Kenya Ambassador to Russia Peter Mathuki with young participants in the Alabuga Start Programme during a visit to the centre in May 2025./HANDOUT
Fresh queries have emerged over Russia’s vocational training programme with growing fears that the initiative is being used to recruit Africans to fight in the Russia-Ukraine war.
Diplomatic sources say the Alabuga Start Programme’s operations are currently under scrutiny. The probe follows reports that dozens of Kenyan youths have been approached with promises of lucrative jobs or scholarships in Russia, only to find themselves channeled into military training camps.
Others, such as former soldiers, have willingly signed up to go to the frontline incentivised by better payment packages. According to a senior diplomatic source familiar with the matter, the inquiry is being conducted through multilateral diplomatic and intelligence coordination, focusing on the activities of recruitment intermediaries and agencies linked to Russian institutions.
“The Alabuga Start initiative is being closely scrutinised.There is concern that it is being manipulated for covert recruitment into Russia’s war effort,” the source said in confidence.
In September, Russian national Mikhail Lyapin was arrested, questioned and later deported over links to a recruitment ring. While the DCI initially said Lyapin was working for the Russian embassy, the mission denied he was a diplomat.
The Alabuga Start Programme, initially launched to promote technical training and industrial innovation at the Alabuga Special Economic Zone in Tatarstan, has in recent months come under international spotlight.
Media reports, including African Uncensored, have alleged that the programme’s foreign student arm has been repurposed to attract young people from developing countries under the guise of educational or vocational opportunities.
A report by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime found that 14 Kenyan women were among 200 young Africans employed under the programme in Tatarstan. When the SEZ was hit by Ukrainian drones in April last year, hitting one of dormitories in which Alabuga Start participants were housed and injuring scores, the programme released a video message from a Kenyan, in which she said she and her co-workers were undaunted by Ukrainian threats.
The study said in Kenya and Tanzania, reports about labour exploitation at Alabuga had prompted a response.
“In Kenya, agents of the Directorate of Criminal Investigations questioned officials at the immigration department about how Alabuga recruits had been granted passports in order to leave the country,” the report said.
The Russian Embassy in Nairobi, however, dismissed the report, calling it an anti-Russian narrative spread across Africa.
“The Alabuga Special Economic Zone (SEZ), established in 2006 in the Republic of Tatarstan, Russia, hosts the Alabuga Start international programme for the employment of young specialists in Russia. Young people from all over the world are recruited for programmes, where they undergo a full cycle of training, including a practical part, receive real skills and employment opportunities,” it said.
It said the programme was being targeted to soil the dynamic relations Russia had developed with Africa.
“Western countries, which realise their position in the world is becoming increasingly precarious, are resorting to various, sometimes the most despicable, tools,” it said.
In May, Alabuga in a publicist message, shared a visit by Kenya Ambassador to Russia Peter Mathuki to the facility. In the statement, Alabuga said the centre exceeded Mathuki’s expectations.
“I had heard about Alabuga before, but it helped a lot to see this technological industrial park with my own eyes. I am impressed,” the statement quoted Mathuki as having said.
Mathuki got acquainted with the industrial site, the Alabuga Polytech educational centre and a residential complex where the company’s employees, including Alabuga Start participants live.
