Relatives of sentenced Tajik nationals in Russia are concerned that their loved ones may be taken to war in Ukraine.
October 2022 was the last time 27-year-old Zulfikor Mukhiddinov got in touch with his family. Back then he had already been serving a one-and-a-half-year sentence in Russia on drug trafficking charges.
As for hundreds of young Tajiks, he left for Moscow in 2019 to earn money. Zulfikor was going to return to Tajikistan and start a family. But later a court sentenced him to six years in prison.
One of his family members told CABAR.asia that during the first year and a half of his imprisonment, Zulfikor used to talk to his family on the phone every month.
“He always said that he had to serve his time as soon as possible and return to Tajikistan. As he was the only son in the family, his parents dreamed of marrying their son upon his return,” said the interlocutor, who wished to remain anonymous.
In that last phone conversation with his family, Zulfikor said that he and the other prisoners were to be sent by force to fight in Ukraine. He never got in touch again. Four months later, his parents received a phone call from Russia informing them that their son had been killed in the city of Bakhmut in Ukraine and that his body was going to be sent to Tajikistan.
On 22 January, Zulfikor Mukhiddinov’s body was buried in his native village of Yakkatut, Hissor, 50 kilometres from Dushanbe.
According to Radio Ozodi, the deaths of another six Tajik nationals who were imprisoned in Russia but killed in Ukraine have been confirmed.
At the start of Russia’s attack on Ukraine, Tajik authorities warned its citizens to abstain from taking part in foreign wars. The authorities stated that in another case its citizens would be prosecuted under the Criminal Code. However, it is not known whether any Tajik national has been prosecuted a year after the beginning of the war between Russia and Ukraine. Officials did not comment on the matter either.
One of them is 39-year-old Maqsad Qurbonov, a resident of the Rudaki district. He, on the same lines as Zulfikor Mukhiddinov, was killed during clashes in the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, and his body was taken to Tajikistan on February 6th.
He had been imprisoned in Russia for eight years and was expected to be released in the coming months. Faizullo Qurbonov, the father of Maqsad Qurbonov, told CABAR.asia that his son had called for the last time in October of the previous year and said that he would be taken to the city of Mariupol.
“When I asked him – are you being taken away voluntarily or forcibly, my son told me that 160 prisoners have been selected and they will be forcibly taken to Mariupol,” Faizullo Qurbonov told CABAR.
According to Tajik human rights advocates who protect the rights of migrants in Russia, most of the Tajik nationals serving sentences in Russia were taken to Ukraine in September last year after the mobilisation was announced.
In December 2022 and January 2023, the bodies of three more Tajik nationals who died in Ukraine were transferred to their home country. According to their relatives, 47-year-old Shamsiddin Kadyrov, 22-year-old Boboaziz Turdiyev and 28-year-old Manuchehr Shodov were taken from Russian prisons to Ukraine after September last year.
They were all serving sentences for drug-related crimes.
Relatives of Zulfikor Mukhiddinov and Maqsad Qurbonov told CABAR.asia that people who called them and reported the deaths of their children introduced themselves as members of the Wagner group.
The so-called Wagner private military company (PMC) is known for its extensive recruitment of Russian prisoners for the war in Ukraine.
How many Tajik prisoners were taken to the war in Ukraine?
There is currently no official data on the number of Tajik nationals now being held in pre-trial detention centres and prisons in Russia. According to media reports, there were about 10,000 Tajik nationals in these facilities as of 2020. It is also unknown how many of them were taken to Ukraine. The Tajik authorities do not speak about this officially.
On 29 November 2022, Zafar Saidzoda, Tajikistan’s consul general in Yekaterinburg, told Radio Ozodi that he had visited several Russian detention centres in July and September but had received “no complaints or specific information” on the issue of dispatching Tajik citizens to Ukraine.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not respond to enquiries from CABAR.asia journalists. However, at a press conference on 13 February, Shukhrat Ahmadzoda, a representative of Tajikistan’s Ministry of Labour, Migration and Employment in Russia, stated that “officially no appeals” had been made about sending Tajik migrants, including prisoners, to the war in Ukraine.
“Of course, citizens who were mobilized from places of detention to Ukraine gave their personal consent and were mobilized there in accordance with Russian law,” Ahmadzoda added.
But relatives of the prisoners say the opposite. In particular, Faizullo Qurbonov, father of Kuktar Qurbonov, one of the murdered detainees, says that his son ended his conversation by revealing that they were being forcibly taken to Ukraine.
According to indirect data reported in the media, we can assume that hundreds of prisoners were taken from Russian prisons to Ukraine after September. According to the Mediazona website, the number of prisoners in Russian jails dropped by 23,000 in September and October 2022.
“There has never been such a dramatic spike since 2010: even the most massive amnesty in recent years has released fewer Russians in such a short time,” Mediazone writes.
The increased number of news reports about the deaths of Tajik prisoners in Ukraine raised concerns among relatives from Tajikistan, whose loved ones are imprisoned in Russia. Some of them say they have not been able to contact their family members in Russian prisons for months.
This January, Shakhnoza Turaeva told Asia-Plus that she had not heard from her husband, who is in a Russian prison, for three months.
“The last time we spoke was on November 9. In exchange for freedom and a lot of money, he was offered to go to war in Ukraine. I said: “Don’t go, you have only a little time left to serve, God willing, you will be released.” He agreed to my words. But I haven’t heard from him for three months now. Although once or twice a month he used to call from prison and inform me about his condition,” Turaeva said.
Human rights defender: the majority of people agree to go to war
Karimjon Yorov, a Tajik human rights defender, says he is in constant phone contact with Tajik prisoners in Russia. According to him, representatives of the Wagner group travel to prisons and promise prisoners freedom if they go to the war in Ukraine.
“There are cases when prisoners are forced to go to Ukraine. I know three Tajik prisoners who were pressured to go to Ukraine, but they refused,” Yorov said.
According to him, these people were influential among prisoners and if they had gone, several other prisoners would likely have followed them.
“But according to the information we have, most of the prisoners, believing the promises of an imminent release, agree to go to Ukraine because they are sentenced to long prison terms,” says Karimjon Yorov.
At the same time, he notes that the Wagnerians put prisoners on the front lines.
“They are just ‘cannon fodder’ to be shot by Russian troops if they retreat, or by Ukrainians if they move forward,” the human rights defender says.