German MoD Refuses to Comment on NATO Drills With Russian-Speaking Extras

The German Defense Ministry refused on Friday to comment on an upcoming NATO exercise in Germany involving Russian-speaking extras, saying that the issue should be addressed to "foreign military units" in Germany.

BERLIN (Sputnik) — On Thursday, the German company Optronic HR confirmed recruiting Russian speakers for upcoming NATO drills involving US troops. A US army representative then told Sputnik the war games were not rehearsals for specific combat scenarios but were designed to train troops to deal with civilians from different countries while executing various assignments.

"This issue should not be addressed to me, this is the question to foreign military units staying on the German land… This is not our topic," German Defense Ministry spokesman Jens Flosdorff said at a briefing answering the question about the participation of Russian-speaking extras at the upcoming exercise.

The job ads offered Russian speakers a daily wage of 88-120 euros ($94-$129) to play as farmers, shop owners and other improvised local residents in fictitious villages set up at the Hohenfels training grounds for upcoming NATO drills, due to take place on April 28 — May 15.

The relevant job ad is still up on the Optronic HR website us-statisten.de and states that the extras will represent the local population of a crisis-hit region in order for NATO troops to prepare for missions abroad. The extras are expected to have a basic knowledge of English, German, Polish or Czech aside from Russian. They will wear infrared detectors to determine if they would have been hit by soldiers on battlefield.