Large Russian oil and gas, construction, and metallurgical companies are financing contractors of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.

The Russian-Latvian publication Vazhnye Istorii reported on this.

These companies include Rusal, Novatek, PIK, and Mospromstroy.

The procedure works quite simply: a person interested in contract service contacts the company’s recruiters and is hired by the company the day before the contract is signed with the Defense Ministry, after which the employment contract is suspended.

Thus, there is a legal reason to pay bonuses to such an “employee”, which range between 200 and 350 thousand rubles (from $2 to 3 thousand).

“We first hire the day before the contract is signed, and then suspend the employment contract, and we have a reason to pay bonuses to our employee who participates in the Special Military Operation. This is the scheme,” the recruiter said.

This scheme works at Rusal Management, a subsidiary of Rusal. Rusal is owned by billionaire Oleg Deripaska, who is under sanctions.

Another mechanism works at the Novatek company: there, they recruit employees of their private security firms to sign the contract.

The employees who signed the contract are paid ‘charitable assistance’ from the Muzhestvo fund.

The amount of such assistance reaches RUB 200,000 rubles ($2,000), some recruits mention RUB 300,000 ($3,000).

The Inzhteploprogress and Mospromstroy companies have similar conditions, which pay RUB 200 and 150 thousand a month and also offer the so-called “assistance”. Inzhteploprogress offers 400,000, and Mospromstroy offers 200,000.

“The largest federal company in the framework of the contract military service support is inviting volunteers,” reads a post on the Avito ad platform.

The record holder for such payments was the Mashprom company, which at the moment offers RUB 350,000 per month.

As previously reported, the Russians have decided to raise the conscription age to 30 years. It may be related to the need to increase the mobilization reserve.