Russia Policy Monitor No. 2729

RUSSIA STEPPING UP DRONE PRODUCTION
In its current conflict with the United States, Iran has reportedly relied on a range of support from Russia – including drones based on Iranian designs that were originally provided to Moscow for its war on Ukraine. Russia's own capability to manufacture those systems, meanwhile, is growing. According to satellite imagery analyzed by Radio Svoboda, Russia has significantly expanded the territory of the Alabuga Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in the Tatarstan region, where Geran strike drones – improved versions of the Iranian Shahed – are being produced. Satellite imagery also shows active construction on a further 450 hectares south of the SEZ across the M-12 "Vostok" federal highway, as well as construction on a new road leading from the M-12 to the SEZ. Beyond expanding the territory of the SEZ, Russia is also said to be recruiting students and migrants through the Alabuga Polytechnic College to work in the facility. (Radio Svoboda, May 9, 2026)

HOW RUSSIA TRICKED THOUSANDS OF AFRICANS
For months, rumors have swirled over a veritable recruitment "pipeline" by which the Kremlin has managed to coax, ensnare and conscript vulnerable foreign workers to fight in its war on Ukraine. (See Russia Policy Monitor No. 2728). Now, a new study by the Pentagon's Africa Center for Strategic Studies details precisely what this has looked like in Africa.

According to the report, Moscow has built an extensive recruitment scheme that deceives African job seekers and students, funneling them into the Russian military and sending them onward to fight in Ukraine. Specifically, it details, the effort is a deliberate strategy by the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) to harness foreign manpower for the Ukrainian front. Some 1,700 Africans from 36 countries are estimated to be currently fighting for Russia, though the total number is likely significantly higher. Many of these recruits are forced into high-risk combat situations, and reports indicate that as many as 42% of those fighters die within four months of entering combat duties. (Africa Center for Strategic Studies, May 19, 2026)

OBSCURING REGIONAL STATISTICS
In a move that mirrors the practice adopted by ROSSTAT, the country's federal statistics agency, Russia's regional statistical offices have "also stopped publishing data on population size," notes Paul Goble in his Window on Eurasia blog. Citing the People of Baikal regional outlet, Goble explains that the practice is designed "to hide massive declines not only in the overall size of the population but also to distract attention from the fact that this decline has been greatest among adult males, who have died in the fighting or fled to avoid service." Specifically, he notes, statistics indicate that the number of men in Buryatia declined by nearly 16,000 men and 2,000 women between 2021 and 2024 – whereas before "the two figures moved more or less in tandem." Moreover, according to People of Baikal, the trend is being replicated in other Russian regions as well. (Window on Eurasia, May 5, 2026)

RUSSIA'S PROBLEMATIC NEW HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSIONER
Russia's State Duma voted on May 21st to endorse Yana Lantratova as the country's new ombudswoman for human rights. But, according to Ukrainian authorities, Lantratova has a sordid past. Allegedly, she helped Sergei Mironov, the chairman of her political party "A Just Russia," to illegally "adopt" a girl from Russian-occupied Ukraine – even though, according to Ukraine's ombudsman for children's rights, the girl had an official guardian in Ukraine.

Sadly, the incident is far from unique. Back in March, a United Nations commission said it had identified around 1,200 cases of children that had been illegally taken from Ukrainian territory by Russia since the beginning of the full-scale invasion. Moscow, for its part, says that it has mostly removed children from orphanages near the front line for their own safety. The International Criminal Court has accused Russian President Vladimir Putin and the country's commissioner for children's rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, of war crimes for the abduction and deportation of Ukrainian children from occupied territory. (New York Times, May 18, 2026)