The Russian authorities have denied knowledge of conscripted Nigerians and other Africans in the ongoing fight with Ukraine.
Russian Ambassador to Nigeria, Andrey Podyelyshev said there is no government‑supported programme to recruit Nigerians or any other national for the war.
Podyelyshev told Journalists during a briefing in Abuja on Tuesday that it could be the work of illegal people and surely not of the Russian authorities.
He said: “If some illegal people are trying to recruit Nigerians to fight in Ukraine, this is not connected with the Russian state. If anybody has information, we are ready to send it to Russian law enforcement authorities for investigation.”
The Russian Ambassador to Nigeria said most of the negative narratives about Russia in the ongoing war are Western, with the aim of making them look like the aggressor.
He explained: “I read about those cases you talked about in Nigerian newspapers. I don’t have any information from Russia about those cases.
“Several times in our embassies and social media we mentioned that there is no government-supported programme to recruit Nigerians to fight in the UK. So if there are some illegal organisations, some illegal people who violated the law, if they are trying to recruit Nigerians to fight by any unlawful means, this is not connected with the Russian state. If anybody has this information, we are ready to send that information to Russian law enforcement authorities in order that they could investigate that case.
But the real situation is different. Maybe different. Actually, as I told you, there is no government-supported programme to recruit Nigerians.
“And if there are some agencies, including Russian agencies, violating Russian law, we are ready to transmit this information to Russian law enforcement authorities. “This is the case. Actually, you received information from Western sources, and the main task of Western sources is to demonise Russia.
“Sometimes we don’t know the real situation in Russia, the real situation in Ukraine, just know it from those sources formed by Western media. As I told you, their main task is to demonise Russia, not to find the truth, but to make those people living abroad think that Russia is a real aggressor, a real brutal country, and other things like that. So if you tell me that there are rumours that some Nigerian was deceived when he signed a contract with the Ministry of Defence of Russia, so give me the name and we will try to investigate this case.
“But if you ask me why you don’t do anything against those companies who try to deceive Nigerians and try to recruit them to Russian armed forces, I cannot answer your question because I don’t know details, I don’t know the names, I cannot confirm or deny these facts. This is the case. About that case is from the media, only from the media.
“I don’t have that information from any governmental sources. I read some articles in the Economist, in other Western journals too.”
