Almost 50% of the decrees signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin last year were secret, revealed a report published this week by the investigative website Mediazona.
The survey was carried out based on the list of decrees published on the official website of the Russian government, listed in sequence. From those whose numbering is not included in public records, Mediazona calculated the percentage of secret decrees.
There were 997 decrees signed by Putin in 2023, of which 49.5% were secret. According to Mediazona, this percentage surpassed the record set in 2001, the year at the height of the second war in Chechnya, when 47% of presidential decrees were not published. In 2022, there were 996 decrees, of which 45% were secret.
Mediazona pointed out that the war in Ukraine is the main explanation for last year's record, as secret decrees are signed to confer military honors on those killed in combat or pardon convicted criminals to serve in the war.
The investigative website pointed out data that reinforces this hypothesis. At the beginning of 2022, before the invasion of Ukraine, just over 20% of the decrees signed by Putin were secret. However, in the following months, the proportion rose to more than 50%, and in July 2023, at the beginning of the Ukrainian counteroffensive, more than 60% of the decrees were classified.
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