The Higher School of Economics (HSE), one of the foremost universities in Russia, has verified reports suggesting that it is promoting military enlistment among its students, despite legal experts cautioning that this recruitment effort employs misleading methods.
Last month, the academic news platform T-Invariant disclosed that students from various Russian universities were promised enlistment bonuses amounting to 5.2 million rubles (approximately $68,600) for unique one-year military contracts with newly established drone units that operate away from the conflict zones in Ukraine.
However, Artyom Klyga, a lawyer affiliated with the Movement for Conscientious Objectors, an NGO aiding Russians in lawfully evading military service, stated on Friday that the director of HSE’s military registration office informed him that students are actually being offered service under “standard military contracts.”
Klyga emphasized that all military contracts are, in effect, indefinite due to President Vladimir Putin’s September 2022 decree on “partial mobilization,” which remains in force despite previous government indications that the mobilization campaign had concluded after around 300,000 reservists were summoned to duty.
He labeled HSE’s assertion that students who enlist would serve specifically in drone units for just one year as “misleading.”
“In truth, you could find yourself on the front lines, including serving as a member of an assault unit,” Klyga remarked in a post on Telegram. “In such a case, HSE would not be able to assist you.”
T-Invariant also reported that similarly deceptive recruitment efforts were initiated at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Siberian Federal University, and Shukhov Belgorod State Technological University.
Once celebrated for its high degree of academic freedom, HSE has increasingly come under the control of the Kremlin in recent years. The university has suppressed dissent, allocated thousands of state-funded places to the children of war veterans, and raised funds for military drones.
