Kathrine Frich
Teenagers in Russia are appearing in promotional videos describing lucrative jobs assembling combat drones.
The campaign promotes work linked to a factory producing Iranian-designed Shahed drones used in the war against Ukraine.
Journalists say the videos form part of a larger marketing effort aimed at students.
Teenagers in ads
According to the independent scientific publication T-invariant, reporters obtained a 6.49-gigabyte archive of promotional material titled “AP Boats.” In Alabuga, the term “boats” has reportedly been used internally for drone production.
The files contain dozens of clips showing students from the Alabuga Polytechnic vocational school describing how they combine studies with work assembling Shahed kamikaze drones.
In one video, a student introduces herself and promotes the program:
“My name is Darina. I’m 16 years old. Next year, I’ll earn 150,000 rubles a month. I study at the Polytechnic Institute in Alabuga and work at the largest drone factory in the world. My parents are proud of me. Do you want to do the same?”
Students in the clips say they can earn about 150,000 rubles per month in their second year and up to 350,000 rubles in the third year.
Patriotism message
Several teenagers frame their work as a patriotic duty. One student says his parents “didn’t understand” his decision at first but he joined because he is “a patriot.”
Other participants claim they are “helping their country,” while some insist their families support their decision.
A third-year student finishes one promotional clip with a line presented as praise from his family: “My parents told me, ‘You’re a real man.'”
The ads are designed for social media and messaging platforms where large Russian audiences gather.
Expensive campaign
A blogger cited by T-invariant said marketing agencies had approached him about similar promotions multiple times in the past year.
“Over the past year, agencies have approached me about this about once a quarter, but this is the first time they’ve brought me videos like this,” he said, estimating that a single campaign could cost tens of millions of rubles.
The outlet reports that a 25-second advertisement on popular blogs can cost between 250,000 and 1.5 million rubles depending on audience size.
According to Meduza, the videos have already been shared by pro-war Telegram channel Rybar and the Dvach forum channel.
Earlier investigations by the Protocol media outlet and the RZVRT YouTube channel in 2023 reported that Alabuga students were assigned to assemble Iranian drones and were unable to refuse the work or speak about it.
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Sources: T-invariant, Meduza, Protocol, RZVRT, Digi24
