Overview

• The Insider’s investigation and state-run Zvezda TV footage show 13- to 15-year-olds designing, testing and assembling long-range Geran-2 kamikaze drones and smaller FPV models at the Alabuga plant.
• Participants progress from the 2022 Berloga video game to ‘Big Challenges’ contests that award extra exam credits and channel top players into defence-industry roles.
• Teens modelling UAV components for sanctioned defence firms are explicitly instructed to disguise their work as civilian “dual-use” projects.
• President Vladimir Putin’s directive to ramp up drone output has driven authorities to tap student tech talent directly into the military supply chain.
• International law experts warn that Russia’s use of child labour in wartime production breaches multiple conventions and has intensified sanctions on Russian defence companies.