Indians in Russian Army: ‘Awaiting for release of 69 Indians,’ says S Jaishankar in Lok Sabha
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."
During his official visit to Russia on July 8-9 for the 22nd India-Russia Annual Summit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed a critical issue involving Indian nationals being recruited into the Russian army.
Invited by Russian President Vladimir Putin, Modi took a firm stand on this matter during their discussions.
Former Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra reported that Prime Minister Modi strongly advocated for the immediate release of these Indian citizens, who had been misled into joining the Russian military. The Russian government assured Prime Minister Modi that the early discharge of all affected Indian nationals would be prioritized.
This concern arose after reports surfaced that several Indians had been deceived into fighting in Russia's conflict with Ukraine under the false promise of lucrative employment opportunities.
- With inputs from agencies
