When Andrei Ilinbayev last contacted his relatives on October 3, he said he had passed a medical examination and was preparing to go to war in Ukraine. Then he stopped answering their messages.
Neighbors later told his family he had gone to enlist in Ufa, the capital of the Bashkortostan region in southwestern Russia.
Ilinbayev, who comes from a village in Bashkortostan, has lived with a disability caused by a serious mental illness since childhood, according to his relatives. After his father died, he remained with his mother, who has dementia.
His relatives say they never believed he could understand the consequences of signing a military contract.
"When he first told me he was undergoing the medical examination, I thought he was joking. Who would take him? He's very naive and gullible," a relative identified as Marina told RFE/RL.
Ilinbayev's whereabouts and the circumstances of his recruitment remain unclear.
His case points to the human cost of a recruitment system in Russia that increasingly relies on private companies and intermediaries who often work on the fringes to bolster the ranks of a military depleted by the war against Ukraine, which has left at least 1.5 million dead or wounded, according to Western intelligence estimates.
Regional and municipal authorities pay bonuses to people who bring in contract soldiers. Some recruiters can earn as much as 1.25 million rubles ($15,300) per recruit, according to the independent Russian outlet The Insider -- a potentially lucrative haul in a country where the average monthly wage is around 113,000 rubles ($1,380).
The massive financial incentives have helped create a recruitment industry in which some of the country's most vulnerable people can become targets, according to human rights advocates and former recruiters.
Business Built Around Recruitment
Regional governments allocate funds to organizations that hire subcontractors and individual agents. Recruiters are generally paid when a candidate signs a military contract.
At least 8 billion rubles ($98 million) has been spent on state-funded recruitment incentives since the system began in late 2024, according to calculations by Important Stories, an independent Russian investigative outlet. The figure is considered a conservative estimate.
In Nizhny Tagil, in the Sverdlovsk region in the Urals, authorities reportedly set aside 100 million rubles ($1.22 million) for recruitment rewards in 2026, offering 400,000 rubles ($4,900) via a regional program for each person recruited.
In the western city of Penza, spending on recruitment rewards rose from about 3 million rubles ($36,700) in 2024 to almost 31 million rubles ($379,600) in 2025, according to official figures.
Some payment rules are classified, making it difficult to establish who receives the money.
In September, a Nizhny Tagil prosecutor proposed abolishing the bonuses, saying they encouraged criminal groups and the recruitment of people with disqualifying medical conditions.
The city rejected the proposal, saying payments helped meet recruitment targets. In late October, it barred enlistment office employees and state and municipal officials from receiving bonuses but kept the scheme.
Vulnerable Targets
Human rights advocates say recruiters target people vulnerable to pressure, including those with psychiatric conditions, addictions, serious debts, or few relatives able to intervene.
Information about potential recruits may come from employees of medical institutions, banks, debt-collection agencies, bailiff services, and housing and utilities organizations, according to advocates and former recruiters interviewed by RFE/RL. The allegations have not been independently verified.
A human rights advocate identified by the pseudonym Semyon said he had received dozens of complaints about people with mental disabilities being taken to a recruitment center in Ufa.
In one case, a young man with a moderate intellectual disability who had been declared legally incapacitated by a court was allegedly taken from his home to the center, according to Semyon.
Under Article 20 of the Russian Schedule of Diseases, a moderate intellectual disability mandates a Category D classification, which renders an individual entirely unfit for military service.
Semyon alleges a psychiatrist declared the man fit for service and that someone else signed the contract on his behalf.
“Recruiters lured him out of his home,” Semyon said.
The contract is being challenged in court. The alleged falsification has not been established.
The center brings together recruitment officials, doctors, and bank representatives, allowing candidates to undergo medical examinations, complete paperwork, and obtain bank cards in a day.
Internal documents from recruitment company Agency for Communication Strategies, published by The Insider in October, list socially vulnerable groups among potential targets.
They include people facing bankruptcy, clients of microfinance organizations, former prisoners, residents of poorer areas, and people with alcohol, drug, or gambling addictions.
How To Lie
Recruitment companies also advertise jobs as drivers, transport workers, cooks, or drone operators, sometimes promising free accommodation, meals, and help with paperwork.
Nikolai, a former recruiter who said he worked for the Voevoda recruitment center for about 18 months, told RFE/RL that newcomers received short courses on persuading candidates.
The training included instructions on "how to convincingly lie to people," Nikolai said.
He described advertisements promising candidates they would be trained as drone operators rather than sent into assault units.
“Most likely, they'll send them into assault units,” Nikolai said.
He said recruiters targeted people whose financial circumstances made such offers difficult to refuse.
Recruiters Are Not Always Paid
Intermediaries can also be exploited. Nikolai said companies began delaying agents' payments in 2025, prompting recruiters to sue.
In November 2025, the independent Russian outlet Verstka reported that at least five recruiters had sued military recruitment company Expert, seeking between 1.2 million and 5.4 million rubles ($14,700 and $66,100) in unpaid commissions.
The company blamed delays on regional customers that had not transferred money owed to it.
Recruiters may struggle to prove a candidate signed a contract. Once a candidate is handed over for a medical examination, they may have little access to documents needed to claim a commission.
Nikolai summed up the arrangement: "You rip people off, and then they rip you off."
