One of Moscow’s top universities is offering plush signing bonuses to encourage students to enlist in non-combat military positions, but legal experts warned the recruitment efforts rely on deceptive tactics that instead are thrusting the young academics into the throes of war.
The Higher School of Economics confirmed that they are enticing students to enlist along with other academic institutions across Russia, promising bonuses of 5.2 million rubles ($68,600 USD), The Moscow Times reported.
The students are told they are signing up for one-year tours of duty in the Russian military’s drone units, which operate away from the front lines of the war in Ukraine.
Russian good-government groups, however, said the students are being sold a bill of goods, and are likely being pushed to the front lines, the outlet reported.
“In reality, you could find yourself on the front lines, including as a member of an assault unit,” Artyom Klyga, a lawyer at the Movement for Conscientious Objectors wrote on Telegram.
Klyga said all Russian military contracts are indefinite due to Russian strongman Vladimir Putin’s 2022 mobilization decree at the onset of his invasion.
The Higher School of Economics is a highly regarded university, but has found itself subject to criticism for being too closely aligned with Putin, the outlet reported.
The Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, the Siberian Federal University and the Shukhov Belgorod State Technological University are also engaged in similar deceptive recruitment campaigns, The Moscow Times reported.
