With a cartoon-like poster, Putin wants to recruit young people for the army. The statement: Anyone who decides to join the secret service can live a much better life than a civilian. While military service is portrayed as a brilliant way of life, the civilian is portrayed as an overweight alcoholic.
The Russian Ministry of Defense is addressing young people with a curious poster to make military service attractive to them, as the Swiss newspaper Blick reports. The poster compares the careers of two 17-year-olds. One is with the border guard, the other leads a civilian life.
The statement is clear: choose the Russian Secret Service (FSB) and your life will be significantly better than if you lead a civilian life.
At the age of 18, the civilian begins an apprenticeship that lasts either three or five years. He has to pay tuition fees, lives with his parents or has rented an apartment. At the age of 22 or 25 he has completed his education and has to look for a job. He pays rent or takes out a mortgage on a house. To do this, he must provide his own holiday tickets, clothing and medication. At the age of 39, the civilian is portrayed as an overweight, childless alcoholic with a nagging wife who has to work for another 21 years before he too can retire. In his previous working life he earned almost three times less than someone who went into the military.
Life in the military, on the other hand, is presented as a glamorous way of life. At the age of 18, the youth joins the army. At 19 he received his first contract, which secured him an apartment and a monthly income. Vacation trips are paid for by the state. He receives medical care, clothes, food and contributions to the pension fund. At the age of 22 he received his second contract, was promoted and joined a system in which the state helped finance mortgages. At 25 he has served six years and through this system has his own home.
At 39, the army employee is portrayed as a happy, fit family man who has completed an education, owns his own apartment, is retired and can choose between a career in the military or a job in the government. The fact that the young person who decides on a military career could be sent to war and lose his life there is not mentioned on this “advertising poster”.