A post advertising contract services in the Russian army was discovered on the social network VKontakte, which used an AI-generated image of politician Alexei Navalny. Oleg Kashin was the first to notice him.
The post was published on April 4 in the public “Contract. Kaliningrad”, which has two subscribers. Along with this post, about 40 other posts have appeared advertising the contract service. A certain organization “Homeland of Heroes” with the site Rodina-geroev.com proposed to conclude a contract.
On the website in the contact information section it is indicated that the “Home of Heroes” is located at the address: Rostov-on-Don, st. Socialist, 112 – The Rostov Region Government and other government agencies are located there. The mobile phone is referred to as a contact number. The website reports that the “SVO Contract” can be signed by people under 64 with “any experience,” partially fit for military service, with a criminal record and the presence of debts, which Homeland of Heroes promises to help freeze and write off.
“Homeland of Heroes” has at least one more website – kontrakt-svo2025.ru. There, in the “Contacts” section, the same address is indicated: Rostov-on-Don, St. Socialist, 112, but with a different mobile phone number. The design and textual content of websites varies.
There are no other contact details on the kontrakt-svo2025.ru website. On the website Rodina-geroev.com, in addition to the address and phone number, there is also published information regarding Alexander Chernyshov from the Rostov region. The main activity of this entrepreneur is an employment agency.
In the Rostov region there is an independent non-profit organization “Home of Heroes”, but it is registered in the city of Aksay by an entrepreneur with a different OGRNIP and TIN.
Journalists of the Polish publication “That’s how it is!” Named Via the phone that “Homeland of Heroes” indicated as a contact number. They asked why Alexei Navalny’s photo was used for the ad, and got the following answer: “A random person. Maybe similar.”
With “Homeland of Heroes” via WhatsApp He has been contacted And publish the agency. “This is a created image,” a company representative said. The journalists’ interlocutor said: “We are now clarifying the information. This, of course, should not happen, but it seems that something did not go according to the marketer’s plan.”
At the time of publishing the news, the post with the photo of Alexei Navalny had already been deleted, but the rest of the posts remained.