Moscow Continues to Restrict Data It Releases but in Incomplete and Inconsistent Ways, ‘To Be Precise’ Portal Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, June 9 – Since February 2022, when Putin launched his expanded invasion of Ukraine, Russian government agencies have stopped publishing almost 600 datasets; and they continue to shut them down, the To Be Precise portal says. But they have been doing so in incomplete and inconsistent ways.

            This trend, however, has been both incomplete and inconsistent. Sometimes the authorities have removed the data from one table or another but continued to put it up in another; and sometimes, they have stopped publishing data on a subject altogether but issued other data that allows these data to be easily calculated (tochno.st/materials/76-naborov-dannyx).

            Obviously, the portal says, less data is available to researchers; and it is more difficult for them to do their work. But many agencies have their own agendas as to what is released and what is not, and perhaps most importantly, the government as a whole finds it increasingly difficult to do its work when data isn’t released either at all or in comparable ways.

            A February 2024 law was supposed to introduce a certain consistency in what the ministries and agencies of the Russian government released. It required that any government body seeking to stop releasing data seek approval from the council of ministers. But that rule has been ignored in many cases, the portal says.

            That the Putin regime is trying to hide anything related to combat losses in Ukraine and other highly sensitive information is obvious. That it is doing so in a rational and centralized way, however, is equally clear and means that for the time being, much that the Kremlin wants hidden is still available to researchers prepared to spend more time and effort.

            This pattern is likely to continue because much of the data the Kremlin wants hidden is important for a wide variety of government agencies; and if the data is not released at all and if the government doesn’t have an effective system of distributing data secretly, then many of these agencies will be flying blind as they attempt to carry out their jobs.