A German job agency is looking for Russian-speaking extras to play civilian population of fictitious villages in order to provide the US army with a realistic setting during upcoming NATO drills in Bavaria.
Optronic, which specializes in providing temporary personnel to the US Army for training purposes, placed ads on Berlin’s official portal and the Federal Employment Agency.
Extras will be paid a daily $88-120 for posing as farmers and shop owners in a dozen of makeshift villages set up on the Hohenfels training grounds not far from the German-Czech border.
The goal is to familiarize US soldiers with the language, customs and morals of a foreign culture and guarantee a successful overseas deployment.
Good Russian skills are a must. Extras are also expected to have basic knowledge of English, German, Polish or Czech. They will wear infrared detectors to determine if they would have been hit by soldiers on battlefield.
German journalist and film-maker Uli Gellermann told Sputnik a foreign setting at the Hohenfels military site suggested an offensive and not defensive nature of NATO war games. He quoted Article 26 of the German constitution which prohibits “acts tending to… prepare for a war of aggression.”
The exercises are scheduled to take place from April 28 to May 15. Role players will be bussed to the German training grounds two days ahead to receive instructions. Taking cellphones to the area is prohibited for security reasons.