IStories

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IStories gained access to port data for Russian shadow fleet vessels that have fallen under sanctions

22 January

Egor Feoktistov

New U.S. Sanctions Affected Vessels That Transported a Fifth of Russia’s Oil Exports in 2024

How a financier сlose to Putin’s friends bought an American company with access to the data of millions of air passengers in the US and Europe — and made the son of the FSB’s First Deputy Director a partner in a similar project in Russia

13 January

Roman Katin

American Startup for the FSB General’s Son

Attitudes towards the war have not сhanged even among those fighting for the return of their loved ones

16 January

Public Sociology Laboratory

“War Is Fine, as Long as Our Children Aren’t Taken There”

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The Case of Children Deportation from Ukraine to Russia

The story of the life and death of Oleksandr Yakushchenko, a teenager who was taken from Ukraine to Russia and committed suicide in his foster home

24 December

Katya Bonch-Osmolovskaya

“He Was Buried in a Day Like a Dog”

Drones and other new technologies are important, but the basis for success is still economic mobilization, numerical superiority and artillery. Military expert summarizes three years of Russian invasion

23 December

How Russo-Ukrainian War Changed Military Science

Who controls business in occupied Ukrainian cities

20 December

Ksenia Churmanova

“Almost All of Russia is Here”

News

Exclusive

Finland Suspects a Ship From the Russian Shadow Fleet of a New Cable Damage in the Baltic Sea. IStories Found Its Captain

The tanker was near the Estlink 2 power cable when it failed

17:02 - 26 December

Finland Suspects a Ship From the Russian Shadow Fleet of a New Cable Damage in the Baltic Sea. IStories Found Its Captain

Exclusive

Volgoneft Tankers Were Banned From Entering the Kerch Strait in December

One of them sailed for two weeks without valid documents. The vessels violated almost all of the operating restrictions

17:40 - 18 December

Volgoneft Tankers Were Banned From Entering the Kerch Strait in December

Exclusive

Defense Minister Andrei Belousov Said That in 2024, More Than 427 Thousand People Were Recruited for a Contract. Is This True?

IStories explain why this number may be overstated

18:11 - 16 December

Defense Minister Andrei Belousov Said That in 2024, More Than 427 Thousand People Were Recruited for a Contract. Is This True?

Law Enforcement Conducted a Search and Seizure at the Home of IStories Editor-in-Chief’s Parents

A criminal case was opened against Alesya Marokhovskaya under the “foreign agency” article

12:33 - 5 December

Law Enforcement Conducted a Search and Seizure at the Home of IStories Editor-in-Chief’s Parents

A Drone Struck the Barracks of Ramzan Kadyrov’s Regiment Overnight

It is the same location where 13 Chechens were executed extrajudicially in 2017. The building sustained severe damage

14:45 - 4 December

A Drone Struck the Barracks of Ramzan Kadyrov’s Regiment Overnight

Exclusive

The USA Ready to Train and Arm New AFU Soldiers If Ukraine Changes Conscription Policy — US Department of State

Volodymyr Zelensky says Ukraine has no plans to reduce mobilization age

14:15 - 4 December

The USA Ready to Train and Arm New AFU Soldiers If Ukraine Changes Conscription Policy — US Department of State

NATO Secretary General Estimates the Number of Russian Armed Forces Casualties in Ukraine at 700,000 People

According to a senior alliance official, the average daily Russian casualties have peaked at about 1,500 people

19:43 - 3 December

NATO Secretary General Estimates the Number of Russian Armed Forces Casualties in Ukraine at 700,000 People

Exclusive

A European Partner of Putin’s Friend

How Czech businessman Jan Merka is associated to Russian businessman Gennady Petrov

22:33 - 14 November

A European Partner of Putin’s Friend

Exclusive

Conscripts in Moscow Were Notified They Are Banned From Leaving the Country

They are threatened with criminal liability for failure to report to the military enlistment office

19:45 - 12 November

Conscripts in Moscow Were Notified They Are Banned From Leaving the Country

Exclusive

Judges Versus Migrants

In the first half of 2024, Russian courts fined migrants a record amount and ordered 86,000 foreigners to be expelled from Russia

