Russia

Archived

Since the invasion of Ukraine, there has been a 20-fold jump in diagnoses in the armed forces, showing ‘HIV is not just passed on in war through wounds and their treatment’

[...]

These high transmission rates show “HIV is not just passed on in war through wounds and their treatment”, a report in Carnegie’s Russia and Eurasia Centre said.

Unprotected sex and Sharing needles to inject drugs are “thriving in a fighting army of men who live every day as if it were their last”.

[...]

Russia has long battled with high rates of HIV among the general population; it ranks among the top five countries with the highest rates of infections.

There are more than 1.1 million registered HIV cases, but some estimate the true number could exceed 1.5 million due to underdiagnosis and patchy data.

Figures from the UNAids agency show that Russia accounted for nearly 4 per cent of global HIV infections in 2021, despite having less than 2 per cent of the world’s population.

Vadim Pokrovsky, the head of Russia’s Federal Methodological Centre for HIV/Aids Prevention, said in December that about 30,000 Russians of working age died annually from HIV.

Most deaths occur among people aged 25 to 50, adding extra pressure to the country’s shrinking labour force.

[...]

Exiled Russian media outlets report that in [Russian-]occupied regions of Ukraine, such as Kherson, HIV care and testing have nearly collapsed.

Stigma, disinformation and discriminatory laws are also driving Russians away from testing and treatment, charities say. This includes the “foreign agents” law, which has forced many HIV prevention groups that receive funding from overseas to shut down or scale back their work.

In 2023, Russia’s Supreme Court designated the “international LGBT movement” as extremist, further deterring gay men, as an at-risk group, from accessing support services.

[...]

**Moscow’s growing influence in eastern Europe and Central Asia has also led to the closure of harm-reduction programmes in neighbouring states, **prompting warnings from the UN that Russia’s policies are aggravating the regional HIV epidemic.

[...]

Russian soldiers are increasingly willing to cooperate with Ukrainian forces, as evidenced by a recent successful strike on Russian T-62 tanks in the Zaporizhzhia sector, the partisan movement ATESH reported on August 1.

The operation was made possible thanks to intelligence provided by a Russian serviceman embedded within the 57th Separate Brigade, who passed along the coordinates of camouflaged tanks to ATESH agents. Ukraine’s Defense Forces then conducted a precise strike, destroying the equipment.

According to ATESH, a growing number of Russian troops are actively reaching out to Ukrainian forces with offers of cooperation.

[...]

Russian lawmakers have passed a new law introducing fines for those who search for “extremist content” online. [A violation is punishable by an administrative fine ranging from RUB 3,000 to RUB 5,000, about $35-50.]

The move has sparked concerns both from opposition figures and from pro-government voices, as the official list of what qualifies as “extremism” in Russia, compiled by the Ministry of Justice, includes over 5,000 items, most of which ordinary citizens are not even aware of.

For example, Meta, the company behind Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp, is officially designated as an extremist organization, which makes online searches about those apps illegal. The same extremist label has been applied to the “LGBT movement.” However, the law offers no clear explanation of what specific content is prohibited. The slogan “Glory to Ukraine” has also been registered as extremist. Some books and songs are on the list, including a song featured in Alexei Balabanov’s film War, which is still allowed to be shown in Russia.

[...]

Internet users are wondering how they are supposed to know which materials are considered extremist. Sergei Boyarsky, head of the Duma’s IT committee, posted a video on Telegram clarifying that “accidental exposure,” for example, hearing or seeing something unintentionally, will not be punished. However, “deliberate” searches are now punishable under the law.

[...]

Investigative journalist Andrei Zakharov speculated that security agencies may use Russia’s System for Operative Investigative Activities (SORM) to monitor web traffic. He also warned that phones could be searched at border crossings, during home raids or even random stops on the street.

“The last scenario is the most disturbing,” Zakharov wrote on his Telegram channel.

[...]

