A group of Cuban migrants imprisoned in Russia are being blackmailed by the Russian authorities whoThey are offered citizenship of that country in exchange for joining the invasion of Ukraine.
This was revealed by the young man's testimony Alberli Arias, a Cuban detained in the Russian city of Volgograd, who spoke by video call with the Cuban journalist Rolando Nápoles, fromAmerica TeVé.
“They say a lot, they emphasize it a lot, that whoever wants to go to war should take the step forward, a better step, according to them,” Arias told the journalist, commenting on the insistence of the Russian prison authorities on the option of being recruited for the war and thus resolve their immigration status.
Arias is part of a group of 18 Cubans who are being detained by Immigration in the Russian city of Volgograd, formerly Stalingrad. According to him, the authorities were blackmailing them withthe option of enlisting in the Russian Army or being deported to Cuba.
“There are many comrades who could do this, but they are afraid that the Cuban State will do something to them, or that the Russian State will do something to them,” Arias indicated in his call. “It's like psychological torture. “They have us imprisoned here until, out of desperation, we opt for that option.”
In exchange for their participation in the war, the Russian authorities would be offering them a salary and Russian citizenship,benefits similar to those revealed by other Cubans who have already been recruited as mercenaries by Russia.
According to his testimony, the authorities of the detention center -where he is with 17 other Cubans- They would be putting obstacles in the way of being returned on a deportation flight to Cuba. In this way, Arias stated, they would be putting pressure on them to see if they give in and enlist in the army.
“I want you to find a solution to this, because I really haven't killed anyone or committed any crime... I don't know, help me, get me out of here,” said the young man at the end of his video call, visibly worried about what that can happen to you.
An article recently published in the digital mediumThe Intercept revealed that the major of the Russian Army,Anton Valentinovich Perevozchikov had 122 passports in his possession scans of Cubans recruited at the headquarters of the Russian Armed Forces in the city of Tula.
"We didn't recruit anyone.But people can self-organize, work in chat rooms. All Ukrainian embassies in all countries recruit mercenaries into the Ukrainian Army. We don't have that," said the first deputy chairman of the International Affairs Committee of the State Duma (Lower House of Russia's Federal Assembly, or Parliament), Alexey Chepa.
After the first revelations that confirmed the presence of Cuban mercenaries hired by the Russian Army, Havana remained silent until last Monday, when in a statement the regime claimed to be working indismantle a human trafficking network dedicated to transferring Cuban citizens to the conflict, as well as recruiting others who already resided in Russia.
Barely 72 hours after the first statements by the Cuban Foreign Ministry on this issue, authorities from the Ministry of the Interior announced the arrest of at least 17 people in relation to a human trafficking network that operates in Russia and Cuba.
Recently, an officer of theRevolutionary Armed Forces (FAR) who claimed to be in Russia also contradictedthe statements of the Cuban regime about a “human trafficking network,” and assured that the 90 Cubans under his command left the island with the full knowledge of the authorities.
“None of us left the country illegally”said FAR Second Lieutenant Lázaro González, and confirmed that both he and the Cubans under his command were not recruited in Cuba by an illegal plot, but by signing a contract with the Russian army.
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