Russia dismisses recruitment flyers in Tehran as scam
The Russian Embassy in Tehran has denied any connection to flyers circulating in the Iranian capital that invited men to enlist in the Russian army for large cash rewards.
The Russian Embassy in Tehran has denied any connection to flyers circulating in the Iranian capital that invited men to enlist in the Russian army for large cash rewards.
In a statement on Tuesday, the embassy said “unscrupulous individuals” had been spreading fake letters online, offering Iranian men aged 18 to 45 contracts “to serve with the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation in the area of the special military operation.”
“The embassy officially declares that this letter and any similar document are forgeries of a criminal nature,” the statement said. “Neither the embassy nor any official Russian institution has any connection with them.”
The denial followed a report by the Tehran-based outlet Rouydad24, which said that leaflets distributed near the Russian Embassy in Tehran invited Iranian men to join the Russian army with promises of dollar payments and contracts “directly under the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation.”
The flyers, seen around College Square, targeted men aged 18 to 45 and offered starting bonuses of $15,000 to $18,000 and monthly salaries of $2,500 to $2,800, along with free housing, medical care, and military uniforms.
Rouydad24 said the leaflets directed readers to a Telegram channel that had published multilingual posts in Persian, Russian, Arabic, and English, describing the campaign as a “state-supported initiative.”
One video shared by the channel appeared to show a man in a Russian military uniform introducing himself in Persian as “Mohammadian Khatibi, from Iran.”
The Iranian report compared the flyers to similar alleged recruitment efforts in India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and several African countries, which foreign media have described as part of Moscow’s drive to attract foreign fighters amid heavy losses in Ukraine.
While the embassy has now categorically denied any such activity in Iran, Rouydad24 noted that the case underscores the vulnerability of economically distressed Iranians to online recruitment scams offering large foreign payouts.
“During just one week, emergency departments nationwide recorded over 170,000 pollution-related visits,” Raisi said on Tuesday, noting that cases had risen by 20 to 25 percent compared with normal levels. “Most of these patients came from the 11 provinces with the highest pollution, showing the scale of the crisis,” he added.
Raisi said the Health Ministry estimates the annual health cost of pollution at about $17 billion, and that more than 59,000 people died last year from diseases linked to poor air quality.
Citing World Health Organization data, Raisi said most Iranian cities suffer from dangerously high levels of pollutants. “Tehran had only 14 clean-air days last year, Isfahan 16, Mashhad 28, and Ahvaz just two,” he said. “This means a large part of the population is exposed to hazardous air nearly all year.”
He said particles smaller than 2.5 microns “enter the bloodstream quickly and are proven causes of cancer, cardiovascular disease, and severe respiratory disorders.”
Tehran suffers record air pollution, Shargh reports
The reformist daily Shargh said the current Iranian year, 1404, has been Tehran’s worst for air pollution in at least two decades, with more than half of all days so far classified as polluted. “In no previous year have the data been this dark,” wrote analyst Ali Pirhosseinlou in a Tuesday commentary.
He said the number of “acceptable” air-quality days has dropped to about one-third of the year, while at least four days so far have seen daily air quality index readings above 200 — considered “very unhealthy.”
“The situation is worse than at any time in the past two decades,” Shargh wrote. “There is no plan to control the sources of pollution. No effort to renew diesel fleets, improve fuel quality, or reduce traffic. Instead, the municipality has restricted access to air-quality data.”
The paper concluded: “This is not interpretation – it is reality.”