The law has also stirred debate among typically loyal Kremlin supporters. One of the most vocal critics is Yekaterina Mizulina, founder of the so-called Safe Internet League, which is known for reporting internet users, artists and others whose online activity deviates from the Kremlin’s agenda to the security services. She noted that her own work may now fall under the ban, as reporting illegal content requires first locating it.

“The most interesting thing is that, according to the bill, even the activities of Interior Ministry officials monitoring such information could also be deemed illegal. And any person who reports the discovery of such materials to law enforcement, for example, about Columbine groups, also risks getting fined,” Mizulina wrote on her Telegram channel.

Margarita Simonyan, the head of the infamous Russia Today, posed a similar question, surprising her followers by opposing the government initiative. She wrote on her Telegram channel, “how are we supposed to investigate and shame all the different extremist organizations like the Anti-Corruption Foundation, if we are banned from even reading them?”

Vladimir Putin has repeatedly promised that no 18-year-olds called up to serve Russia will be sent to fight in Ukraine, but a BBC Russian investigation has found at least 245 soldiers of that age have been killed there in the past two years.

New government rules mean teenagers fresh out of school have been able to bypass military service and go straight into the regular army as contract soldiers.

They may make up only a fraction of Russian losses, but cash bonuses and patriotic propaganda have made signing up an attractive choice.

[...]

Russia has managed to avoid a national mobilisation by offering lavish sums to men of fighting age - an especially attractive deal for those in poorer regions with few job prospects.

Initially, men had to have at least three months of conscript service under their belts before signing a contract.

That restriction was quietly dropped in April 2023, despite protests from some MPs, so now any young man who has reached the age of 18 and finished school can sign up to join the army.

Russia's education system has ensured they are ready to enlist. Alexander Petlinsky/VK A picture of a young Russian man in a short-sleeved white shirt with a Russian strap over his shoulder

[...]

Since the full-scale invasion began, teachers have been required by law to hold classes dedicated to the "special military operation", as the war is officially known.

Soldiers returning from the front visit schools to talk about their experiences, children are taught how to make camouflage nets and trench candles, and even nursery school pupils are encouraged to send letters and drawings to the frontline.

At the start of the last school year on 1 September 2024, a new subject was brought into the curriculum.

In a throwback to the Soviet era, senior students are once again being taught how to use Kalashnikov rifles and hand grenades as part of a course called "The Basics of Safety and Homeland Defence".

In many regions, military recruiters now attend careers lessons in schools and technical colleges, telling young people how to sign up as contract soldiers after they graduate.

[...]

As part of BBC Russian's ongoing project using open sources to count Russia's war dead, we have identified and confirmed 245 names of 18-year-old contract soldiers killed in Ukraine between April 2023 - when the rules for joining up were eased - and July 2025.

[...]

Overall, according to our research, since the start of the full-scale invasion at least 2,812 Russian men aged 18-20 years have been killed in Ukraine.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/39645196

Archived

Defence Intelligence of Ukraine (DIU) has published personally identifiable information of a Russian war criminal and commander of one of the brigades of the Russian forces that regularly launches Shahed attacks on Ukraine.

Details: Lieutenant Colonel of the Russian Armed Forces Ruslan Negrub is the commander of a separate UAV brigade HROM Cascade (military unit No. 35666-B, based in the town of Korenovsk, Krasnodar Krai).

This brigade launches Shahed UAV attacks on the territory of Ukraine. The Russians use them to attack civilian and humanitarian infrastructure and terrorise the civilian population.

DIU reported that war criminal Ruslan Negrub was born on 4 January 1983. His ID information is series 9002 No. 447425, issued on 17 April 2003 by the Mozdok District Department of Internal Affairs, Republic of North Ossetia–Alania. He graduated from the Stavropol Higher Military Aviation Engineering School.

Ruslan Negrub is married to Nadia Negrub, born on 8 March 1981.

