I have tried to explain to them that a more qualified DT1 member would benefit them a lot more, not to mention that they already have other DT2 members among them so there is no lack of scam busting power or whatever they're looking for regarding DT.
Are you ready to provide a list?
As soon as they see a decent list of DT2 with proportional representation of Russian local Board - then all questions will disappear!
A list of what? If I see someone qualified I'll surely include them. You don't need my list. There are Russian DT2 members with no trust activity. Maybe you can start with a petition to them to make use of the system. Maybe you can push to show trust ratings on
boards rampant with scams. There are probably other things that can be done to improve the system instead of handing out green ratings to your buddies.
There is nothing wrong with building a local Russian trust network. But since DT1 and DT2 levels are also part of the forum-wide default network you shouldn't expect to be in it if you build your network out of "likes".