Russia Lures Young Migrant Women from Latin America to Build Drones

The Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) has discovered Russian efforts to recruit young migrant women from Latin America to build drones to sustain its war of aggression in Ukraine.

The Alabuga Start program, originally focused on recruiting African women, is now targeting Latin American youth — luring them with promises of education, paid work, and cultural exchange. The program allegedly functions as a recruitment funnel for low-cost labor that sustains Russia’s drone production and exposes women to exploitative conditions.

The Alabuga Bait and Switch

The Alabuga Start program markets itself as a career accelerator for young migrant women, offering free travel, housing, Russian language courses, and vocational training at the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Alabuga. However, the Associated Press (AP) and the Institute for Science and International Security revealed the program’s true purpose: providing low-cost labor for Russia’s defense manufacturing sector.

The program lures recruits, initially promised education and training, into low-cost drone production in the SEZ Alabuga, home to Russia’s main factory for the Geran-2, the Russian-made version of Iran’s Shahed-136 long-range one-way attack drone. Satellite imagery from July 2025 reveals significant construction efforts to expand the facility, with newly built warehouses and dormitories, likely to accommodate a growing influx of foreign labor. Russian production of these drones has risen exponentially since it began in 2023.

The AP reported that African women recruited by the program experienced grueling shifts, constant surveillance, and exposure to hazardous materials. Although some reporting has noted the program’s intent to expand into Latin America and other regions, media coverage continues to focus primarily on its recruitment in Africa.

Alabuga’s Recruitment Efforts Increasingly Target Latin America

FDD has observed multiple efforts to promote Alabuga Start across Latin America, targeting countries including Venezuela, Brazil, Mexico, Ecuador, Panama, and Bolivia.

In Venezuela, the pro-Chavista Telegram channel @antiescualidos incentivized Venezuelan youth to join the program, framing Russia as a lucrative alternative to the “broken promises of the West.” The post links to Alabuga Start’s Telegram channel and includes an AI-generated video promoting the program. The same post appeared on Pravda Español, which is part of a known Russian influence operation, showing direct state-backed efforts to expand outreach.

FDD found other accounts sharing the same post across different online platforms. For example, influencer Liu Shivaya, a Spanish-language commentator flagged for spreading Kremlin-aligned narratives, shared it with her 140,000 Telegram subscribers.

Brazilian influencers on TikTok and Instagram, with a combined following exceeding 15 million, have also posted content promoting the program. The content ranges from promotional clips describing the program as a life-changing opportunity to vlog-style videos where influencers allegedly travel to Russia for the program.

Alabuga Start’s own social media accounts reflect this regional shift. The official X account for SEZ Alabuga ramped up Spanish-language content promoting the program in May 2025. An Instagram account dedicated to the program’s outreach efforts in Latin America started posting promotional content in late March, highlighting official partnerships with the Ecuadorian national soccer team to increase recruitment.

The U.S. Should Actively Disrupt Russia’s Recruitment and Exploitation Efforts

The U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned SEZ Alabuga in February 2024, noting its key role in bolstering domestic production of Iran-designed drones. The statement also notes that the region “exploited underage students from an affiliated polytechnic university” to build the drones.

While sanctions were a good start, Washington must take further action to disrupt Russia’s efforts to recruit and exploit young migrant women. The State Department — particularly the Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy and the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor — should lead a coordinated effort with Latin American governments and regional bodies like the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to counter Alabuga Start’s outreach.

This effort should include joint messaging campaigns to expose the program’s true purpose, technical cooperation to track and block recruitment networks online, and support for local governments to provide alternative employment and educational opportunities for at-risk youth.

Max Lesser is a senior analyst on emerging threats at FDD’s Center on Cyber and Technology Innovation (CCTI). Maria Riofrio is an intern at FDD. For more analysis from the authors and FDD, please subscribe HERE. Follow FDD on X @FDD and @FDD_CCTI. FDD is a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan research institute focusing on foreign policy and national security.