The couple are parents to a 20-year-old son. Their registration/residence address is Stavropol Krai, Budyonnovsk, Microraion Severnyi Street 1, apt. 76.

Archived

Amid the war against Ukraine and a declining birth rate, the Kremlin has introduced a new holiday: Pregnant Women’s Day. To mark the occasion, maternity clinics, hospitals, and even vocational schools hold workshops on newborn care, share information about state support programs, and hand out gifts.

Officials hope to address the country’s demographic crisis by reframing pregnancy as a public contribution rather than a private milestone, but sociologists warn that such efforts do little to change the material realities facing young families.

[...]

In other news, it is said that a Russian convent hands out plastic fetuses to women in anti-abortion campaign in in the Russian city of Chelyabinsk.

The initiative was held in shopping centers, libraries, at city festivals, and on university campuses. Volunteers and activists from from the Odigitrievsky Convent claimed afterwards that their efforts had “saved 658 lives,” a local Telegram news channel reported.

In addition to distributing the plastic fetuses, the convent’s volunteers reportedly held one-on-one conversations with women in which they warned them that abortion would be an “irreversible mistake.”

The Odigitrievsky Convent has run other anti-abortion “counseling” campaigns in the past. Additionally, officials in the city of Ryazan have voiced support for similar anti-abortion initiatives involving the distribution of fetus models.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/39574589

Archived

Russian state-run media outlet RIA Novosti on July 30 published a column titled "There is no other option: no one should be left alive in Ukraine."

In the piece, columnist Kirill Strelnikov describes Ukrainians as "happy with their fate" and claims they are "ready to die" for what he derisively calls "the best army in the world."

The article refers to Ukrainian soldiers as "laboratory rats," denies their humanity, and includes a grotesque comment about "no need for lacy underwear for the dead."

Strelnikov repeats Kremlin propaganda lines, including the claim that Ukraine is a "military training ground" for the West and that Ukrainians are mere pawns of the U.S. and Europe.

The article dismisses Western military analyses recognizing Ukraine's battlefield gains, naming institutions like the Atlantic Council and the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and derides U.S. and U.K. generals for praising Ukraine's military.

The piece marks an escalation in Russia's dehumanizing war propaganda.

Claims that Ukrainians are "ready to die" contradict the lived reality of a population resisting an unprovoked invasion, which Moscow started back in 2014, to defend their homes and sovereignty.

This rhetoric reflects a long-standing Kremlin narrative designed to strip Ukraine of agency and portray its people as expendable.

Russia's war effort has increasingly relied on genocidal framing, echoing prior statements by state officials and propagandists that deny Ukraine's right to exist as a nation.

RIA Novosti is one of Russia's central state media arms and has consistently served as a platform for war propaganda, disinformation, and anti-Western messaging.

Strelnikov, the article's author, is a co-founder of the nationalist media project Politrussia and a frequent contributor to other Kremlin-aligned outlets. His previous articles have spread falsehoods about the war, many of which have been debunked by independent media.

Archived

Russian regulators on Wednesday banned the import and sale of trucks from several major Chinese manufacturers, citing what they called a “direct threat” to public health and safety.

The ban targets vehicles produced by Dongfeng, Foton, FAW and Sitrak, according to Rosstandart, the federal agency responsible for enforcing technical regulations and vehicle safety standards.

Inspectors cited issues including poor braking performance and faulty seatbelt mountings. Rosstandart said it has ordered the manufacturers to recall the affected vehicles and halt sales or face fines.

Dealers have reportedly suspended sales of the flagged models and are working on safety compliance plans that must be reviewed and approved by the agency, it said.

The move comes as Russia’s auto industry faces a deepening crisis. Last week, major domestic producers KAMAZ, AvtoVAZ and GAZ announced plans to shift to a four-day workweek amid falling demand.

[...]

