Russia is tricking Syrians who don't even speak Russian into signing contracts with the Russian Defence Ministry, providing them with Russian passports in return, including some that are registered in Yakutia in Russia's Far East.
The Russian authorities have been coercing refugees from Middle Eastern and African countries into fighting in the war against Ukraine, according to a new investigation from Novaya Gazeta. They reportedly do this by tricking the migrants with the help of the same intermediaries who have helped them send other refugees into E.U. countries through Russia and Belarus in recent years. Often, the middlemen are from the same countries as the refugees themselves.