I don’t think it would be a coincidence, more that he’s been involved in music journalism in the US and Russia and those connections probably would have facilitated the appearance. He’d be more likely to know a local Vice handler than your random Oleg off the street. Still could go either way, though.

Anyways, he’s alive and still writing about music , apparently in Moscow. I don’t know if the fact that he’s alive suggests that he did not get drafted, or the fact that he’s a ~35 year old man in Russia suggests that he probably did have to serve.