Archived

Joint China-Russia military drills in the Sea of Japan a “forced step for the Kremlin," expert says

In August, the Chinese and Russian navies will hold their annual Maritime Interaction 2025 exercises in the Sea of Japan near Vladivostok, as well as a joint maritime patrol in the Pacific Ocean.

"For Russia, such exercises are a forced step, because they understand that China is a natural antagonist of the Russian Federation and will maintain a certain degree of cooperation with Russia only as long as it does not conflict with its own interests," says Valerii Riabyk, a military expert and development director at the information and consulting company Defense Express.

"This is also confirmed by leaked FSB documents, which describe an operation developed at the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine aimed at strengthening counterintelligence measures in relations with the PRC," he says.

Riabykh added that recently such exercises have been taking place regularly.

"They plan them, and both sides need this in order to check and compare each other’s military capabilities. Some may see this as preparation for joint operations, but on the other hand, one should not exclude that such joint activities are primarily a way of probing the potential enemy's capabilities. Under the guise of partnership, they are keeping their finger on the pulse to be able to respond in time," the expert concluded.

Archived

[...]

Vladimir Gutenev, head of the State Duma’s Industry and Trade Committee, told the pro-Kremlin news outlet Life that Russians should be ready for “regular and necessary” internet shutdowns and recommended withdrawing cash in advance to avoid being caught off guard.

[...]

He acknowledged the country’s reliance on digital payment systems but emphasized the need to prioritize national security over convenience.

“We’re used to paying with cards or smartphones and having constant connectivity. But now it’s important to accept temporary restrictions as a necessity,” he said.

“Don’t turn into a hipster who only lives in the center of Moscow,” he added. “Life is not limited to comfort.”

His comments follow a sharp rise in internet outages across Russia due to the threat of Ukrainian drone attacks in recent months.

[...]

Meanwhile, Several of Russia’s largest banks are reporting an outflow of individual deposits following reductions in interest rates and widespread rumors concerning potential deposit freezes by the government.

According to data analyzed by the consultancy Frank RG, eight of the country’s 20 largest credit institutions experienced deposit outflows in June.

The largest withdrawal was recorded at Alfa-Bank, Russia’s biggest private lender with roughly 30 million clients, which saw a 3.9% decline in retail deposits equivalent to 125.3 billion rubles ($1.54 billion, according to spot foreign exchange market data published by Reuters).

Other banks posting significant outflows include the privately owned Sovcombank (-2.9%), Dom.RF (-2.5%), Russian Standard Bank (-2.2%), MKB (-2%) and both GPB and Post Bank (-1.1%) [...]

Andrei Zubets, director of the Institute for Socio-Economic Studies at the Financial University under the Russian government, said last year that authorities might implement deposit freezes in response to the threat of rapid inflation should consumers begin spending en masse.

[...]

Archived

Vladimir Putin’s July 28 meeting with Stavropol Governor Vladimir Vladimirov was unusually negative, with the latter warning that his region faces plummeting new construction rates and skyrocketing rent prices. Vladimirov also described an “acute shortage” of medical personnel. The governor’s frank assessment represented a departure from the typically upbeat reports delivered to the president in public meetings, journalists at Agentstvo noted. Vladimirov’s admissions are especially notable given Putin’s previous praise for Stavropol’s construction record.

Vladimirov blamed Russia’s elevated interest rates for the housing crisis, revealing that apartment prices in his region have spiked from 19,000 rubles per square meter in 2013 (about $55 per square foot) to 130,000 rubles (roughly $150) today, with premium units reaching 600,000 rubles (almost $700). Russia’s construction industry has faced mounting pressure from the Central Bank’s aggressive interest rate hikes, which reached 21 percent in October 2024. Officials didn’t begin reducing the rate until June 2025. Today, it stands at 18 percent.

Governor Vladimirov also reported severe staffing shortages across public services, with only 83 percent of doctor positions filled and emergency medical services operating at just 57 percent capacity.

