Shahed drone in Alabuga: two US think tanks report forced labor

The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and the George W. Bush Institute, in a joint report unveiled in Washington on Wednesday, 14 October 2026, described the Alabuga drone factory in Russia's Republic of Tatarstan as the production hub of the Russian version of the Islamic Republic's Shahed drone, and reported signs of human trafficking and forced labor at the complex.

According to Victor Cha, head of the geopolitics program at CSIS, and Joseph Kim of the Bush Institute, the report's lead authors, the Islamic Republic first delivered ready-made Shahed drones to Russia and then transferred the technology, the know-how and the design so that Russia could build them itself. Russia now produces upgraded versions of the drone, called "Geran", at Alabuga, and the report estimates the site's capacity at more than 5,500 drones a month.

Teenagers and deceived women working in the drone factory

According to the report, the Alabuga technical college recruits Russian teenagers from the age of 15 under the label of "apprenticeship", and some of them work up to 12 hours a day. A program called "Alabuga Start" also brings young women from African and other countries to Russia with promises of a free ticket and a monthly salary of more than $500 for work in hospitality or manufacturing; many of them discover on arrival that they must assemble drones.

The report's authors count the confiscation of passports, restrictions on movement, deductions from wages for travel, housing, medical care and language classes, and work with hazardous chemicals among the signs of human trafficking. The report also refers to a Ukrainian military intelligence estimate of a Russian plan to bring up to 12,000 North Korean workers to Alabuga, a figure whose full arrival has not been confirmed. According to the US State Department, the North Korean government takes up to 90 percent of these workers' wages.

China's share and the role of the Islamic Republic

The report says Chinese companies supply the batteries, engines, electronic components, navigation equipment and anti-jamming systems for these drones, and play a part in setting up production lines and shipping parts from China and Hong Kong. The Islamic Republic's role in this chain, according to the authors, is the transfer of technology and know-how, and the report does not present independent documentation of Tehran's direct involvement in recruiting workers.

The Shahed drone, built by the Islamic Republic's military industries, has been one of Russia's main weapons in attacks on Ukrainian cities and infrastructure since 2022. This cooperation is part of an axis linking the Islamic Republic, Russia, China and North Korea, the same network that, according to earlier reports, brought the Houthis, with Chinese parts, to building missiles resembling the Khorramshahr.

The two think tanks have called on the US government to sanction the front companies, intermediaries and training centers of this recruitment network, to set up a multilateral group to investigate Alabuga, and to pressure foreign companies into leaving the area.

The drone the Islamic Republic designed is now mass-produced in Russia with the labor of teenagers and deceived workers.