Biopolitical Shifts: Mobilising Identities and Negotiating Buryats-Mongols Relations in The Afterword of Russian War Mobilisation

Russian full scale invasion of Ukraine has significant geopolitical and biopolitical consequences for Russian Buryats and Mongolian society. By referring to the existing literature on biopolitics and geopolitics, and the field research in Mongolia among Buryat migrants, the contributors show how the announcement of the partial mobilisation by Vladimir Putin on September 21st, 2022 affected lives of both Buryats and Mongols, and how the war affected Buryats – Mongols relations. Article shows how the Putin’s biopolitical regime was slowly getting tougher in the region and how it was experienced by the Buryats up to the announcement of mobilisation. Further, the article discusses the reactions of the Mongolian society on the massive migration of Buryats by investigating challenges it provoked for Mongolian civic organisations. Finally, the article shows how the Mongolian state became a subject of the Putin’s biopolitical and geopolitical regime, and what was a reaction of both politics and society on them.