[...]

Archived

After several days of reported outages, the head of Russia’s Krasnoyarsk region, Mikhail Kotyukov, confirmed on Tuesday morning that “temporary restrictions” have been placed on mobile Internet access in the area.

According to the governor, the restrictions are tied to “the need to strengthen security measures in certain parts of the Krasnoyarsk region, based on the current intelligence and to prevent online threats.”

He did not specify the nature of the threats he was referring to. Russia’s Defense Ministry has not reported any Ukrainian drone attacks in the region.

[...]

Archived

Russian small and medium-sized enterprises are experiencing their worst payment crisis since the early months of the pandemic, with a growing number of businesses reporting delays, refusals to pay and mounting financial strain.

According to recent surveys conducted by the state-owned Promsvyazbank in collaboration with several analytical centers, one in four companies said they had encountered cases of non-payment or unethical behavior by business partners over the past six months.

Fifteen percent of respondents reported a rise in such incidents, levels not seen since the peak of the Covid-19 crisis in 2020.

Late payments were by far the most common issue, cited by nearly 80% of affected firms. Another 58% said clients or customers had flatly refused to pay for goods or services already delivered.

“Payment chains are collapsing,” said Alexander Shokhin, president of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs. “Even large companies are delaying payments. It’s better to hold on to [the money] and just pay the fines, but the interest rate covers everything,” he added, referencing the Central Bank’s benchmark rate of 18%.

[...]

Archived

Russia is slashing a multibillion-dollar program to modernize its aging civilian ship fleet as mounting war costs and falling revenues push the Kremlin to tighten spending across major industrial sectors.

Funding for the state-backed shipbuilding initiative will be cut by more than 40%, reducing the number of planned new vessels by nearly 70, a presentation by the Industry and Trade Ministry obtained by the RBC news website reveals.

[...]

Under the revised plan, just 191 vessels will be delivered through the State Transport Leasing Company’s subsidized leasing scheme, a steep drop from the initial goal.

Total program financing is set to fall from 231 billion rubles ($2.88 billion) to 134.8 billion rubles ($1.68 billion). Cargo and fishing vessels, along with dredgers, are likely to be among the first categories dropped.

The cuts come amid rising construction costs and acute fiscal pressures linked to the war in Ukraine. One-third of federal spending is now directed toward defense, while revenues from oil and gas, the backbone of Russia’s budget, have dropped sharply.

[...]

The budget strain has already prompted other industrial cutbacks. In May, Moscow slashed more than 100 billion rubles ($1.25 billion) from key aviation support programs, walking back earlier plans to replace Western aircraft in the national fleet.

Anatoly Artamonov, head of the Budget and Financial Markets Committee in the upper house of parliament, warned last week that securing the additional 2 trillion rubles ($21.3 billion) required annually for defense and security would only be possible through deep cuts to what he called “inefficient spending.”

Analysts say this “inefficient spending” increasingly includes civilian infrastructure and industrial renewal — sectors once viewed as critical to Russia’s long-term resilience.

Mikhail Burmistrov, the head consulting firm INFOLine-Analytics, said that securing budgetary support for the Kremlin’s shipbuilding ambitions remains difficult in light of the sizeable deficit.

[...]

• Russia's gas output declined in the first half of the year as higher exports to China and increased domestic demand failed to make up for lost flows to Europe via Ukraine.
• The nation produced 334.8 billion of natural and associated gas through June, down 3.2% from the same period a year ago, according to Bloomberg calculations.
• Russian gas output is unlikely to see a meaningful recovery absent major new supply deals, as Gazprom won't be able to send much more exports to China until 2027.

[...]

China, now Gazprom’s single-largest market, has only partially compensated for the lost volumes. Gas exports to the Asian country via the Power of Siberia are expected to rise by over a fifth in 2025 compared to last year, maximizing the pipeline’s design capacity of 38 billion cubic meters per year. In the first half of the year there were days when flows exceeded Russia’s maximum contractual obligations.

