In India, on May 7, law enforcement officers arrested four people associated with a network of human traffickers. They tricked men into Russia and tried to force them to fight against Ukraine.
The Indian Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) writes about it.
One of the persons involved worked in Russia as a translator and was one of the key members of the network recruiting Indian citizens to the Russian army.
Another accused helped to process visas in the Indian city of Chennai and book flights. Two more were the main recruiters of Indian citizens in the southern states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
How Russia recruits foreigners for war
In February 2024, the Indian authorities reported that they were trying to return home almost 20 of their citizens who ended up in the Russian army. AFP wrote that they could enter the Russian Federation as "army assistants" — they were offered to clean destroyed buildings, but upon arrival they were given weapons.
At the beginning of March, a large human trafficking network was exposed in India, the participants of which lured young Indians to Russia with promises of employment. In fact, they should be forced to fight against Ukraine.
Indiaʼs Central Bureau of Investigation found that approximately 35 Indians had traveled to Russia under this scheme. At least two men who went to Russia to work as "helpers" in the army died in the war. However, the Indian embassy in Russia confirmed only one of these deaths.
Previously, the facts of recruitment into the Russian army of citizens of Nepal, some of whom have already died, Syria, Serbia and Somalia were also established. The Russian Federation also recruited illegal migrants to its army from the Finnish border who tried to get to the EU through Russia.