Russian teachers in Ukraine's TOT earn as much as top propagandists – IMI study

Cover by IMI

Russian teachers working in schools of Ukraine's occupied territories earn as much as the Kremlin's top propagandists. This is explored in IMI's study “Cultural Genocide: Who is Introducing Russian Education into Ukraine’s Occupied Territories”.

For instance, on June 17, 2022, the Russian government issued a resolution which says that citizens who agree to work in Donetsk, Luhansk and the other seized oblasts are entitled to 8,480 rubles (about 3,900 hryvnias – Ed.) for each day of their work trip. Moreover, the government promises to cover the housing expenses. More still, the Russian teachers who agree to this will keep their jobs and receive double salary for the duration of their trip.

According to Rosstat, the average salary for educators in 2022 amounted to 57,000 rubles a month. Which means that a week of working in the occupied territories is valued at twice the monthly salary – a Russian teacher may earn over 360,000 rubles in a month. Incidentally, this sum is equivalent to the monthly salary of the Russian propagandist, NTV’s “Mesto Vstrechi” host, Andrei Norkin. Or at least this is how much the Kremlin minion used to earn in 2019 according to the Federal Penitentiary Service, reports the Russian Insider.

It is not our intention to assess the accuracy of this data or speculate as to how much money the likes of Norkin may be receiving “in envelopes” on top of their salary; we will merely note that there is a reason why we compare the salaries of Russian educators in the occupied territories with those of the Kremlin’s propagandists.

The Russian teachers’ primary mission in Ukraine is not to provide “methodical assistance in the education process,” as the regional education ministries say, but to spread propaganda and ideologically groom the Ukrainian schoolchildren and their parents. IMI's study provides evidence for this.

The study also states that "recruiting" Russian teachers to work in the temporarily occupied territories is but one of the schemes set up by the aggressor state to unlawfully introduce Russian education into Ukraine.