Russia tricked African female students into recruiting and forcing them to assemble Iranian drones for the war against Ukraine.
The Associated Press (AP) writes about it.
To fill an acute labor shortage, Moscow is recruiting women aged 18-22 from Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya, South Sudan, Sierra Leone and Nigeria, as well as from Sri Lanka.
Social media ads promise young African women a free plane ticket, money and adventure in Europe. It is only necessary to pass a computer game and a test of knowledge of the Russian language with 100 words.
But instead of interning and learning the hotel and restaurant business, some of them learned only after arriving in the steppes of Russian Tatarstan that they would work at a weapons factory and assemble thousands of Iranian attack drones for the war against Ukraine.
In interviews with the Associated Press, the women complained of long hours under constant supervision, broken promises about pay and training options, and working with caustic chemicals that left their skin itchy and stained.
Thus, a part of the key Russian arms production ended up in the inexperienced hands of about 200 African women who work together with Russian vocational school students aged 16 and over at a factory in the special economic zone "Alabuga" in Tatarstan. It is about a thousand kilometers from Moscow.
Travels from Africa lead to a trap
The woman who agreed to work in Russia initially enthusiastically documented her trip — taking selfies at the airport, filming food on the plane and eagerly awaiting her arrival. However, when she arrived in Alabuga, she quickly learned what she would have to do — and realized that it was a trap.
"The company only manufactures drones. And nothing else. I regret and curse the day I started doing all these things,” said a woman who assembled flying machines.
Before the trip to Russia, the women passed a vocabulary test — there were the words "factory", "hook" and "unhook". This was almost the only "hint" as to what the women would actually be doing.
Female workers were constantly monitored in dormitories and at work. The working day was long and the pay was less than the women expected. All this was confirmed to journalists by three other women — their names and nationalities are not mentioned for security reasons.
At first, the recruits were promised $700 a month, but later it was reported that the salary was "more than $500." The cost of accommodation, air tickets, medical care and Russian language lessons were deducted from this money. Some women said that Russians treat them "like donkeys and slaves."
Four women talked about long work shifts of up to 12 hours, with "floating" days off.
Production of drones in Tatarstan
The special economic zone "Alabuga" was created in 2006 to attract business and investment to Tatarstan. It expanded rapidly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. According to satellite images, some businesses switched to military production, constructing new buildings or renovating old ones.
"Alabuga" at the end of November 2021. "Alabuga" on September 28, 2024 — two and a half years after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Planet Labs
After Russia and Iran signed an agreement in 2022, Iranian Shahed-136 drones were delivered to Russia in disassembled form. But later the production of drones was transferred to "Alabuga" and, possibly, to another plant. According to leaked documents and data from the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security, Alabuga is the main Russian factory for the production of kamikaze drones. It is expected that by 2025 they will produce 6 thousand such drones per year.
But finding workers is a big problem for Russia. With unemployment at a record low, and many Russians already working in the military industry, fighting in Ukraine or fleeing abroad, the plantʼs management attracted students from vocational schools and "cheap labor" — foreigners.
Alabuga is the only Russian factory that employs women from Africa, Asia and South America to make weapons, according to experts and an Associated Press investigation. About 90% of the foreign women recruited through the Alabuga Start program work in drone manufacturing—usually where no special skills are required.
Documents leaked last year detail a workforce growth from just under 900 people in 2023 to plans to hire more than 2,600 people in 2025. The documents noted that mostly foreign women assemble drones and paint them.
In the first half of this year, Alabuga hired 182 women, mainly from Central and East African countries, as reported on the Alabuga Start program page.
In the Telegram channel "Alabugy" it was noted that Russian officials recruited women in Uganda, in particular from orphanages. The program was also distributed in many Russian embassies.
Journalists note that the Alabuga Start program does not explain why elderly women or men are not recruited for work. It is assumed that Russians believe that young women are easier to control. In one of the documents that got into the network, female workers from African countries are called "derogatory" words. Exactly how — the journalists do not specify.
The plant also recruits workers from the Alabuz Polytechnic School, a nearby vocational-technical boarding school for Russians aged 16-18 and Central Asians aged 18-22, who allegedly specialize in designing drones.
Surveillance, caustic chemicals — and the Ukrainian attack
According to the woman who collects the drones, the foreign workers take buses from their living quarters to the factory, going through numerous checkpoints. They live in dormitories that are guarded 24 hours a day — entrance is controlled by facial recognition, and new recruits are monitored by cameras.
Pets, alcohol and drugs are not allowed. Upon arrival, foreigners receive Russian SIM cards for their phones, but they are not allowed to bring them into the factory.
One woman said she could only speak to an Associated Press reporter with her supervisorʼs permission, while another said her messages were being monitored. A third says that employees are not allowed to talk to outsiders about their work, and a fourth says that the Russians encourage them to report on their work colleagues.
Newbies are taught how to assemble drones and cover them with a caustic substance, the consistency of which is similar to yogurt. Because many workers lack protective equipment, the chemicals make their faces feel like theyʼre being pricked with tiny needles, and their cheeks are left with "little holes" that itch badly.
In addition to the danger from chemicals, in April 2024, "Alabuga" was attacked by Ukraine, and 12 people were injured there.
The quality of drones
Although the plant in Alabuz is ahead of schedule for the production of drones, there are questions about their quality, experts say. The cause of malfunctions may be production problems associated with unskilled labor. Some experts also point out that Russia has switched to other, low-quality materials.
AP journalists analyzed about 2,000 attacks by Russian Shahed drones documented by Ukraine since July 29, 2024. According to their findings, about 95% of the drones did not hit any visible targets. Instead, they fall into Ukrainian rivers and fields, fly over NATO member Latvia, and fall in Russia or Belarus. By July, about 14% of the launched "Shaheed" hit targets in Ukraine.
Russiaʼs actions, if foreigners are recruited by deception for the purpose of exploitation, may meet the criteria of human trafficking, says Ravina Shamdasani, spokeswoman for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. AP journalists contacted the governments of 22 countries whose citizens participate in the program. However, most did not respond or promised to look into it.
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