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Russia Turns Youth Groups Into Propaganda Hubs With New Media Training Programs
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Russia is intensifying the propaganda component of its youth paramilitary organizations, with a growing focus on media training for children and teenagers.
This was reported by the Center Countering Disinformation (CCD) on April 2.
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According to recent reports, groups such as “Yunarmiya ” and the “Movement of the First ,” which previously focused primarily on basic military training and ideological education, are now actively expanding into the media sphere. The shift reflects a systematic effort to prepare young participants as future propagandists.
Within these organizations, competitions and training programs are being organized to teach participants how to create content and influence audiences. These activities are conducted with the involvement of representatives from Russia’s Ministry of Defense and leadership of military-patriotic structures, combining media training with elements of military instruction.
According to the CCD, at the same time, the growing popularity of blogging is being used as a recruitment tool. Teenagers are presented with these initiatives as opportunities for success in the media field, while in practice they are being drawn into a system of state-driven propaganda.
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“This is how a new type of personnel is being formed: not just a citizen loyal to the regime and ready to take part in war, but also an information agent capable of promoting Kremlin-approved narratives on social media and in the media,” the center added.
This shift toward media training is unfolding alongside a broader expansion of military-patriotic programming targeting children at increasingly younger ages. According to Russian outlet Agenstvo, preschools across the country have begun 2025—declared by Russian leader Vladimir Putin as the “Year of the Defender of the Fatherland”—with mass drills designed to simulate military activity.
Reports published on VKontakte by kindergartens and local authorities point to a sharp increase in such events. Agenstvo identified nearly 300 cases of military-style drills in preschools since the start of the year, a significant rise compared to previous years, when such activities were far less frequent or entirely absent.
In one example from Nizhnekamsk in the Republic of Tatarstan, local authorities and representatives of the ruling United Russia party organized a large-scale competition involving 60 children from 10 kindergartens. The activities included marching exercises, throwing toy grenades, basic first aid training, simulated demining tasks, and recitations about Soviet war figures, with military personnel presenting awards to participants.
This trend is also evident in temporarily occupied territories, where similar initiatives are being used to prepare children for future involvement in military activities. In Luhansk, Russian-installed authorities organized a drone racing championship aimed at identifying and training young participants in drone operation skills.
According to the head of the Luhansk Regional Military Administration, Oleksii Kharchenko, the event served as a selection process for a local drone control unit.
“In the so-called ‘LNR ,’ children and youth are being prepared for war in advance. They are currently searching for candidates for the ‘LNR’ drone control team. To do this, a qualifying round was organized in Luhansk, where only school pupils and students were allowed to participate, calling these war-preparation gatherings the ‘first LNR drone racing championship,’” he said.
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