Kazakhstan announced on Saturday April 13 that it had arrested a Russian citizen at Almaty airport. The 32-year-old man had been wanted since September 2023, accused of recruiting citizens of Tajikistan and stateless persons to enlist them in armed conflicts. This is not the first time that Tajik citizens have been targeted for such purposes.
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Since the start of the war in Ukraine, cases of enlistment in the Russian army of citizens of the former Soviet republics of Central Asia – mainly from Tajikistanof Kyrgyzstan and theUzbekistan – are legion.
“ April 11 in Almaty, upon the arrival of a flight from Vnukovo [l’un des aéroports de Moscou, NDLR]officers from the transport police and the KNB [les services secrets kazakhs, NDLR] arrested a citizen of the Federation of Russia 32 years old “, the Kazakh police indicated on their Telegram channel.
According to the same source, “ the man was, since September 2023, wanted internationally for illegal recruitment of citizens of Tajikistan and stateless persons and their participation in armed units, conflicts or military operations in third countries “. The question of his extradition is ongoing, according to Kazakh police.
This arrest comes three weeks after the Crocus City Hall killings near Moscow, claimed by the Islamic State (IS) group having left at least 144 dead, the main suspects of which are Tajiks. Bruised by a civil war between 1992 and 1997 with the involvement of Islamist fighters, Tajikistan, which has made the fight against terrorism a priority, remains prey to regular cross-border skirmishes coming from Afghanistan and involving jihadist groups.
At the start of 2024, the president Emomali Rahmon had declared that 2,300 Tajiks had joined the IS organization since 2015. He had pointed out the “ extremist propaganda “striking” when these young people are abroad to work “, while around a million Tajiks go to Russia each year, a number that is increasing.
Read alsoAttack at Crocus City Hall in Moscow: Tajik migrants face a wave of rejection