Employment centers throughout Russia have begun offering contract service vacancies in the Armed Forces to applicants. If a candidate refuses such an offer twice, he risks losing his right to receive unemployment benefits. This mechanism was introduced after the Ministry of Labor established interaction with local military registration and enlistment offices. This was reported by Baza.

The Ministry of Defense now posts its vacancies on the Russian Work portal, from where employment centers take these offers and send them to applicants. The specialties that are offered may vary depending on the needs of a particular regional military registration and enlistment office. Possible vacancies include radio operator, infantryman, tank driver and other positions indicated on the applicant’s military ID.

As Baza reports, recently an incident occurred in the Novosibirsk region that caused a wide resonance: an applicant who applied for retraining in order to obtain a new profession as a psychologist unexpectedly received a referral for an interview for the position of an infantryman. This incident attracted the attention of the head of the State Duma Committee on Labor and Social Policy, Yaroslav Nilov, who noted that the question of how contract service can be considered a vacancy requires additional study.

According to sources, applicants who refuse the proposed military specialty will not be offered the same vacancy after the first refusal, but if the refusal is repeated, the employment center will stop working with them and deregister them. This makes a person ineligible to receive unemployment benefits, making the situation very difficult for those who do not wish to serve under a contract.

In addition, Baza reports that employment centers in the Central Federal District offer residents vacancies as “general workers” in the Kursk region. The work includes digging trenches and clearing rubble after shelling. Employers offer from 8 to 10 thousand rubles per day for such work, a fixed-term contract for two weeks, and also provide food and accommodation.