ISW: Kremlin’s “Russification” campaign in Ukraine burning back into Russia

The Kremlin’s campaign of “Russification” in Ukraine is burning back into Russia itself as it continues to empower and amplify overtly nationalist voices and ideologies. 

Russia is engaged in a campaign of deliberate “Russification” within Ukraine aimed at destroying Ukrainian identity through a multitude of military, social, economic, legal, bureaucratic, and administrative lines of effort, Caliber.Az reports, citing the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

“The ideologies that underpin the basis of this “Russification” also form the rhetorical backbone of the pro-war information space, which frequently mirrors its militarism with staunch Russian nationalism and intense xenophobia that is directed both at Ukraine and Ukrainian identity as well as at domestic minorities within Russia itself,” ISW reports.

Head of the Russian Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin accused migrants of destabilising Russia by importing terrorism and extremist ideologies and emphasized the role of migration policy in ensuring public order.

Bastrykin has previously called for military authorities to specifically recruit migrants from Central Asia and the Caucasus who received Russian citizenship because these migrants have a “constitutional obligation to protect the country that received them.” Russian officials at the Sakharovo migrant centre in Moscow are reportedly requiring the centre’s employees to offer migrants contracts for military service, as ISW previously reported.

 Russian officials have continuously targeted migrant and ethnic minority communities in ongoing force generation efforts, which largely places the military burden of the “Russification” project in Ukraine on communities and individuals that are its targets domestically.

Key takeaways

The Kremlin’s campaign of “Russification” in Ukraine is burning back into Russia itself as it continues to empower and amplify overtly nationalist voices and ideologies.

The domestic ramifications of the acceptance of the ideology of “Russification” are manifested in the responses by Russian authorities and prominent Russian military bloggers to ethnic minorities in Russia.

These domestic-facing ramifications of “Russification” ironically continue to place the onus of the war effort on the exact communities that it marginalizes.

Russian military bloggers offered a muted response to a Kaluga Oblast court’s refusal to hear a case against Russian military doctor and “Union of Donbas Volunteers” member Yuri Yevich for “discrediting the Russian armed forces.”

The Russian nationalist community continues to glorify atrocities and advocate for the expansion of brutality.

Russian forces conducted limited ground attacks near Kreminna.

Russian forces continued ground attacks in and around Bakhmut and along the Avdiivka-Donetsk line.

Russian forces continue to construct defences in occupied Zaporizhia Oblast and Crimea.

Russian officials continue to advance a law aimed at improving the effectiveness of issuing summonses and cracking down on Russian draft dodgers.

The Ukrainian Resistance Center released a report detailing the extent of illegal deportations of Ukrainian children from Donbas to the Russian Federation.