Paper Short Abstract:

In the context of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Russian men – especially naturalized citizens – became a target for large scale drafting campaigns. Based on ethnographic research, this paper investigates how dual Russian-Tajikistani citizens navigate the emergent militarised citizenship regime.

Paper Abstract:

In the context of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Russian men – especially naturalized citizens – became a target for large scale drafting campaigns. Called by the state to fulfil their military obligations to their (new) motherland, they are left to navigate their (im)mobilities and mitigate the risks of having become Russian. We argue that Russia weaponises strategic citizenship in an attempt to attract more manpower to its war with Ukraine. Such weaponisation functions through a few distinct institutional and legal mechanisms: granting citizenship as a reward for contracted military service and revoking acquired citizenship in case citizens fail to stand up to the expectations of military duty. Rhetorically this is framed as affective claims of debt and duty testifying to ‘genuine link’ between the state and new citizens. Racialised migrant workers and new Russian citizens from Central Asia whose economies are heavily dependent on migrants’ remittances, are especially vulnerable to this move. Bound by familial obligations of care and material provision that tied them to the Russian labour market for the past three decades, they now have to assess and hedge the new existential risks of being/becoming Russian. They do so by utilising their intimate knowledge of Russia’s institutional mechanisms and the bureaucracy. Long exposure to Russia’s fickle migration policy and the distinct political economy of document production allows them to engage with the instability of documents in their material form and use the contradictory logics of legality and citizenship to their advantage.