Russian universities are being ordered to help President Vladimir Putin recruit students amid its struggle to replace troops in Ukraine, says exiled Russian opposition journalist Farida Rustamova.
The report, published earlier this week, cited an unnamed rector from Moscow and a Siberian academic.
They told Rustamova that Russia's education and science minister issued an order mandating that universities must convince 2% of students to sign up for the army.
That would mean an additional 44,000 soldiers for Russia's military, the report claimed.
"First it was students from technical universities, then those facing expulsion, and now it has reached all students," a report in T-invariant, an independent media platform, claimed.
"Universities have been given recruitment quotas, students are being lured with additional university payments and threatened with denial of retakes for failed courses."
The T-invariant report said the administration of Saint Petersburg State University in mid-February sent letters to students offering a "special scholarship" — a one-time payment of 50,000 rubles ($650).
The same offer appears at Plekhanov University. In Sochi, the package is topped off with a land plot, according to the report.
At Moscow's Higher School of Economics — one of Russia's top universities — students who failed their winter exams were reportedly offered a way to avoid expulsion: sign a one-year military contract.
According to a leaked message, the university said those who agreed would be placed on academic leave for the duration of their service and allowed to return to their studies afterward.
The Russia-Ukraine war is in its fourth year with no clear signs of slowing.
Peace talks have been ongoing for more than a year. Putin has maintained his maximalist demands in the U.S.-mediated talks, saying Kyiv must pull its forces from the four Ukrainian regions that Moscow illegally annexed but never fully captured.
He has repeatedly brandished his nuclear arsenal to prevent the West from boosting military support for Kyiv.
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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