The Russian Ministry of Defense has launched a new military recruitment campaign that appeals in a short video through the story of three characters to “manhood”. “You are a macho. Behave like one”says the video after introducing a security guard, a taxi driver and a gym instructor who imagine themselves wearing the uniform.

“Is that the kind of defender you dreamed of becoming?”, the ad states in its first seconds, showing the guard carrying a metal detector at the entrance of a supermarket. The video also asks, “Is this where your strength lies?” by showing a gym trainer helping a client do exercises with weights. “Was it the path you wanted to choose?” A taxi driver is asked in the images during a service.

The video then shows the three young people already in uniform, equipped and armedmarching in slow motion through the fog, and calls on the Russians to serve as a contractor with salaries in excess of 204,000 rubles a month (about $2,500).

Although the Russian authorities They have denied that they have plans to announce new mobilizations After the one called last September, which called up more than 300,000 reservists, it does maintain its usual recruitment campaigns for military service.

The partial mobilization last September, aimed at supporting the Russian military campaign in Ukraine, caused a mass exodus of young people of military age who did not wish to participate in this warlike confrontation.

At the end of March, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the decree so that 147,000 Russians do military service mandatory between April 1 and July 15, 12,500 more than in 2022. The decree, published on the Russian Government’s legal information portal, establishes that Russians between 18 and 27 years of age will be summoned.