Pentagon seeks to hire 'Russian' actors for NATO military drills in Germany

Upcoming NATO exercises apparently involving Russian-speaking extras are not rehearsals for specific missions, a representative of US forces in Germany said.

"These scenarios are not mission rehearsal exercises, but at their core designed to ensure our that US soldiers and our allies and partners are prepared to do their jobs across the range of problems they might face anywhere in world," Sputnik cited the 7th Army Training Command representative Christian Marquardt as saying.

The purpose of the drills is to train personnel to communicate with civilians from different countries while executing various core tasks, he added.

Commentators said the setting for the drills indicated preparations for offensive rather than defensive operations.

The casting call was posted by German recruitment agency Optronic HR GmbH, which specialises in enlisting extras for military exercises conducted by NATO and the US military.

The actors are needed for the upcoming exercises starting on April 28 at a US training base in Bavaria, southern Germany.

It wanted actors to represent Russian-speaking ‘Civilians on the Battlefield’. It offers Russian-speaking extras a daily 88-120 euros for pretending to be farmers, shop owners and the like in fictitious villages that were set up at the Hohenfels training grounds.

The ad also says 10 'villages' of 10 to 30 houses will be built for the war games, and applicants are expected to stay there for three weeks to create conditions for the US military 'as close as possible to the real ones'.”