The Kremlin is escalating crackdowns on Central Asian migrant groups inside Russia to meet mobilization quotas, ISW reported, citing to recent statements by top officials and insider sources.

Russian Internal Affairs Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev said that migrants commit crimes at higher rates than native Russians, defending recent mobilization raids. “We are enforcing standard legal norms,” Kolokoltsev said.

An anonymous source claimed the Investigative Committee is reopening closed cases against naturalized migrants and will prosecute any offence to detain and draft their contacts. The source said an official, possibly Investigative Head Alexander Bastrykin, ordered increased media coverage of “ethnic crime” to justify further raids.

Bastrykin has pushed for targeted mobilization of migrants with Russian citizenship, matching law enforcement’s expanded efforts to register them.

Recently ISW also reported that, despite facing significant losses in failed offensives around Avdiivka, Russia keeps on directing additional troops and equipment to the Avdiivka direction.

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