Almost Half of Putin’s Decrees Last Year were Secret, ‘MediaZona’ Reports

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Jan. 2 – Vladimir Putin classified a higher percentage of his decrees than in any previous year of his reign, with 49.5 percent of them not issued publicly. The war in Ukraine was the major reason -- and especially his awarding of medals to those fighting there and pardoning criminals who have agreed to do so, MediaZona reports.

            Perhaps surprisingly, the total number of decrees both classified and public remained virtually unchanged – 996 in 2022 and 997 in 2023. What allowed the media watchdog to track these figures is that all of Putin’s decrees bear numbers and the numeration begins again each January 1 (zona.media/news/2024/01/02/secret-putin).

            Consequently, gaps between publicly released decrees are easy to see and allow analysts to count the total of classified ones, yet another example of the ways in which the requirements for bureaucratic rationality get in the way of desires to keep things secret and make it possible for observers to track what is really going on.