Russia Expands Global Outreach for Program Linked to Drone Production
As the war in Ukraine saps the country of its workforce, young women are being internationally recruited to work in factories known to produce kamikaze drones.
Illustration: Isabella Cotier for Bloomberg
On a Saturday afternoon earlier this month, about 60 people, young women and their parents, gathered in an auditorium at the University of Botswana to listen to several of their countrymen exhort them to pack up and move almost 6,000 miles (9,600 kilometers) away to the Republic of Tatarstan in Russia.
Over fried chicken from a local Gaborone fast-food joint, attendees were pitched what was billed as a work-study program in the Alabuga Special Economic Zone, an industrial complex 12 hours east of Moscow dedicated to mechanical engineering and the production of Shahed-136 kamikaze drones. Fliers and promotional materials for the program featured images of smiling young African women working as technicians and waitresses.