[...]

Still, absent major new supply deals, Russian gas output is unlikely to see a meaningful recovery. Gazprom won’t be able to send much more exports to China until 2027, when its Far Eastern route begins operations, while talks over the Power of Siberia 2 project that could double Russia’s total pipeline flows to the Asian country have stalled.

[...]

Archived

[...]

In Russia, many groups are eligible for state housing — but the demand far exceeds supply. Among those waiting are children who have aged out of the orphanage system. Across the country, more than 187,500 orphans are without permanent housing. Human rights activist Alexey Golovan, who heads the charitable center Sharing in Fate (Souchastie v Sudbe in Russian), says the average wait time for an apartment is seven years or more. In some regions, it stretches to 12 or even 14 years.

In Yekaterinburg alone, 1,800 orphans are currently on the housing waitlist. In other cities and towns across the region, another 6,700 are waiting. In 2025, just 1,200 of them are expected to receive apartments.

One reason orphans wait so long, Golovan explains, is that the housing program is chronically underfunded. On average, the federal government allocates only 10 billion rubles (about $125 million) annually to the regions for housing support. Local governments are then required to contribute additional funds from their own budgets.

[...]

Wheelchairs for soldiers, scraps for the rest

Many Russian soldiers return from the war in Ukraine with serious injuries, including some no longer able to walk on their own. 7×7 found at least nine posts on VKontakte in which the Sverdlovsk branch of the Defenders of the Fatherland foundation described how it helped veterans obtain wheelchairs. In some cases, coordinators purchased high-performance or electric-powered models. The foundation has also given veterans cars outfitted with hand controls.

Foundation staff often assist families in adapting their homes for disabled relatives returning from the front. In Nizhny Tagil, for example, the foundation partnered with local authorities to install an outdoor ramp at one veteran’s home. The organization also helped the family purchase a hospital bed, wheelchair, lifting equipment, a remodeled bathroom, and a smart-home system.

Civilians, by contrast, often have to turn to private charities for help, as the state fails to meet their needs. Many families cannot afford medical equipment, wheelchairs, or even essential medications. These situations affect not only adults but also families with young children.

[...]

In Yekaterinburg, a woman named Olga needed to raise 150,000 rubles (about $1,900) for medical tests her son urgently required — tests she said could mean the difference between life and death. She turned to Alexey Vikharev, a city council deputy from the ruling United Russia party. He replied that he couldn’t help — he had already donated his personal funds “to support the special military operation.”

Archived

Retail sales of medications used to treat alcohol dependence in Russia rose sharply in the first half of 2025, as the country contends with an uptick in drinking and growing concerns over patient privacy.

Russians purchased 553,200 packages of anti-alcohol drugs from January through June, a 13.5% increase compared to the same period last year, according to data from the analytics firm RNC Pharma published Friday by the Vedomosti business daily.

Revenue from those sales jumped nearly 38% year-over-year, reaching 539.6 million rubles ($5.8 million).

The surge follows an earlier annual total of 1 million packages sold in 2024, with sales amounting to 878.1 million rubles ($11.1 million).

[...]

• Russian courts have issued over 100 convictions for “extremism” for participating in the “International LGBT Movement” or displaying its alleged symbols.
• Russian authorities weaponize and misuse the justice system as a tool in their draconian crusade to enforce “traditional values” and marginalize and censor LGBT people.
• Russia’s international interlocutors should call on the Kremlin to end its persecution of LGBT people and their supporters; governments should provide safe haven and meaningful protection to those fleeing Russia for fear of prosecution.

Russian courts have issued 101 “extremism”-related convictions for allegedly participating in the “International LGBT Movement” or displaying its alleged symbols, Human Rights Watch said [...]

