On Friday, August 9, on the eve of the rally on Sakharov Avenue, a document with personal data of more than 3,000 people was published on the Telegram channel “Comrade Major,” which has almost 30,000 subscribers. The caption stated that these people are supporters of Alexei Navalny. It was also said that Navalny’s headquarters mistakenly posted the entire database in its chat. After some time the file was deleted.

As found out Meduza , the database included participants in uncoordinated actions on July 27 and August 3, people who left their signatures in support of candidates for the Moscow City Duma, as well as random people. Navalny’s team told the publication that it had never maintained a database of its supporters or volunteers in this format. Some people interviewed by Meduza noted that the database contains data that they left for police when detained at protests. One person in particular said the document contained a fictitious address he told police. Others noticed that the data matches the data they provided when purchasing the SIM card. For example, journalist Nina Abrosimova, who covered the July 27 rally, found her mother in the database, to whom her mobile number was registered.

Meduza tracked down a man who had previously been the administrator of Comrade Major. According to the publication, he turned out to be a certain Vitaly Taisaev. On his social networks, he indicated that he works in media and Telegram, and is engaged in SMM marketing. Meduza was unable to contact him by phone; in correspondence, Taisaev told the correspondent that he is now not related to the channel, but “promoted it in 2017 for about two months upon request.”

When asked why his phone number was linked to the account, the man replied that he may have given the SIM card to the customer. Taisaev said that, according to his information, the “Comrade Major” channel was resold twice, but he does not know who its current owner is. Taisaev also could not name those on whose orders he administered Comrade Major, but suggested that these could be people “from some kind of circle around the Kremlin.”

Later, in a conversation with the online publication Baza, Taisaev said that in 2017, certain “people connected with the government, with the authorities” approached him with a request to develop the Telegram channel. He categorically refused to name the names of the customers.

Meduza found the possible author of the Telegram channel that posted the protesters’ data