Russia's 'hidden mobilization': The 'expendable' lives fueling Putin's war on Ukraine

AI Summary

Researcher John Lough says Russia's recruitment for its war against Ukraine disproportionately draws on poorer and politically marginalized communities, including ethnic minority regions. He argues that the Kremlin can impose these human costs with less risk of organized domestic opposition, treating many recruits as expendable.

Erin Ogunkeye is pleased to welcome John Lough, Senior Research Fellow and Head of Foreign Policy & International Partnerships at the New Eurasian Strategies Centre (NEST Centre), He is also an Associate Fellow with the Russia & Eurasia Programme at Chatham House. Lough offers a sobering assessment of the social and strategic dynamics sustaining Russia's invasion of Ukraine. He argues that the Kremlin has disproportionately recruited soldiers from poorer and politically marginalised communities, including ethnic minority regions, where the human cost of the conflict is less likely to generate organised opposition. Many of those recruited, he explains, "have been recruited for a deliberate reason because they were seen, you know, ultimately as lives that were expendable, in other words as cannon fodder."