Denunciation of Some Russians by Others has Tripled Over the Last Year – and Many are about Settling Scores Rather than Exposing Real Threats, Karpitskaya Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, May 18 – The number of denunciations of some Russians by others that were filed with the government’s communication agency tripled between 2024 and 2025, from 86,000 to 252,000, at least in part because of the Putin regime’s encouragement of the population to turn in those people are calling attention to violations of the law.

            Many of these complaints are legitimate and have led officials to investigate and bring charges, journalist Dina Karpitskaya says; but a large share of them reflect public paranoia, petty vindictiveness or a desire to “get on the nerves” of those co-workers, bosses or neighbors (kp.ru/daily/277783.5/5249794/).

            In a Komsomolskaya Pravda article entitled “Informants or Vigilantes? Russians File Hundreds of Reports against One Another,” Karpitskaya suggests that a large share of these denunciations cross the line from civic duty into slander based on no evidence or simple paranoia.

            The journalist calls particular attention to the emergence of companies offering services to those who want to file denunciations. She tested one of these companies and was offered its services to “’thoroughly vet’” the social media accounts of the person she was complaining about and for a fee to force those attacked to “run around police stations and other agencies.

            Unless Russians are encouraged to be more restrained, Karpitskaya says, the problem is likely to grow because “the system doesn’t always distinguish between genuine threat” and made up ones, a real problem given that “we certainly knowhow to put people behind bars for a single ear of grain.”