Russia has been recruiting young women from South Africa to manufacture drones in factories in Tatarstan’s Alabuga Special Economic Zone, the Center for Countering Disinformation under State Council of National Security reported.
The Alabuga Special Economic Zone in Russia is conducting an active advertising campaign to recruit workers from African and Asian countries, promising high salaries and career prospects.
Response to the ads turned out to be so massive that the South African government warned its citizens about the danger of winding up in Russian drone factories, the Center reported on its website.
In South Africa, Russia is targeting young African women, Bloomberg reported. South Africa’s government is now investigating what Russian companies are doing and what their intentions are, Bloomberg’s source said.
Workers from Africa and Asia are being recruited using the help of BRICS organization, the center reported.
BRICS countries include Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Iran, Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
“Notably, russia [sic] is using BRICS structures to search for workers. In other words, the kremlin [sic] is involving an international organization – which it constantly tries to present as a tool of economic development and peaceful cooperation – for its military purposes,” the center wrote.
BRICS posted ads through the South Africa-based BRICS Student Commission. The ads posted informed about searching for women between the ages of 18 and 22 for construction and hospitality jobs at Alabuga in January. Bloomberg also wrote Instagram and TikTok influencers from South Africa began advertising them.
Kyiv Post previously wrote that Russian state media broadcasts profiling assembly workshops in the Alabuga industrial zone in Tatarstan, where the Kremlin manufactures the Iranian Shahed drones under license, reported that production number for the most common explosives-toting drone launched by Russia at Ukraine – the Shahed-136 – are increasing.
According to that official broadcast Russia’s Alabuga plant in the central region Tatarstan is on track to manufacture nine times more aircraft compared to 2024. The main product is the Shahed kamikaze drone, an Iran-designed winged aircraft carrying up to 50 kg (110 lbs) of explosives in early models.