Russia offered bonus exam marks to college students so they would show up to a pro-war propaganda rally: NYT

• Russian students were offered extra marks to be at a pro-war rally in Moscow, per a professor.
• A student who traveled 290 miles to Moscow told The New York Times they were brought there in busloads.

Russian students were offered bonus marks on their exams to attend a massive pro-war rally in Moscow, The New York Times reported, citing a university professor.

Russians flocked to the Luzhniki Stadium, the biggest stadium in the country, for the event on Wednesday. The 81,000-seat stadium appeared to be full even though it was freezing, The Times reported.

But The Times reported that not everyone was there of their own accord. Most of the tens of thousands of people who showed, it siad, up were state employees and students, who were given free tickets and a day off to go the event.

Matvey, 19, a student who traveled from the city of Tambov, around 290 miles from Moscow, told The Times that university students were brought in by the busload. Some of them had to travel more than eight hours each way to get to the location, Matvey said.

Students were also incentivized with free marks in exchange for their time, according to one professor, Grigory Yudin.

"People were bused there, forced to attend; we have reports of that from multiple universities," said Yudin, who teachers political philosophy at the Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences. The outlet noted that he did not go himself.

The celebration was meant to honor Russia's armed forces, as part of the country's annual Defenders of the Fatherland holiday. It was two days before the first anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and featured a propaganda-filled speech by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Yudin said: "Putin coerces people, lures them into participating, and these students are promised free passes on exams."

It is unclear which universities the students were from, or how many students were bused into the stadium. Insider was unable to independently verify that students and state employees were coerced into attending, or if students were given extra credit at school for attending the rally.

Sirena, a Russian-language Telegram channel, reported that rally organizers were recruiting people to attend the concert on February 22. They were calling for people under the age of "35 to 40" to be background actors, and offering payment of 500 rubles (around $6.67), it said.

Putin during his rally speech lauded Russian soldiers for "fighting heroically, courageously and bravely," per the Kremlin's readout of his speech. He also asked those in the stadium to chant "Russia, Russia" in support of Russian soldiers, per Reuters.

The rally on Wednesday also doubled as a concert, with performances like a rap piece about "demons buried in Azovstal," referring to the Ukrainian fighters who defended a steel plant in Mariupol for weeks, and are considered war heroes in Ukraine.