BAKU, Azerbaijan - Azerbaijani citizens are being targeted with offers of more than 60,000 manats to sign contracts with the Russian military, according to a video report showing people who say they are recruiting in Russia.
The report, published by Vesti Baku, says prospective recruits are also offered airfare to Moscow, help with documents and the later relocation of family members. The recruiters’ claims and the promised payments have not been independently verified.
People shown in the video tell potential recruits that age and a lack of military experience do not matter. The conversations reportedly begin with offers to dig, build garages or work as drivers before shifting to the signing of a military contract.
Promises of Money, Citizenship and Family Payments
One purported recruiter says a person would receive 3 million rubles within one or two weeks of signing a contract, an amount he valued at about 61,000 manats. He puts monthly pay at about 5,100 manats and says recruits could send the money home.
The same speaker promises a path to Russian citizenship and the relocation of relatives. He also claims that a recruit’s family would receive 12 million rubles if the person were killed.
The report offers no evidence that every person signing a contract would receive those sums. References to construction or driving work also provide no assurance that a recruit would avoid deployment to a combat zone in Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Azerbaijani Law Provides Prison Terms
Azerbaijan’s Criminal Code makes mercenary activity a criminal offense. Under Article 114, recruiting, training, financing or materially supporting mercenaries, or using them in an armed conflict or military operation, is punishable by eight to 12 years in prison. Participation as a mercenary carries a sentence of five to 11 years. The legal classification in any case depends on its facts.
Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry has warned that citizens who take part in armed conflicts or military operations abroad on either a paid or voluntary basis face criminal liability under national law. The Prosecutor General’s Office has also urged citizens not to follow recruitment appeals, saying Azerbaijani nationals have been killed, seriously injured or taken hostage in foreign conflicts.
The offers therefore carry two severe risks: death or injury in war and possible criminal prosecution in Azerbaijan.