Russian military recruitment ad on VK used AI-generated image of Navalny

A Russian military contract recruitment post on the social network VK used an AI-generated image of the late opposition politician Alexey Navalny. Oleg Kashin was among the first to notice it.

The post appeared on April 4 in a social media group called “Contract for the SVO. Kaliningrad,” which had two subscribers, alongside roughly 40 other posts advertising the same service. The contract was offered by an organization called “Rodina Geroev” (“Homeland of Heroes”), with the website rodina-geroev.com.

The website’s contact section lists “Rodina Geroev” at 112 Sotsialisticheskaya Street in Rostov-on-Don, which is the address of the Rostov region government and other state agencies. A mobile phone number is also listed. The site advertises a “contract for the SVO” open to people up to age 64 “with any background,” including those with limited fitness for military service, criminal records, or outstanding debts — the last of which “Rodina Geroev” promises to help freeze and write off.

“Rodina Geroev” operates at least one other website, kontrakt-svo2025.ru, whose “Contacts” section lists the same address — 112 Sotsialisticheskaya Street in Rostov-on-Don — but a different mobile phone number. The two sites differ in design and content.

The site kontrakt-svo2025.ru contains no other contact information. The site rodina-geroev.com also published the business registration number and tax ID of an Alexander Chernyshov from the Rostov region, whose primary registered business is a personnel recruitment agency.

A nonprofit organization also called “Rodina Geroev” exists in the Rostov region, but it is registered in the city of Aksay by a different entrepreneur with a different registration number and tax ID.

Journalists from the outlet Vot Tak called the phone number listed for “Rodina Geroev” and asked why Alexey Navalny’s image had been used in the advertisement. They were told it was a random person who probably looked similar.

The independent Russian investigative outlet Agentstvo also contacted “Rodina Geroev” via WhatsApp. A company representative said “it’s a generated image.” “We’re clarifying the information right now. This obviously shouldn’t have happened, but apparently something went wrong with the marketer,” the representative told journalists.

By the time this article was published, the post featuring Navalny’s image had been deleted, but the other posts remained.