“We take this issue very seriously…” Jaishankar in Lok Sabha on Indians in Russian Army

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, responding to questions on Indian nationals in the Russian Army informed the Lok Sabha that 91 Indian nationals were recruited of which 14 have been discharged and 69 are awaiting release.

The External Affairs Minister said that there are reasons to indicate that the Indian nationals recruited into the Russian Army on false promises were misled, and added that the issue is taken very seriously by the government.

Answering a question on the issue by Congress MP Adoor Prakash, Jaishankar said, “To Russia, we have, in total 91 cases so far of Indian nationals who were recruited into the Russian Army, eight of them, unfortunately, have passed away, 14 of them have been discharged, or in some manner have come back with our assistance and there are 69 Indian citizens who are awaiting release from Russian Army.”

The Congress MP from the Attingal constituency of Kerala had raised the issue of Indian youth recruited for jobs by false agencies.

“I think in many cases there are reasons to indicate that our nationals were misled — that they were being told that they were going for some other job, and then they were then deployed to the Russian Army,” Jaishankar said.

Jaishankar asserted both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and himself had personally raised these issues with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and President Vladimir Putin, even during their visit to Moscow last month.

“I have myself raised it numerous times with Russian FM and when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was in Moscow last month, he raised it personally with President Putin and he got President Putin’s assurance that any Indian national who is in the service of the Russian Army will be discharged and released…” Jaishankar stated.

“The problem is that the Russian authorities maintain that these Indian nationals entered into contracts for service with the Russian Army, we are not necessarily subscribing to that,” he further said.

On being asked about the actions taken on the issue, the EAM said that a criminal case has been registered in this .

He said, “CBI has registered a criminal case against 19 individuals and entities. They have examined those 14 people who have returned from Russia. Sufficient evidence has surfaced against 10 human traffickers whose identities we know. During the investigation, two of the accused were arrested on April 24, and two more on May 7. All the four accused are presently in judicial custody.”

Further, AIMIM Chief and Hyderabad MP, Asaduddin Owaisi also directed a question at Jaishankar. “Will the Indian Embassy in Russia ensure that these 69 Indian boys are brought back?”

He further asked whether the government will cancel the passports of those involved in carrying out the scam.

Jaishankar in his response said, “A total of eight boys died during their service with the Russian Army, and four of the mortal remains were sent back to India.”

“We have a list of 19 names and in each case, inquiry is going on,” the External Affairs Minister said.

Prime Minister Modi paid an official visit to Russia on July 8-9 at the invitation of Russian President Vladimir Putin for the 22nd India-Russia Annual Summit.

At that time, then-Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra stated that Prime Minister Modi, during his meeting with the Russian President, took a strong stance on the issue of Indian nationals being recruited into the Russian army and the Russian government has assured an “early discharge” of these Indians from the army service.

Addressing a special briefing Kwatra said, “The Prime Minister strongly raised the issue of early discharge of Indian nationals who have been misled into the service of the Russian army. This was taken strongly by the Prime Minister, and the Russian side promised early discharge of all Indian nationals from the service of the Russian army.”

Notably, several Indians were allegedly duped into fighting in Russia’s war with Ukraine on the pretext of lucrative jobs.

In April, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), had busted a major human trafficking network running across the country targeting Indian nationals on the promise of offering lucrative jobs abroad but allegedly sending them to the Russia-Ukraine war zone.

The CBI stated that these traffickers have been operating as an organised network and were luring Indian nationals through social media channels like YouTube, etc., and also through their local contacts and agents for highly paid jobs in Russia.