Who are the Russian bloggers Sibiga thanked, and what is the campaign against "Alabuga"?

Screenshot of an "Alabuga-Polytech" advertisement video

The history of the "Alabuga" Special Economic Zone (SEZ) began in the late 1990s, when the authorities of Tatarstan sought ways to attract investments and create new jobs. In its current form, it has been operating since 2005.

As enterprises developed, a shortage of personnel arose. To train specialists directly for the zone's residents, an educational center, "Alabuga Polytech," was created in 2021 based on the Yelabuga Polytechnic College.

In 2022, on the territory of the "Alabuga" SEZ, Russia began setting up the production of Geran attack drones — a localized version of the Iranian Shahed-136. To provide the enterprise with personnel, the authorities relied on "Alabuga Polytech."

Павялічыць

Website of the "Alabuga" Special Economic Zone

According to independent journalistic investigations, "Alabuga Polytech" is not an independent educational institution and does not have its own license for educational activities, but offers only additional professional education programs. The main emphasis is on practical work in production, while general educational disciplines play a secondary role.

"Alabuga Polytech" attracted widespread media attention in 2023 after a series of investigations. They claimed that "students" were actually working on drone production for military purposes. Military discipline and restrictions on disseminating information about college life were reported. Additionally, the authors of the investigations claimed that the college's system of control, punishments, and ideological indoctrination resembled a militarized closed structure.

In addition to Russian students, the college actively recruited young people from countries in Africa and Central Asia. According to investigations, foreign students were mainly used for low-skilled work and were often housed separately from other students.

To attract applicants, "Alabuga Polytech" annually launched large-scale advertising campaigns — in April-May and on the eve of the admissions campaign. The institution's management bought advertisements from popular bloggers and media personalities.

The scale of the campaign is also evidenced by the fact that "Nasha Niva" also received offers in 2022 and 2023 to place "Alabuga Polytech" advertisements for large sums of money. We refused.

According to a T-invariant investigation, in February-March 2026, the advertising agency Influxx handled "Alabuga"'s advertising campaign. It was during this period that a large-scale advertising campaign was launched featuring teenagers who claimed to be studying at "Alabuga Polytech" college, working at a drone production plant, and earning 150,000 Russian rubles a month — about 2,000 dollars, more than double the average salary in Russia — within a year.

According to one of the bloggers, placing a 25-second advertising video cost between 250,000 and 1.5 million Russian rubles — depending on the audience reach of a particular channel.

How the campaign against advertising began

The beginning of this story was detailed by Ukrainian journalist Vladyslav Novikov, who investigated "Alabuga"'s advertising campaign.

According to him, the starting point was the evening of April 26, when Twitch — one of the world's largest platforms for live gaming video broadcasts — blocked the accounts of Russian streamers who were broadcasting an esports tournament under the "Alabuga Polytech" brand.

Soon after, one of the most famous Russian-speaking streamers, Alexey Gubanov (JesusAVGN, Jesus), who left Russia after the full-scale war began and opposes the Russian invasion, handed Novikov a database compiled by his community with 606 links to YouTube videos in which bloggers advertised "Alabuga Polytech."

Novikov managed to save these videos before their authors began to massively delete or edit the advertising integrations.

Simultaneously, an open list of bloggers who collaborated with "Alabuga" appeared in the Russian anti-war segment of YouTube. By the end of April, it already included 472 authors, and the total audience of their channels exceeded 531 million subscribers. The list included bloggers whose videos featured advertising integrations, mentions, or reports about "Alabuga Polytech" in various years.

The campaign was joined by former "Echo of Moscow" journalist and political blogger Michael Naki, who now lives abroad. His YouTube channel has 2.25 million subscribers. In his broadcasts, he spoke about "Alabuga"'s connection to drone production and also urged users to report videos advertising the college to the platform.

The campaign was also supported by one of the founders of Pussy Riot, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, together with her team — American entrepreneur and activist John Caldwell and Christian Carino.

Their participation in the campaign was later specifically noted by Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sibiga.

Results of the campaign against "Alabuga Polytech" and further steps

The first results of the campaign were not long in coming. In May, TikTok carried out several waves of blocking bloggers who published "Alabuga Polytech" advertising integrations. Authors with millions of followers were also blocked.

On the night of June 11, YouTube began deleting videos that contained advertisements for "Alabuga Polytech."

On July 3, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sibiga announced on the social network X that YouTube officially confirmed to the Ukrainian side the removal of about 600 videos that advertised "Alabuga" and were used to recruit employees for the plant. According to the minister, these videos were posted on hundreds of channels with a total audience of more than 500 million subscribers.

This week, @YouTube has officially confirmed that, following our request, it has completed the global removal of around 600 videos that promoted Alabuga and ran recruitment content for the plant. The videos were posted on hundreds of channels with over 500 million subscribers…

— Andrii Sybiha (@andrii_sybiha) July 3, 2026

Sibiga noted that such a result was achieved thanks to a "coalition of people who did not allow this story to go unnoticed." He specifically thanked blogger Alexey Gubanov (JesusAVGN), who, according to the minister, was the first to expose the advertising integrations and map the related networks, as well as Michael Naki, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, and her team. The head of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry expressed special gratitude to the cyber department of the Security Service of Ukraine.

According to Sibiga, the removal of the videos is only the first stage. Ukraine is already working on introducing individual sanctions against bloggers who participated in the advertising of "Alabuga Polytech." There is now less advertising for this "factory of death" where "Geran" drones are assembled.

• 5
• 0
• 0
• 0
• 0
• 0
• 0
• 0