An advert for Russian private military company Wagner has been removed by Pornhub and the Russian number advertised for potential recruits to call is currently disconnected.
In the Russian-language ad, a blonde woman with red lipstick sucked on a lollipop while a woman’s voice urged men to stop masturbating and instead join “the coolest army in the world.”
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“We are recruiting fighters from all regions of Russia. Don’t whack off, go work for PMC Wagner,” the voiceover said, before cutting to a phone number for Wagner recruiters.
The phone number, which matches the number given by Wagner’s official website, appears to have been disconnected or was otherwise unavailable when a VICE World News reporter attempted to call it.
VICE World News understands the advert was removed from Pornhub because the site doesn’t allow political adverts.
Wagner was founded by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and is active in various conflict spots around the world. Writing on Telegram, Prigozhin appeared to confirm his support for using porn as a recruitment tool.
“I don’t know which ones, but advertising PMC Wagner on porn sites is a very good idea from our marketers,” he wrote. “I absolutely completely agree with them, and this advertisement says: ‘Go to fight in the Wagner PMC, stop jerking off.’ Who disagrees with this argument?”
Wagner has come to new prominence after taking on an increasingly important role in the war in Ukraine as the regular Russian army has struggled.
It recruited heavily from convicted Russian prisons, offering convicts pardons in exchange for their service. It has become infamous for its “human wave” attacks in the eastern city of Bakhmut. Wagner has reportedly struggled to recruit mercenaries after multiple estimates suggest losses of over 40,000 dead or seriously wounded since the war began.