The prosecutions, approximately 98 of them for administrative, or minor misdemeanor, offenses and three for criminal liability, demonstrate Russian authorities’ determination to penalize, persecute, and silence lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people and their supporters.

In 2023, Russia’s Supreme Court designated the “International Public LGBT Movement” an “extremist” organization: a legal and factual mischaracterization of a diverse, decentralized global human rights cause. The ruling entered into force in January 2024, opening the floodgates for arbitrary prosecutions of individuals who are LGBT or perceived to be, along with anyone who defends their rights or expresses solidarity with them.

“Russian authorities weaponize and misuse the justice system as a tool in their draconian crusade to enforce ‘traditional values’ and marginalize and censor LGBT people,” said Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “They are flagrantly violating Russians’ rights to free expression, association, and nondiscrimination.”

[...]

Archived

Russia is introducing new penalties for sharing one’s SIM card or phone with another person — or even just forwarding a text message with a one-time verification code. The State Duma has passed laws amending both the Criminal Code and the Code of Administrative Offenses to incorporate the changes.

The measures are part of a broader effort to crack down on fraud, which has rapidly proliferated in the years since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In recent months, authorities have rolled out a series of initiatives aimed at limiting Russians’ contact with scammers. But these same changes are also creating new risks for ordinary citizens.

So Russia seriously banned people from letting others use their phones?

Yes — and the ban was actually signed into law several months ago, though it hasn’t taken effect yet. On April 1, Vladimir Putin signed a law titled “On the creation of a state information system to combat offenses committed using information and communication technologies, and on amendments to certain legislative acts of the Russian Federation.”

[...]

Archived

Russia has established a new group of officials, described as a “demographic special forces unit," in response to a catastrophic decline in birth rates across the country, the RBC business daily reported Thursday.

The measure was announced during a press conference by upper-house Federation Council head Valentina Matviyenko.

According to Matviyenko, the creation of the group makes family issues a top priority for the government.

“Today, any regional government agency can give you the name of the deputy minister responsible for demographics. A special demographic task force has been created. We can hope that we will return to our traditional values,” she said.

The group’s formation is in line with previous efforts to address Russia's deepening demographic crisis.

Despite extensive promotional campaigns encouraging larger families, public appeals from officials and Russian President Vladimir Putin and restrictions on abortion access, Russia has not succeeded in reversing its demographic decline.

[...]

Archived

Russia has established an extensive network of state-backed organizations aimed at incorporating schoolchildren into the country’s military-industrial complex, including the production, development, and operation of drones, according to a new report by the investigative outlet The Insider.

The system includes an online platform called Berloga (“Bear’s den” in Russian), which features games designed to develop students’ drone piloting skills, including a course called “Drone Academy.” To encourage participation, students are offered extra points on their university entrance exams for using the platform.

Top performers are invited to join the “Kruzhok movement,” an Education Ministry project under Russia’s National Technology Initiative (NTI). These students are also offered spots in extracurricular groups where they prepare for academic competitions and work on original engineering projects, most of which are drone-related. These include navigation, tracking and object recognition, cargo delivery, anti-drone systems, and improving drones’ resistance to electronic warfare.

The groups regularly compete in engineering contests, with assignments provided by major state corporations like Rosatom, Rostec, and Roscosmos, as well as defense contractors including the Yakovlev and Sukhoi military aircraft producers, the drone manufacturer Geoscan, and the air defense company Almaz-Antey. Representatives from these firms often serve as judges in the competitions.

[...]

Involving minors in the development of technologies intended for warfare violates international norms such as the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Geneva Conventions. Moreover, these students aren’t just learning general drone principles; they’re being directly integrated into the Russian military’s technology production chain. They receive commissions, carry out technical assignments, and take part in demonstrations for the military. In practice, this amounts to using child labor for war.

The entire system is coordinated by Russia’s Agency for Strategic Initiatives (ASI), a nominally non-profit organization whose supervisory board is headed by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

[...]