The kremlin pushes youth toward military service instead of education
russia is deliberately restricting access to humanities and social sciences education while expanding benefits for those who go to war against Ukraine.
The authorities have cut 47,000 paid university places in “non-priority” fields such as law, economics, psychology, and management. At the same time, tuition fees have increased by an average of 10–30%.
In parallel, russian dictator vladimir putin signed a law introducing special quotas for widows and relatives of fallen soldiers, allowing university admission without entrance exams and providing free preparatory courses. The logic is straightforward — dying at the front is being made more advantageous than studying.
The kremlin has effectively transformed higher education into a system serving the war. russian youth are being deprived of future opportunities and pushed into conditions where the only available social mobility channel is signing a contract with the russian ministry of defense, while students themselves are treated solely as expendable resources for replenishing the occupation army’s losses.
The Center previously reported that russian authorities systematically use educational institutions as platforms for recruitment into the war against Ukraine.
