My name is Sheikh Mahamad Sarfaraz. I’m 31 years old and I belong to a lower middle class family in Kolkata.
I used to work at Taj Bengal Hotel in Kolkata until my contract came to an end in June 2023, and rendered me unemployed. My father fell ill around the same time and I spent all my savings on his treatment. I was desperate for a job when I came across some videos on a Youtube channel named ‘Baba Vlogs’, run by a visa agent who offers assistance in getting jobs abroad.
In the video he spoke about job vacancies of helpers in the Russian Army, with a monthly salary of Rs 40,000. He further said that this job will make applicants eligible for a Russian passport, which in turn, would open gates for opportunities in other parts of the world.
I found it to be a lucrative offer and thought that this could be a way to earn well for my family.
Illustration: Pariplab Chakraborty
‘Baba’, as he is famously known on Youtube, has over three lakh subscribers and boasts of a ‘network’ in many countries. Through his Youtube videos, he entices people into jobs abroad. He says he has ‘setting’ with officials at airports and employment offices abroad. He sends people to other countries on tourist visas, on the promise that he will get it converted into a work visa.
When I called him, he explained that the Russian Army needs security helpers and supporting staff for back-end jobs to handle the security of army goods. He told me that the joinees will be provided training for three months. I asked him if it’s safe to join the Russian army as the country had been at war with Ukraine for about two years. He said with great confidence that the war is over as ‘Russia has won and taken 40% of Ukrainian territory’.
He managed to gain my trust and rushed me into the decision by saying that only ten vacancies are available for this job.
His team asked me to deposit Rs 3 lakh as ‘service charge’ for assisting me with a visa, flights and getting me to the Russian Army facility in Moscow. I somehow arranged the money with my mother’s savings and borrowed some money from my brother.
Little did I know that I was walking into a death trap.
The trap
I was asked to land in Chennai in December last year where I met nine more men, most of them in their 20s, who were also due to go to Russia for the same job of a helper with the Russian Army.
For about ten days, we stayed at a hotel waiting for the flight tickets to be booked by Baba’s team. I met Hamil – a 26-year-old man from Gujarat – who was a very kind person at heart. We instantly became friends and spent time sharing our dreams and hopes from life. He wanted to do well in life and make his parents proud by landing a job abroad.
Hamil was sent to Russia six days ahead of me, with five other men. On December 22 it was my turn to go with the remaining men. We flew from Chennai to Moscow via Bahrain.
When we landed at the airport, Baba’s accomplice Nigel came to receive us. He introduced himself as a doctor in the Russian Army. I noticed that all bags were being scanned at the airport, except ours.
We were kept in a room in Moscow city for a few days, where we met Moin and Ramesh who were Baba’s partners. They both had Russian citizenship. Moin told us that we are lucky to have landed this job.
Baba had told us that our monthly salary would be Rs 40,000 per month and could stretch up to Rs 60,000 if we work overtime. But Moin told us that he has done ‘setting’ with Russian Army officials to pay us Rs 2,00,000 as monthly salary.
We were stunned. But there was a price attached to the ‘favour’.
He asked us to give him Rs 2 lakh from our first salary. We agreed as the prospect of a great pay after the first month was too enticing to be ignored.
Illustration: Pariplab Chakraborty
The scam unfolds
On December 26, an Army vehicle came to get us early in the morning. We were taken to an office where we were handed over a contract to sign. The contract was in Russian language. Baba had told us that we would be provided with a translator to make sense of everything that’s in the contract. I called Baba to ask for a translator at the spot. He asked us to have faith in him and told us that it’s mandatory to sign this document to get our tourist visa extended for one year.
After signing the document, we were assisted by the officials with opening our local bank accounts for transfer of salary.
We had clear instructions from Baba and Moin to neither ask any questions nor answer anyone’s questions at the army facility.
Illustration: Pariplab Chakraborty
On the 28th we were taken to the Ryazan military camp where our passports were taken away by the army officials. They communicated with us using Google translate and told us to rest for a few days ‘until our turn comes’.
We were ready to start our new job and enquired about the remit of the role of a helper. The army officer was surprised at the question and said that there are no helper jobs there. He only told us that we would be readied and then taken ahead.
The confusion prevailed and soon we saw the arrival of heavily injured men in the camp. Some had lost their arm, leg and some had lost their fingers. They looked like war wounds. I thought that I might have been employed to serve these men.
I tried speaking to some of the injured men. But they didn’t tell us anything. Looked like they had strict instructions to not speak to the newcomers in the camp.
“When you go there, you will get to know everything,” murmured an injured man.
With each passing day, the suspense kept building up and I was perplexed.
Finally a man from Kazakhstan told us that the contract we had signed was in fact an agreement to join the Russian army as a fighter in the war.
This information sent chills down my spine.
All of us were so shocked and scared that we couldn’t eat that day.
It finally started sinking in that we had been scammed by Baba and smuggled into Russia to join its army.
‘Crash course’ to be a soldier
Illustration: Pariplab Chakraborty
I thought of Hamil and others who had been sent before us to the Russian camps.
When I managed to establish contact with him on the phone, he told me that he was at another camp where foreigners like him are being trained to handle guns, grenades and dig trenches.
Hamil could hear missiles and drones where he was, which means he was being trained very close to the frontline. He was petrified and broke down while speaking to me. After 15 days’ training, he was to be deployed on the frontline. He said he may never get to see his family ever again as the reality of this bloody war hit him.
How can any army raise a soldier with just 15 days of training? It takes years for a man to be trained for a war.
He told me to run away from the camp in Ryazan while I still had a chance. He told me to go back to India and tell the Indian government to rescue him and others.
Within a few weeks, Hamil died in a drone strike that landed on his head.
The escape
Meanwhile, Moin started harassing us for money and asked us to send our ATM card details so he could withdraw our first salaries from our accounts.
I hadn’t received my salary. He started threatening to harm my family back home as he had my Aadhaar card details with my address.
Caught between a rock and a hard place, I decided to flee the Russian army camp at the cost of my life.
One day, I went out of the army facility on the pretext of buying snacks from the supermarket. The security guard was friendly with me, so he let me go.
I went straight to the Indian embassy in Moscow and shared details of the scam with the embassy officials. To my surprise, the embassy official told me to go back to the Russian Army to avoid punishment as I had signed a contract with them. He assured me that he will work on our case and asked me to give them a month or so.
If I had gone back to the army, one month would be time enough for my life to end on the frontline.
I decided to live in hiding until I could find a way to return to India. But the days that followed were the most difficult period of my life.
With barely any money to survive in a foreign country, I went begging on the streets and sometimes resorted to picking food from dustbins to feed myself. At times, I went hungry for 4-5 days. Whenever I spoke to my family on the phone, I lied to them about my well-being so that my parents wouldn’t worry about me.
After a month of living like a beggar, I found Raja Pathan – a Youtuber who had joined the Russian Army last year and had managed to terminate his contract. He helped me with money to pay for a white passport at the embassy and booked my tickets for Delhi. Finally, I landed back in India on February 24.
Regret and remorse
I was lucky to escape the horror but now I spend sleepless nights, haunted by the memories of Hamil and other men who were with me.
I wonder how they are.
Hamil wanted me to get back to India and try to rescue him with the Indian government’s help. But it was too late. He died before I could do anything to rescue him. The regret won’t let me be at peace.
I plead with the Indian government to crack down on the scammers and rescue our men as soon as possible. Time is running out. Every single day at the frontline is a call for death.
As told to Shalu Yadav.
