1/ Enslaved people are being sold to the Russian army for up to 100,000 rubles ($1,240) each, according to anti-slavery campaigners. The issue highlights Russia's hidden but chronic problem with modern slavery, which Putin's government has failed to tackle.
2/ Russia has by far the worst record on modern slavery of any country in Europe, with an estimated 1.9 million people living in servitude. This reflects a combination of extreme corruption, weak enforcement of anti-slavery laws, and government collaboration with slavers.
3/ According to the Global Slavery Index, Russia has the eighth-highest slavery rate in the world, at 13 slaves per 1,000 people. In absolute terms, only North Korea has a larger number of slaves. Russia's government does less about slavery than all but 6 other states.
4/ While Russia had serfdom until 1861, modern slavery in Russia is largely the work of criminal gangs in collusion with corrupt officials and police. The victims are usually migrant workers from central and east Asia but also include ethnic Russians, some of whom are kidnapped by slavers.
7/ Slavery is an open secret in many areas. An anti-slavery campaigner explains: "If we are talking about such "workhouses" or "farms", then, unfortunately, they all settle together and there are often cases when these are entire villages."
9/ Although Russia has signed conventions against human trafficking and modern slavery, the practice is widespread and the Russian state has done less to combat it than any other European government. Only 53 cases have gone to court in the last 15 years.
10/ Russian military recruitment drives are now colliding with the country's endemic slavery. The authorities of several Russian regions offer bonuses of 35,000 to 100,000 rubles to anyone who brings in a 'volunteer' to a military recruitment office.
11/ This has proved irresistable to slavers, who were previously getting far less money for reselling slaves. Numerous slaves are being sold to the army by traffickers and slave owners, who find it far more lucrative than simply selling them to other slavers.
12/ The usual price for slaves varies, according to Dagestani anti-slavery activist Zahir Ismailov. In the south of Russia, "if you're skinny, the price is 15,000 rubles ($186). If you have a speciality – mechanic, tractor driver, driver – it's around 20-30 thousand ($248-372)."
13/ Ismailov is a member of the Russian anti-slavery organisation Alternativa ('Alternative'), which helps to rescue slaves. It says it is coming across significant numbers of people who are being sold to military recruitment offices in exchange for sign-up bonuses:
14/ "They often become victims of fraud [and] slave owners. This is despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of forced recruitments that ended with the signing of a contract pass us by. We simply pick out some isolated cases when people manage to escape.
15/ "And then they tell us that at the same time 5-10 people "went to the Special Military Operation" in the same way. And all the time some new methods appear – that is, these 100,000 rubles are not enough for them [the traffickers/owners].
16/ "Somewhere people are simply kidnapped, brought in in a state of insanity, they sign contracts where other people's [payment] cards are indicated as the cards of the "volunteer" himself.
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