The Gosuslugi service sent letters to Russians advertising free training at the Russian University of Special Forces.
The letter offers to “become part of the country’s military elite right now” and receive a “new military specialty” with “training from the best instructors with combat experience» and «high-level salary.»
However, it does not provide any details about the “university” itself, including its location.
The authors of the letter did not use the full name of the «university» in question — «Russian University of Special Forces named after V.V. Putin». It was opened on the territory of a former military town near Gudermes at the request of Ramzan Kadyrov.
The letter from «Gosuslugi» listed three contact phone numbers. «Mediazona» did not receive a response to any of them, but in the GetContact service one of them was listed as «Akhmat ChVK Spetsnaz».
On the telephone number for information indicated in the telegram channel of the “university,” Mediazona was told that “the Russian University of Special Forces is not a higher educational institution,” however, “on a commercial basis” you can take combat training courses there. Free courses on the basis of the “Special Forces University” — only “with subsequent dispatch to the North Military District zone,” the manager emphasized.
“What you received at State Services is a mailing from the mayor’s office of the city of Grozny. So that those who want to go to the Northern Military District zone can receive training from us for free,” they answered by phone.
The “university” did not answer what disciplines the free course for “volunteers in the Northern Military District” will consist of.
“Information about these courses is through the mayor’s office of the city of Grozny, they have their own program, we have nothing to do with this,” the manager replied.
Screenshot of a letter from State Services.
Formally, the “university” is registered as a shooting club, while Grozny-inform presented it as “the first and currently the only private educational institution in the Russian Federation to provide professional training for special units.” Almost half of the funding comes to the “university” from the Chechen builder and Kadyrov’s fellow villager Movsadi Alviev, Important Stories found out. In April 2024, Ramzan Kadyrov appointed his 16-year-old son Adam as curator of the “university.”
The “special forces university” trained and retrained special forces officers and security companies of state corporations (for example, Gazprom and Russian Railways). After the start of a full-scale war in Ukraine, volunteers began to be trained there. His advertising banners and advertisements appeared in major cities of the country, including Yekaterinburg and Novosibirsk.
Kadyrov himself said that the training of volunteers lasts a week. However, several people previously anonymously told Important Stories that they were sent to the front line after several days at the base in Gudermes, where they “suffered crap” and only “shot 12 rounds of ammunition for each [person].” Yesterday, the New York Times published a photo report from training at the “university”, which was attended by both people without combat experience and former mercenaries of the Wagner PMC, who, after its disbandment, signed contracts with the Akhmat battalion.
Updated at 4:30 p.m. Added comment from the “university” help desk.