Политика и текущие события 

Compulsory Drone Program the Latest Kremlin Effort to Militarize the Youth 

Сэм Ведингтон

In Russia and many former Eastern Bloc countries, September 1 is referred to as “Knowledge Day”. This is an academic tradition that marks the first day of classes, usually accompanied by flowers and nice clothes to celebrate the continued growth of students. This year, however, the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation introduced a compulsory course offered in over 500 schools, including 30 training bases across the federation’s oblasts. Larisa Tutova, a member of the State Duma Committee of Education, claims that this program is designed to equip students with unmanned aerial technology skills to find work in military and private sectors. She highlights that students even have the potential to work for themselves by “freelancing weddings, concerts, collaborating with film studios, advertising agencies, and other companies that need high-quality photos and videos.” There are questionable moral implications, however, as this new curriculum’s chief motive seems aimed at recruiting drone specialists for the military or government contracts. 

Although it is true that more schools around the world are starting to introduce more drone classes, there is a stark difference in the way that the program in Russia was designed. This textbook curriculum was made in collaboration with Geoscan, a Russian drone manufacturer, and Kremlin controlled publishing house Prosveshchenie. This collaboration isn’t surprising as both seem to aid in a new push to domesticate the manufacturing and specialization of the consumer drones that have become the modus operandi of ground warfare in Ukraine. Both sides quickly adopted cheap civilian drones because it is inexpensive to quickly produce military-quality drones. Geoscan’s website showcases such cheap surveillance drones. Currently, the Kremlin heavily relies on importing them from China. In fact, a study that monitored drones in 2022 reported that 59% of drones used on the battlefield were civilian drones produced by Chinese hobby company DJI. Prosveshchenie’s attempt to revise history and teach the Kremlin narrative to the next generation has been illustrated in the past. Most notably, at the start of the invasion, when the Kremlin demanded that they revise their textbooks to remove “inappropriate” content pertaining to Ukraine and Kyiv. The publisher’s website also states that their goal is that “By 2030, about one million specialists in unmanned aviation will be trained in the country.” These comments signal the government’s effort to be more self-sufficient on this essential component of modern warfare.

This is the Kremlin’s latest predatory push targeted at society’s vulnerable populations for their geopolitical ambitions. The unfortunate cost is that the Russian government neglects their duty to protect or provide adequate social safety nets to the people they prey upon. To this day, a substantial portion of disabled youth of society have been neglected and often institutionalized in state run orphanages. The Human Rights Watch conducted a survey in 2014 that interviewed over 200 families with children formerly living in these institutions across 6 oblasts. Although the state does not provide specific data, it is estimated that a majority of children in orphanages have at least one living parent. The staff at state orphanages often lack the proper funding and training to foster development and education. Unfortunately, children who are deaf, mute, or otherwise physically disabled are neglected in the worst way. Many of these children are diagnosed as “uneducable,” which in itself is an outdated and inhumane diagnosis. The children placed under this category often spend most of their day in “lying-down” rooms, where they are left to exist in pens and cribs. The children who cannot feed themselves are often tube fed and are given sedatives to calm down or sleep. These children often grow up severely underdeveloped mentally and physically because of lack of resources and proper care in these orphanages. Many doctors in Russia still recommend families to turn over their children with disabilities to a state orphanage. They do this by catastrophizing the burden the family will have by keeping their child to live at home in their communities. 

While the government spent $58 billion in the first half of 2024 on its military, it is clear that Russia is decades behind in adequate mental health care and education for the disabled. The sociological outlook of life for Russian society’s youth is pretty bleak, and the state is making it increasingly oppressive. While many bureaucrats, artists, and oligarchs thrive by playing along with the regime, the majority of the youth are predestined to be indoctrinated or forgotten.

Works Cited: 

Flintoff, Corey. “For Russian Kids, a Disability Often Means Life in an Orphanage.” NPR, November 4, 2014. https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2014/11/04/358315057/for-russian-kids-a-disablity-often-means-life-in-an-orphanage.  

Greenwood, Faine. “The Drone War in Ukraine Is Cheap, Deadly, and Made in China.” Foreign Policy, February 16, 2023.  https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/02/16/ukraine-russia-war-drone-warfare-china/.  

Kesteloo, Haye. “Russia Launches Ambitious Drone Education Program in over 500 Schools.” DroneXL.co, September 3, 2024. https://dronexl.co/pa/2024/09/03/russia-drone-education-program-500-schools/.  

Kilner, James. “Russian Schools Set Pupils on Path to Building Killer Drones.” The Telegraph, September 14, 2024. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/09/14/russia-schools-pupils-killer-drone-lessons-kremlin/.  

Mazzarino, Andrea. “Abandoned by the State.” Human Rights Watch, March 28, 2023. https://www.hrw.org/report/2014/09/15/abandoned-state/violence-neglect-and-isolation-children-disabilities-russian.   

Pravda, Ukrainska. “War with Ukraine Gets Increasingly More Expensive for Russian State Budget.” Yahoo! News, September 13, 2024. https://www.yahoo.com/news/war-ukraine-gets-increasingly-more-144933429.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall.