In Yekaterinburg, an 18-year-old man left to join the special military operation while under the influence of "scammers".

      In Yekaterinburg an 18-year-old newcomer from Bashkortostan, allegedly without realizing what he was doing, signed a contract with the Ministry of Defence and was sent to the zone of the special military operation. The young man’s mother insists her son did this under the influence of fraudsters. Member of the Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights (SPCh) and editor-in-chief of the Regnum news agency Marina Akhmedova, who received the mother’s appeal, recounted this convoluted story on her Telegram channel.

      According to the appeal from 18-year-old Bulat’s mother, in October he gave in to the temptation to make some extra money by undergoing medical tests on behalf of people who allegedly wanted to sign a contract for the SVO but had health restrictions. At first, those who had offered students the chance to “make a little money” by giving tests took Bulat to Ufa, where another man told him that in Yekaterinburg they pay twice as much for the same thing.

      That is how Bulat ended up in Yekaterinburg. After passing the medical commission he was given a paper which he signed, allegedly without reading. After that the newly enlisted contract soldier was taken to a military unit, from which he was sent to the SVO on November 5. In her appeal the mother also indicated that the due payments are being sent to a phone number unknown to her.

      “The matter was immediately taken up by the human rights commissioner for Sverdlovsk Region, where the young man signed the contract, SPCh member Tatyana Merzlyakova,” Marina Akhmedova writes. Bulat has already been found. He is indeed in the SVO zone. The young man refused to return from there. Despite this, the Ministry of Defence intends to find out whether there were fraudsters involved and to which mobile bank account the monetary allowances are being credited.