‘The state encourages it’

Amid the full-scale war in Ukraine, thousands of Russians have reported their fellow citizens for dissent. Who are they?

Since the start of the full-scale war against Ukraine, Russians have filed at least 3,500 denunciations against their fellow citizens for their statements, posts, books, and websites — sometimes resulting in high-profile criminal cases. However, the consequences of most of these complaints receive little public attention. Furthermore, many of those filing reports are not public figures but ordinary Russians who meet in anonymous Telegram channels. The independent outlet iStories analyzed the most active of these informant channels and interviewed their members to uncover who they are, what they report, and why they choose to participate in state repression. Meduza shares an abridged English-language version of the outlet’s findings.

Late last year, Moscow resident Usman Baratov posted a picture of a chicken with the caption: “No eggs for you! Bring the cocks back from the front.” His post was a reaction to the sharp rise in egg prices (over 50 percent), a topic even Vladimir Putin had to address.

Within a month, calls to strip Baratov of his Russian citizenship started appearing on social media. Pro-Kremlin bloggers saw his post as “discrediting” the Russian army, and informers joined the harassment, sending complaints about Baratov to the Russian Investigative Committee and the prosecutor’s office.

One of the most active voices calling for denunciations against Baratov was the anonymous Telegram channel Direct Action. The channel, aiming to “create public outcry,” asked followers to report Baratov to pro-government media in order to ensure he “was no longer laughing.” A few days later, a criminal case was opened against him on charges of “inciting hatred or enmity.” Baratov has now been in pre-trial detention for five months. Thanks to Direct Action, he faces up to six years in prison.

Between February 2022 and May 2024, serial informers wrote at least 3,500 complaints against Russian citizens, according to iStories — and this is only a minimum estimate based on public posts. The most active groups of anonymous informers emerged only after the start of the full-scale war. Before that, they existed as groups on Russian social media where people would share propagandistic and homophobic memes. Direct Action, for example, spun off from a group called Bloodseeker, which posts homophobic and pro-Kremlin content. However, the war and the subsequent repressive policies brought by Russian authorities against their own population led to a surge in denunciations, targeting not only anti-war statements but also LGBTQ+ content, “Russophobia,” drugs, and other topics.

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Civilian snitching

For serial informers like Ekaterina Mizulina, the head of the Safe Internet League, and Vitaly Borodin, the head of the Federal Security and Anti-Corruption Project, denunciation has become a calling card. Mizulina alone filed 148 reports over just two years, targeting bloggers, journalists, publishers, artists, and other content creators. Lawmakers and activists like this tailor their denunciations to their current agenda, primarily focusing on public figures and their statements. For them, denunciation is a way to showcase their work, believes researcher Ilya Utekhin.

“Special services use many deputies to initiate investigations,” Utekhin adds. “Denunciations are convenient for law enforcement because they can refer to ‘signals’ from citizens and officials. For example, [Russian State Duma deputy] Vitaly Milonov might say, ‘Yes, I wrote to the prosecutor’s office, but I was asked to do so by my constituents.’”

However, public figures filed only 7.6 percent of the denunciations studied by iStories. More often, it appears to be ordinary Russians who are reporting on their fellow citizens, regularly filing large quantities of anonymous denunciations.

The Telegram channel Mrakoborets, with its 5,600 followers, was behind 70 percent of the reports and calls to action identified by iStories. The channel typically reports at least three social media pages per day; since February 2022, it’s posted nearly 2,500 calls to action. Mrakoborets mainly targets anti-war statements but occasionally takes on “Russophobia” and LGBTQ+ individuals. The Anti-Tolerant Organization and Direct Action Telegram channels, which have a combined following of about 5,000 people, scour the Internet for “LGBT propaganda” and feminist content.

Serial informants find their victims on social media sites and other informant Telegram channels, or sometimes through tips from followers, an administrator of the Anti-Tolerant Organization channel told iStories. All of the anonymous informant Telegram channels operate similarly: they post information about their targets, including contact information and social media links, along with templates and instructions for writing denunciations. Complaints are usually directed to the Internal Affairs Ministry, the prosecutor’s office, the Investigative Committee, and Russia’s federal censorship agency, Roskomnadzor.

In addition to calls for denunciations, these Telegram channels urge followers to harass and spam victims. This June, informants complained about people holding a “photo shoot” in a St. Petersburg cemetery. Channel administrators created dedicated chats to instruct followers on the types of comments to leave on the targets’ social media pages and which posts to report.

Followers often report back on their successes. By June 7, 2024, members of Direct Action claimed to have blocked 109 pages related to LGBTQ+ topics and the war in Ukraine, including opposition media sites (although it’s not possible to verify whether these pages were blocked as a result of these informants). They also boast about forced public apologies (such as a Belgorod resident’s for supporting Ukraine and criticizing the mistreatment of migrants in Russia), dismissals (like the Higher School of Economics firing a transgender teacher in spring 2022), and misdemeanor charges (including those against Popcorn Books for publishing books with LGBTQ+ characters and a drag performer from Yekaterinburg for singing the Russian anthem while holding a rainbow flag).

‘Civic duty’

Anthropologist Alexandra Arkhipova, who studies denunciations, categorizes those filing them into three groups based on their motivations: material, emotional, or moral gain. According to Arkhipova, most denunciations are written by ordinary citizens seeking emotional gain — people who want to harm their adversaries and get law enforcement to resolve personal conflicts. Others believe they’re upholding correct moral values by filing complaints.

This describes most people in the anonymous Telegram channels. Members of these groups told iStories they write denunciations out of “civic duty” and believe they are making the Internet and Russia safer and “cleaner.” “Most often, we [report] content that violates Russian law; we have practically no leverage over other types [of content]. I [write denunciations] because it benefits the Russian people and the state,” says the Anti-Tolerant Organization channel administrator.

One of the channel’s members remarks: “I decided to [write denunciations] mainly because Western society is slowly but surely falling into the abyss of all this [LGBTQ+] chaos. I find it unacceptable. I’ve seen how this infection negatively affects fragile minds that lack critical thinking.”

Serial denunciation filers dislike being called informants because of the public criticism it brings. “Society generally doesn’t look kindly on complainers. Even in kindergarten, children are taught not to tattle,” explains Ilya Utekhin. “And in various subcultures, snitching is seen as something shameful. However, the state encourages it.”

While laws prohibiting “disinformation” and “discrediting” the Russian army came into effect in 2022, denunciations markedly increased in 2023. “The number of denunciations directly depends on the intensity of the authorities’ repressive policies,” says Ilya Utekhin. According to him, the authorities create the image of an enemy that citizens need to “hunt down.” “This enlists citizens in the enforcement of repressive measures,” he explains. At the same time, Utekhin emphasizes that filing denunciations is always a personal decision.

Story by Evgeniya Alekseeva for iStories