Paul Goble
Staunton, Oct. 30 – When people talk about the number of political prisoners in Putin’s Russia, they normally cite the figures given by Memorial and OVD-Info, which reported confirmed cases numbering 1144 and about 2,000 respectively. But the NeMoskva portal says there are far more and at a minimum numbering 8,000.
There are three major reasons why the NeMoskva figure is so much higher, reasons that should compel all those concerned about the number of political prisoners in the Russian Federation to pay more attention to its reporting (nemoskva.net/2025/10/30/skolko-ih-my-vryad-li-uznaem/).
First, many people now languishing in prisons or camps for political reasons are known only to their families or close friends; and outside of Moscow, this means that central institutions like Memorial and OVD-Info inevitably miss people whom NeMoskva picks up because it has a larger network of reporters beyond the ring road.
Second, in cases of those who have attracted little attention in Moscow or abroad, many “politicals” feel it is wiser to conceal that reality than to trumpet it because especially outside the ring road, NeMoskva reports, they and their families are certain that making such declarations will only add to their woes.
Second, unlike Memorial and OVD-Info, NeMoskva counts those who are incarcerated not just on conviction for specific “political” offenses but those jailed under other provisions of the political code but brought to trial for obviously political reasons, a growing category across the country.
These remarks in no way are intended to denigrate the important work that Memorial and OVD-Info do. Rather they call attention to an additional source which provides important additional information to what these two provide, something increasingly important in a country where the government is not only repressing people but repressing coverage of its repressions.
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