Russia’s recruitment strategy has drawn disproportionately on poorer and politically marginalised communities, according to John Lough, who said the human cost of the war is less likely to prompt organised opposition in those areas.
In an interview with France 24, Lough said ethnic minority regions were among the places affected. He argued that recruits from such communities had been selected in part because the Kremlin viewed their lives as “expendable.”
“In other words as cannon fodder,” Lough said, describing the reasoning he believes has shaped recruitment. His assessment links the distribution of military losses to the political marginalisation of the communities supplying soldiers.
Lough is identified as a senior research fellow and head of foreign policy and international partnerships at the New Eurasian Strategies Centre. He is also an associate fellow with Chatham House’s Russia and Eurasia Programme.
The interview presents Lough’s analysis of Russia’s recruitment and the social effects of the war. The extract does not provide figures on how many soldiers have been recruited from the communities he described.
Clayton Ward 
Reid Bentley