Authors

Discussion

In the context of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Russian male citizens– especially those naturalised – became a target for large-scale drafting campaigns. This article argues that Russia weaponises citizenship in an attempt to attract more manpower to its war with Ukraine. Such weaponisation functions through a few distinct institutional and legal mechanisms: granting citizenship as a reward for contracted military service and revoking acquired citizenship in case citizens fail to stand up to the expectations of military duty. Bound by obligations of care and material provision that have tied them to the Russian labour market for the past three decades, racialised migrant workers and recently naturalised citizens from Central Asia have to assess and hedge emerging existential risks of being/becoming Russian. They do so by utilising their intimate knowledge of Russia’s institutional mechanisms and bureaucracy and using the contradictory logics of (il)legality and citizenship to their advantage.