09:40 - 21 October

Judges Versus Migrants

Exclusive

The Traitors, The Spies, The Terrorists

Russian courts break the record for state treason convictions, and the number of convicted military personnel continues to rise: the IStories data team research on the convictions in Russia for the first half of 2024

07:00 - 18 October

The Traitors, The Spies, The Terrorists

Exclusive

Russian Soldiers Have Become More Likely to Receive Real Sentences as Punishment

Almost half of the convicted servicemen were sentenced to real imprisonment, whereas earlier their share did not exceed one third. The damage caused by military crimes has increased more than 30 times

17:36 - 15 October

Russian Soldiers Have Become More Likely to Receive Real Sentences as Punishment

Exclusive

Russian Authorities Plans to Send 40% of Accused Persons to War

About 20 thousand people may go to the war front from pre-trial detention centers

05:07 - 1 October

Russian Authorities Plans to Send 40% of Accused Persons to War

In 2022, 74 lieutenants graduated from the Donetsk Higher Combined Arms Command School. At least 17 of them died, more than half of them in the first year of the war

5 December

Aleksandr Atasuntsev

A Deadly Graduation: One in Four Cadets Killed in War

There has been a similar story before — and it did not win

16 December

Yury Fedorov

Why Vladimir Putin Launched Oreshnik Missile

What do the Kurdistan region think about the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria? Military journalist Liza Shishko, who has been observing the Kurdish struggle from the inside for 7 years, explains

10 December

Editors

“This is an ISIS Victory”

It will not change the situation on the front, and the consequences could be catastrophic

28 November

5 Reasons Why Russia is Unlikely to Use Tactical Nuclear Weapons in Ukraine

Leonid Popov was kidnapped, tortured and held for a year and a half without charges. Now he faces up to 20 years in prison. He disappeared in April 2023, all this time the law enforcers denied that they were holding him

29 November

Rina Nikolaeva, Polina Uzhvak

The FSB Accused a Resident of Melitopol with Severe Mental Disorders of Espionage

Ephrem Yalike was a member of an organization to spread disinformation in Central African Republic. He managed to flee his country and tell the inside story of Russia’s campaign to influence public opinion in Africa

21 November

Irina Dolinina, Léa Peruchon

Former Wagner Group Employee Exposes Russian Propaganda Work in CAR

More than a thousand Russian servicemen of the 20th Motorized Rifle Division went AWOL, IStories found out. What happened to them?

19 November

Irina Dolinina, Polina Uzhvak

A Runaway Regiment

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The Case of Children Deportation from Ukraine to Russia

Oleshky Specialized Boarding School was one of the best institutions in Ukraine for children with special needs. It is still unknown what happened to some of its residents.

23 October

Katya Bonch-Osmolovskaya

How the War Destroyed the Orphanage in Oleshky

How Russia evades sanctions with a fake transit scheme and why it is difficult to fight it

17 October

Editors

Western Companies Supply Russia with Billions of Dollars Worth of Goods But They Do Not Realize It

There are Russian military personnel in Ukrainian captivity who are considered dead in their homeland. Their relatives have even managed to bury “remains” in closed coffins. The Russian Defense Ministry did not provide the DNA testing results to the relatives

6 August

Dead Russians Revived

The Russian army could recruit one and a half times fewer new contract soldiers than the Defense Ministry claims. Are Russians willingly going to war? A research by IStories and CIT

1 August

Katya Bonch-Osmolovskaya, Sonya Savina

More Soldiers at All Costs

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Important Documentaries

A documentary by IStories

21 December

Wives of Mobilized Men on the War, Putin and the Future of Russia

How adoptees and their siblings live separated in Russia and abroad

15 June

“Detective Found My Family”

Stories of those missing in action and survivors’ accounts

18 January

Irina Dolinina, Rina Nikolaeva

Hell for the Mobilized Near Svatove

IStories looked into the life stories of the convicted criminals who died in Ukraine and were recruited by Russia’s infamous paramilitary organization Wagner PMC, talked to the victims of their crimes, relatives and friends

