Thread by @ChrisO_wiki

1/ Russian teenagers who were once hailed as "future Elon Musks" are reported to have been put to work around the clock in frugal conditions to build Shahed kamikaze drones in Tatarstan. They are reportedly shot at close range with paintball guns to weed out "wimps and brats."

2/ The facility has also recruited teenagers from African countries, catfishing them via the dating apps Tinder and Badoo. Alabuga has focused on recruiting girls, as African boys are regarded as "too aggressive and dangerous". It consigns them to "teenage slavery." ⬇️

3/ A report published today has highlighted that Iranian-designed Shahed kamikaze drones are now likely being produced in Russia. The independent Russian news outlets Protocol and RZVRT previously reported they were being assembled in Tatarstan.

https://twitter.com/NewVoiceUkraine/status/1684240410846298114

4/ The production site is a former special economic zone called Alabuga, which before the war in Ukraine was a high-tech centre of excellence that attracted many foreign companies. The February 2022 outbreak of war caused them to pull out en masse, threatening Alabuga's future.

5/ To make up for the lost business, Alabuga's management turned to military contracts including the manufacture of Russian-designed drones including the Orlan. It was subsequently chosen as the site for the manufacture of the Iranian Shahed in a 40,000 sq m facility.

6/ It's expected that the Shahed production facility will more than double in size to 100,000 sq m. To deliver this level of production, Alabuga has turned to the students of the Alabuga Polytechnic College (AP) which is part of the complex.

7/ The AP was opened in April 2021, with much fanfare, as a place which would "grow Elon Musks" for Russia – where brilliant teenagers would study engineering and technology, and put their skills to work in a state-of-the-art production facility.

8/ The reality has turned out to be somewhat different. At least two students are reported to have died by suicide. Teaching standards are said to be poor, and conditions for the students are basic at best. As Protokol/RZVRT describes it:

9/ "Many students are busy studying or working from eight in the morning until late in the evening, and they simply do not have time to cook, wash clothes, do sports, or have a simple rest.

10/ "They have no opportunity to buy groceries - the shift bus to the nearest shop runs once a week. The rest of the time students have to eat in the canteen, but this is only if they are lucky enough to work in the main office building of Alabuga.

11/ "The rest of them are content with vending machines, the assortment of which is limited to chocolate bars, chips, instant noodles, and sometimes canned food.

12/ "The situation with medicine is no better: the nearest doctor, with the exception of a nurse at the college, is in the city, which can be reached only by appointment and only by taxi. The cost of a one-way trip starts from 400 rubles.

13/ "One also has to go there to get medicines at the pharmacy. Students only find out about all this after they get there."

14/ At the beginning of the school year, the administrators ordered "a whole truckload of paintballs" for Hunger Games-style mass paintball battles in which they are made to fight each other, 'reenacting' the Battle of Stalingrad against 'Nazis' wearing the NATO symbol.

15/ Participation is mandatory for students. According to Alabuga's general director Sergey Alekseev (right), the aim is "to weed out the wimps and brats at the initial stage. They should drop out on their own." He says: "Students should suffer, they should be hurt."

16/ The students were made to fight paintball battles at 5 AM every morning for two months in a row. Losing teams were "executed" by being lined up against a wall and shot from close range with paintball guns, inflicting injuries and the painful bruises seen in the video above.

17/ "The shooting was ... outside, at only a distance of maybe three metres," says Yulia, one of the students. Other losing teams had to run around the campus in the rain late at night or were forced to dig trenches. Another former student, Nastya, says of the 'executions':

18/ "In general, it is very painful. Especially for those who have sensitive skin, bruises do not go away for a long time. For me, they didn't go away for a week. The captain himself said: "You played badly today. Let's shoot each of you in turn.""

19/ Since Alabuga turned itself over to producing Shaheds, several hundred students aged 15 to 17 have been put to work assembling them. They are no longer studying, their normal projects have been cancelled and all funding has been redirected towards Shahed production.

20/ The students complain that some of them are receiving neither regular nor overtime pay. They are made to work without a break for several days without sleep and "virtually without food". Their parents are told to sign contracts consigning them to "teenage slavery".

21/ The contracts mandate huge and intentionally unaffordable financial penalties for disclosing information without permission or dropping out of the programme. Students describe an atmosphere of fear and intimidation in which their communications are monitored by Alabuga.

22/ The facility has also recruited students from African countries, focusing on girls as African boys are regarded as "too aggressive and dangerous." After the failure of an initial recruitment exercise, Alabuga turned to using Tinder and Badoo.

23/ Existing students were employed to catfish African teenagers to come to Russia under the pretext of "studying together" at Alabuga. The prospective boyfriends disappeared when the first intake of girls arrived in the autumn of 2022.

24/ The African students are segregated from the rest, living in their own separate buildings, and do the lowest-level work such as washing floors and removing garbage. According to a staffing table, students are categorised as "mulatto girls", "Tajiks" and "specialists".

25/ "Mulattoes" – students from Uganda, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Tanzania and Pakistan – are used for the most basic work, "Tajiks" (apparently meaning central Asians in general) are the next level up and "specialists" are the Russian students, evidently seen as the elite.

26/ The Russians put up with it for reasons described by Protocol and RZVRT as "conformism and a certain detachment from global problems: "I don't understand why all this is necessary, but if they say so, I'll do it. There are no fools sitting upstairs"."

27/ For many students from relatively poor families, the monthly salaries of 30-40,000 rubles ($333-444) are attractive. They put up with their mistreatment as the money enables them to buy laptops, pay off loans, obtain the latest iPhones and even buy cars.

28/ As Protocol/RZVRT puts it, "the primary factor here is not even access to material goods, but the feeling of getting out of poverty, pride, approval from parents and school friends." /end

Sources:
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🔹 https://t.co/TildLyTgZ0protokol.band/2023/07/24/ala…
protokol.band/2023/07/03/ala…