>>64494110
I'm back from Russia, where I had the opportunity to check these things, and see through the lies.

There is a strong public presence of ads for recruitment, but it's not like it's everywhere: the occasional billboard on the side of the road, in between an ad for cheese and another for a concert, some bus stops, a few information desks in the subway. I have no idea where one would even go to be handed a form and asked to sign it, because they don't have such forms even at the information desk in the subway, and not even in ZAGS.

ZAGS are the local variety of city halls/registry offices. Fucked up a lot because of the language barrier, had to do a lot of paperwork related to my visa, and visited several in far away cities over the course of two months weeks to ensure everything is fine. Fucked up so much I was considered an "illegal alien" for a while, had a fine to pay in theory, and I was in that status in which many claimed they've been sent to the front because of this. I've had two cops laugh, and people at ZAGS shrugged it off and said "it's okay, you don't even need to pay the fine". At no point anybody attempted to force me to do anything.

There ARE a lot of foreigners who are tempted by the money, think they can get it and then leave the army. Lots of scams with WOMEN too, getting married with you, then sending you to the front, and collecting the money. That is real, the government is cracking down on it, it's getting increasingly difficult to get married because of this.

Russia isn't heaven on earth but it's not even remotely close to shitholes like India or China, and while there is a lot of propaganda to pretend Russia is doing fine, it's honestly doing not too bad. When on the first day it took me 10 minutes to open a bank account, and a Yandex rover delivered my SIM card and credit card less than an hour later on the Red Square, I deeply reflected on our African American and Israeli friends that don't make this possible in our country.