisonment for a term of five to nine years.

If the investigation and the court conclude that a citizen was a mercenary, for example, who received higher pay than other participants in the conflict on one of the sides, then he will be subject to punishment under Part 3 of Article 170 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan "Mercenarism".

It states:

Participation of a mercenary in an armed conflict, military actions or other violent actions aimed at overthrowing or undermining the constitutional order or violating the territorial integrity of the state shall be punishable by imprisonment for a term of seven to ten years, with or without confiscation of property.

Recruiting mercenaries in Kazakhstan is punishable under Part 1 of the same article.

It states:

Recruitment, training, financing or other material support of a mercenary, as well as their engagement in an armed conflict, military actions or other violent actions aimed at overthrowing or undermining the constitutional order or violating the territorial integrity of the state, shall be punishable by imprisonment for a term of seven to 12 years with confiscation of property.

Having dual citizenship is punishable under Article 496 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Republic of Kazakhstan, "Violation of the legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan on citizenship."

Depending on the section of the article, it provides for a fine of 100 to 300 MCI (in 2025 — from 393,200 to 1,179,600 tenge).

Original Author: Igor Ulitin