‘Drone academy’ New report details how the Russian military draws on schoolchildren’s labor to fuel its war in Ukraine
Russia has established an extensive network of state-backed organizations aimed at incorporating schoolchildren into the country’s military-industrial complex, including the production, development, and operation of drones, according to a new report by the investigative outlet The Insider.
The system includes an online platform called Berloga (“Bear’s den” in Russian), which features games designed to develop students’ drone piloting skills, including a course called “Drone Academy.” To encourage participation, students are offered extra points on their university entrance exams for using the platform.
Top performers are invited to join the “Kruzhok movement,” an Education Ministry project under Russia’s National Technology Initiative (NTI). These students are also offered spots in extracurricular groups where they prepare for academic competitions and work on original engineering projects, most of which are drone-related. These include navigation, tracking and object recognition, cargo delivery, anti-drone systems, and improving drones’ resistance to electronic warfare.
The groups regularly compete in engineering contests, with assignments provided by major state corporations like Rosatom, Rostec, and Roscosmos, as well as defense contractors including the Yakovlev and Sukhoi military aircraft producers, the drone manufacturer Geoscan, and the air defense company Almaz-Antey. Representatives from these firms often serve as judges in the competitions.
A journalist from The Insider posed as a reporter from a state-backed newspaper and spoke with students who had taken part in these contests. The students were well aware that their work was effectively part of Moscow’s military research and development. In return, they said, they receive not only praise but also grants — and in some cases, contracts with defense companies.
The Insider noted that involving minors in the development of technologies intended for warfare violates international norms such as the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Geneva Conventions. Moreover, these students aren’t just learning general drone principles; they’re being directly integrated into the Russian military’s technology production chain. They receive commissions, carry out technical assignments, and take part in demonstrations for the military. In practice, this amounts to using child labor for war.
The entire system is coordinated by Russia’s Agency for Strategic Initiatives (ASI), a nominally non-profit organization whose supervisory board is headed by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Every component, from the online games to the extracurricular clubs and engineering competitions, receives state funding, including from the Education Ministry. The program is backed by tens of billions of rubles (hundreds of millions of dollars).
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