They get good salaries
Conscripts in the Russian republics complicate the Ukrainian landscape
The Russian army is in dire need of the human element.
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Kemal Yedinov.
From the source
One of the Chechen fighters in Ukraine.
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Few people in the Russian Republic of Bashkortostan had heard of Kemal Yedinov, before May when he wrote an online post inviting local residents to join the Bashkir battalion to take part in the Russian attack on Ukraine.
In just two days, more than 800 ethnic Bashkirs, aged between 18 and 50, expressed interest in joining, according to Lidinov, 46. “I was inspired by our history,” he says, highlighting the story of the local cavalry unit, which Formed during World War II.
As the conflict in Ukraine enters its sixth month, and Russia suffers from a severe manpower shortage, units like the Bashkir Battalion — made up of well-paid volunteers and with limited military training — appear to be part of the Kremlin's attempt to find a piecemeal solution.
And the idea of Yedinov was so successful that representatives of a group of old Bashkir paratroopers announced the formation of a second local battalion a month later.
At least 14 other regions—including the Republic of Tatarstan, the Far East region, and the cities of Moscow and Saint Petersburg—have since followed the Bashkortostan model;
It announced the formation of local units to be sent to Ukraine.
Managing these battalions will not only be costly, but they will also be at risk of significant losses, according to military experts.
"This campaign is likely to produce soldiers of lower quality than the average conscripts in the Russian army, at a cost close to that of professional soldiers," the Institute for the Study of War, a US think tank, said in a report published last month.
Since the battalions from Bashkortostan are still waiting to be deployed, the only regional units currently fighting, in Ukraine, are from the Russian North Caucasus republics of North Ossetia and Chechnya.
Local observers believe that units loyal to the Chechen leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, were the inspiration for the Bashkir brigades.
"The President of the Republic of Bashkortostan, Radhi Khabirov, is jealous of Kadyrov's fame and influence," said the opposition Bashkir activist, Ruslan Gabasov. "This idea led Khabirov to approach Russian President Vladimir Putin, to gain his trust."
High spirits
Morale will be high in the Bashkir battalions, Yedinov said, because the soldiers will fight on the side of their compatriots.
Soldiers in the unit were often photographed wearing the blue, white and green flag of Bashkortostan.
But an independent military analyst, Pavel Luzhin, said this reasoning "is fundamentally at odds with the integral tradition" of the Russian armed forces.
Since the 19th century, the composition of the Russian army's recruits has been deliberately diversified to help ensure soldiers' loyalty to the empire.
"Units formed on the basis of common ethnic origin present a greater danger," Lusin explained. "When everyone is mixed, disloyalty can be suppressed by turning the whole unit against the disloyal (soldier), but here the whole unit can turn against the leader."
Despite the heavy losses in Ukraine, the Kremlin remains unwilling to announce a broader mobilization.
Instead, he apparently seeks to push men to the front by reducing training requirements, offering big bonuses and encouraging initiatives such as the creation of regional battalions.
If each Russian region put together a battalion of about 400 men, that could mean as many as 34,000 additional fighters going to the front lines, in Ukraine.
As with the broader Russian military campaign, money appears to be one of the main motivating factors for those joining regional battalions, as soldiers are offered salaries many times greater than the local average.
Those who serve in the Bashkir battalions will receive 220,000 rubles ($3,593) a month, in addition to a combat bonus of 8,000 rubles a day, according to a post on Yedinov's page on the VKontakte platform.
Bashkortostan officials pledged to pay an additional joining registration bonus of 200,000 rubles, and a daily increase of 2,000 rubles.
This means that a soldier under Yednov's command will receive a total of 520,000 rubles ($8,465) for a month of fighting in Ukraine — nearly 13 times the average salary in Bashkortostan.
The regional news agency, Profi, reported in June that most of the Bashkir recruits had participated in previous Russian military campaigns.
“I was in Syria for three months, in 2019,” a Bashkir soldier said in an interview on YouTube, referring to the Russian military campaign in that country, which was said to have relied heavily on mercenary fighters.
Limited potency
Despite the prominent presence on the battalion's social media, the identities of the Bashkir soldiers, serving in the unit, are largely protected.
One possible reason for the secrecy is that recruits are not so admired or so numerous, as officials would like people to think, according to activist Gabasov, who says: “They are mostly people who need money, most of them are over 40, They may have had some experience while they were stationed in a military base in Chechnya, 20 years ago, but they are not professionals.”
Military analysts wonder about the effectiveness of these soldiers in the fight against the Ukrainian army, which has proven to be skilled in defense and capable of inflicting heavy losses on the attacking Russian forces.
"This will not change the course of the war," Lusine said.
According to the military analyst, military units from Russia's ethnic republics could be particularly vulnerable to insurgency, or could lead to political instability when they return home from the fighting.
"These soldiers might think that they are being forced to fight for stupid goals as if they were colonialists," Lusine said. "It's an explosive cocktail."
The Bashkir battalions, numbering about 800 men, were shown in videos last month as they were sent for training.
They were accompanied by the President of the Republic of Bashkortostan, Khaybarov, local officials and journalists, and a small crowd of onlookers.
On the battalion's Telegram channel, recruits can be seen training in marksmanship, basic first aid, and withdrawals.
They are expected to be deployed to Ukraine later this month.
Military analysts question the effectiveness of these soldiers in the fight against the Ukrainian army, which has proven to be skilled in defense and capable of inflicting heavy losses on the attacking Russian forces.
8465
The salary of a soldier in the Bashkir battalion, for a month of fighting in Ukraine.
34,000
A fighter expected to be recruited to fight in different Russian regions.
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