3 May

Alesya Marokhovskaya, Ekaterina Fomina

Faces of Wagner

True crime from modern-day Russia

21 October

“Putin Pardoned the Murderers of Our Children.” A Film by IStories

IStories found military officers who fled Russia — they told us about the war crimes they have witnessed and why it is almost impossible to leave the Russian army

15 August

Ekaterina Fomina

How the Russian Servicemen Are Deserting and Escaping Russia so as Not to Kill in the War

How the kidnapping, torture and terror is organized in the center of Ukrainian guerrilla resistance — Russian-occupied Melitopol

3 October

Polina Uzhvak, Rina Nikolaeva

“You Will Die and No One Will Know”

Buryatia’s losses in the war — what will the mobilization result in? A documentary by IStories

24 September

“Guys Die for Nothing”

The phone of a local resident who survived a mass shooting was found in Bucha. The occupiers used this phone to call home. IStories found them

27 June

Ekaterina Fomina

Eight Pskov Paratroopers in Bucha

How they lose, escape, and help during the war

27 May

Irina Dolinina, Ekaterina Fomina

Refugees 2022. A Documentary by IStories

The month of Putin’s war in Ukraine is being told by the voices of people on both front lines in the IStories’ film

29 March

The Voices of the War in Ukraine

20 million Russians may not be able to wait for an ambulance to arrive when their lives are at stake. A research and reportage by IStories

26 July

Sonya Savina, Editors

“They Have Been Re-optimized to the Point That Soon No One Will Be Able to Get Sick at All”

In Russia, one baby dies during labour or pregnancy every minute — an IStories investigation

1 June

Sonya Savina, Editors

“I’m Never Going Back to That Hell. I Don’t Want to Give Birth in This Country Anymore”

A documentary by IStories

2 November

What the Post-war Future Holds for Russia: Drawing on the Case of Post-nazi Germany

Journalists from IStories and Meduza found more than 140 “regular” witnesses who testified in Moscow courts in the so called “drug” trials. They are the acquaintances of the policemen or those who are dependent from them. Despite gross violations of the law, the judges sent hundreds of people to jail

18 February

Alesya Marokhovskaya

“I’m a Witness!” Who Helps the Police to Fabricate Drug Related Cases

Thousands of emails sent and received by Kirill Shamalov — Vladimir Putin’s former son-in-law — showcase the fantastic wealth and personal power that come with access to Russia’s first family

7 December

Roman Anin, Alesya Marokhovskaya, Irina Dolinina, Dmitry Velikovsky, Sonya Savina, Editors

Love, Offshores, and Administrative Resources: How Marrying Putin’s Daughter Gave Kirill Shamalov a World of Opportunity

How a “marathons of desire” participant and a Ukrainian physicist from a European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) project assemble drones for the Russian army

17 July

Egor Feoktistov

“Ideologically Powered to Fight for Russia”

The story of one of the most closed officials in Russia — the chief personnel officer of the Russian regime

9 July

Maria Zholobova, Roman Anin

Dmitry Mironov, A Putin’s “Sonny”

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An investigation into how presidential administration employee, Sergey Novikov, became the chief censor of Russian culture

8 July

Svetlana Reiter, Maria Zholobova, Kristina Safonova, Andrey Pertsev

From Passion to Persecution: How the Kremlin Chief Censor’s Cultural Dream Became a Russian Nightmare

Details of Russian investigation claims against Roman Anin and Ekaterina Fomina

17 June

Editors

Criminal Proceedings Initiated Against the IStories’ Editor-In-Chief and a Former Journalist of the Outlet

Russian weapons are being manufactured on foreign machinery — but why are they still running? An investigation by IStories

13 June

Anastasia Korotkova

“We Can Still Contact Technical Support in the West”

How Russian billionaires manage their biographies on Wikipedia since the start of the war by deleting information about their citizenship, property, sanctions, and ties to the Kremlin. An investigation by IStories and Wikiganda

15 April

Yulia Starostina

The Great Wikipedia Edit War

Russian defense manufacturing plants benefit from British measuring equipment and software systems

7 March

Anastasia Korotkova

Bypassing Sanctions: How British Company Renishaw Assists the Russian Army