Russian security forces hit the streets of St. Petersburg on New Year’s Eve with the goal of hunting down migrants, rounding up as many of them as possible, and sending them off to fill the ranks of Moscow’s military in Ukraine.
That’s according to new reporting by Novaya Gazeta Europe, which cited an unnamed source in law enforcement who said he’d been briefed on the plan, which, according to him, had been in the works for months.
Police and members of the National Guard knew exactly who they were looking for: Central Asian migrants. The topic had reportedly come up at a meeting back in August attended by representatives of the Federal Security Service and Russian Defense Ministry.
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“They have large families, and therefore the most preferred option is living in dorms and multi-room communal apartments. After the start of [the war], the men almost never live in hostels, which is why we focused on communal apartments. The largest number of these apartments is in the Central, Admiralteysky, and Vasileostrovsky districts of St. Petersburg. It was in these areas that they decided to conduct mass raids,” the unnamed source told Novaya Gazeta Europe.
According to the local outlet Fontanka, a total of around 3,000 migrants were rounded up in the New Year’s Eve raids, ostensibly for violations of immigration laws. The source cited by Novaya Gazeta Europe said the real number was much higher.
Many of them were reportedly snatched up outside their homes, where they’d gathered amid the holiday festivities. One group of about 30 people was even dressed up in Ded Moroz and Snegurochka costumes, the Russian equivalent of Santa Claus and his helper the Snow Maiden. (Russians traditionally exchange gifts on New Year’s.) They were tossed into a police van in their festive costumes, according to the report.
The next morning, at the police station, “military men came to the majority [of the detainees] and strongly advised them to volunteer for the army,” one man who was detained told the outlet. “Those who had doubts were promised that their families would be expelled from Russia,” he said.
At least 1,500 of the detained men reportedly signed a contract with the Defense Ministry after the raids. Independent media reported that similar raids were carried out in Moscow that night, though the scale of those raids was not immediately clear.
The law enforcement source in St. Petersburg said the move had been hailed as a great success by higher-ups: “The boss said last night that our experience was assessed positively in Moscow, and they are setting us as an example for other regions. So it’s quite possible that ‘immigrant raids’ will now take place during any holidays.”
