Hundreds Of Thousands Of Russian Schoolchildren Secretly Involved In Drone Development
2- 28.07.2025, 11:56
- 3,820
They are lured into the process through games.
Hundreds of thousands of Russian schoolchildren are involved in Defense Ministry-related programs disguised as educational circles, writes The Insider. As a bonus for such work, they are then given extra points on the USE (an average of 10 points) and promised a career in state corporations.
The creation of the first "cyberphysical platform" called "Berlog" with Putin's blessing was announced in July 2022 in occupied Sevastopol. The organizers lured schoolchildren into it, promising to turn Russia into one of the "leaders of the world's technological development."
Children had to not only invent drones or control them with special games, but also come up with software for them.
According to the publication, formally "Berloga" has nothing to do with the war in Ukraine, but schoolchildren are told that on a fantastic planet there are "intelligent bears" who need to fight off "bees".
In one game they protect drones "energy honey" from cyber insects, reflecting "growing waves of enemies", in another they learn to control a quadrocopter and deliver cargo according to coordinates. In the next releases, players are promised to be given the opportunity to refine the design of the drone, make a route for it and share the code with other players.
All this is real work against Ukraine, disguised and covered up by children.
The journalists emphasize that the Berloga project is part of the ecosystem created by the Agency for Strategic Initiatives (ASI). It is connected with related projects - the network of STI science and technology circles and the Archipelago Intensive, where military drones are being tested without any shame.
After children get into the ASI system, they cannot get out of it. Then they participate in Olympiads, become members of STI circles, and then get to the intensive "Archipelago" or to the events of the "Sirius" center, which are already looking for personnel for the army and war-related state corporations.
"Berloga" and "Circle Movement NTI" are led by 42-year-old Alexei Fedoseev.
The project's ambitions are impressive: to get more than 800,000 fighters with cyberbees to eventually move on to real programming and real assembly of copters.
Drones, however, are only the first stage. After them, the kids move on to the next stage - themed competitions like Grand Challenges. In the finals, more than 430 schoolchildren from Russian regions work on problems in 12 areas: from genetics and biomedicine to modern energy. Each sector has from 4 to 15 problems. This large-scale event for schoolchildren in grades 7-11 is organized by the Sirius Educational Center, headed by Putin's friend Yelena Shmeleva.
Shmeleva openly stated that the competition helps partners "find talented young personnel for themselves while they are still in school." In practice, schoolchildren are involved in projects on which key partner companies are already working.
Another point is that more than 80% of these companies (especially in the UAV and space areas) cooperate with the Ministry of Defense or their managers are or were under sanctions.
Practice shows that children's ideas do turn out to be in demand by corporations and are put into practice after being finalized.
At the same time, some children admitted on condition of anonymity that they were forbidden to talk about working on "dual-purpose" equipment.
Partners of "Berlogi" hold another technological event - the "Archipelago" intensive, which does not hide its military orientation. Last year, for example, it hosted drone combat exercises "Borschevik". They were organized by the Coordination Center for Assistance to the so-called "Novorossiya", which trains drone operators "for the needs of the SVO".
"Berloga" was also noted for other military initiatives. Thus, according to the publication, in 2024 the platform began a collaboration with the military-patriotic game "Zarnitsa 2.0". "Berloga" has developed an online course "Drone Academy", where participants of "Zarnitsa 2.0" master basic skills of quadrocopter piloting. According to the organizers, more than 240 thousand students have already passed through the simulator by 2025, and the money for this is allocated by the Russian government.
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