Russia dismisses recruitment flyers in Tehran as scam
The Russian Embassy in Tehran has denied any connection to flyers circulating in the Iranian capital that invited men to enlist in the Russian army for large cash rewards.
The Russian Embassy in Tehran has denied any connection to flyers circulating in the Iranian capital that invited men to enlist in the Russian army for large cash rewards.
In a statement on Tuesday, the embassy said “unscrupulous individuals” had been spreading fake letters online, offering Iranian men aged 18 to 45 contracts “to serve with the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation in the area of the special military operation.”
“The embassy officially declares that this letter and any similar document are forgeries of a criminal nature,” the statement said. “Neither the embassy nor any official Russian institution has any connection with them.”
The denial followed a report by the Tehran-based outlet Rouydad24, which said that leaflets distributed near the Russian Embassy in Tehran invited Iranian men to join the Russian army with promises of dollar payments and contracts “directly under the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation.”
The flyers, seen around College Square, targeted men aged 18 to 45 and offered starting bonuses of $15,000 to $18,000 and monthly salaries of $2,500 to $2,800, along with free housing, medical care, and military uniforms.
Rouydad24 said the leaflets directed readers to a Telegram channel that had published multilingual posts in Persian, Russian, Arabic, and English, describing the campaign as a “state-supported initiative.”
One video shared by the channel appeared to show a man in a Russian military uniform introducing himself in Persian as “Mohammadian Khatibi, from Iran.”
The Iranian report compared the flyers to similar alleged recruitment efforts in India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and several African countries, which foreign media have described as part of Moscow’s drive to attract foreign fighters amid heavy losses in Ukraine.
While the embassy has now categorically denied any such activity in Iran, Rouydad24 noted that the case underscores the vulnerability of economically distressed Iranians to online recruitment scams offering large foreign payouts.
