Russians are being lured into the war with “IT specialist” vacancies on a website...

Russians are being lured into the war with “IT specialist” vacancies on a website for freelancers and people looking for remote workOffers for “IT specialists” to sign a contract with the Defense Ministry have appeared on the remote-work website FL.ru, Verstka noticed.

The vacancies for a “software developer,” “digital systems specialist” and “IT specialist” were posted in early October. Applicants must be between 18 and 35 years old and have “confident computer skills,” as well as “technical skills and an interest in technology.”

“We are considering IT specialists and candidates with technical experience for work in the Rubicon unit. Specialists who have worked with software, networks, electronics, communications and technical systems would be suitable,” says the advertisement for a “digital systems specialist.”

None of the vacancies mentions the “special military operation.” However, they list terms typical for participants in the war against Ukraine: a one-time payment of up to 2 million rubles, a salary starting at 300,000 rubles, debt forgiveness of up to 10 million rubles and the possibility of receiving a 1,000-square-meter plot of land.

The vacancies were posted by the “Volunteer Center” account, which recruits people for the war. A Verstka correspondent used the feedback form on the center’s website to ask how safe it was to work as an “IT specialist” and how close the job was to the front line.

The only response was an automated message saying that “contract service entails being present in the area where service is performed; remote work is not possible.”

🩵The website FL.ru, where the vacancies are posted, presents itself as the “largest Russian-language freelance marketplace.” “Programmers and designers, artists and copywriters, lawyers and accountants, engineers and photographers — hundreds of thousands of remote workers across freelance specialties,” the site’s description says.

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