Stories – IStories

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Stories

How a network for selling sex with teenagers was built in Russia — and which of its influential clients managed to escape responsibility. An investigation by IStories and Verstka

19 June

Olesya Gerasimenko, Ivan Zhadaev, Rina Richter, Aleksandr Kabanov, Maria Zholobova, Dmitry Velikovsky

“They Told Me: Deripaska Is the Client. Don’t You Want To Sell Your Virginity?”

The technical infrastructure that underpins Telegram is controlled by a man whose companies have collaborated with Russian intelligence services. An investigation by IStories

10 June

Roman Anin, Nikita Kondratyev

Telegram, the FSB, and the Man in the Middle

By the end of the year, the pace of contract enlistment has fallen and continues to decline. A research by IStories

30 May

Sonya Savina, Katya Bonch-Osmolovskaya

Up to 407 Thousand Russians Signed Contracts with the Defense Ministry in 2024

Vladimir Putin has ordered residents of the occupied territories to legalize their status by September 10, or else they will be deported. In reality, Ukrainians whom the occupation authorities have deemed a “security threat” have long been expelled from their homes and abandoned at the border with Georgia. Here are their stories

23 May

Rina Nikolaeva, Polina Uzhvak, Irina Dolinina

Deportation From the Occupation

They lost both money and fame. The state compensates the money, but not the fame

22 May

Editors

Russian Sports in Their Fourth Year of Isolation — How Has This Hit Athletes?

How many people have deserted the Russian army during the war — an investigation by IStories

20 May

Egor Feoktistov

Under the Weight of Cargo 500

Journalists from six countries have united to investigate the death of Ukrainian journalist Viktoriia Roshchyna. In the summer of 2023, she organized a trip to the territories occupied by Russia to locate places where abducted Ukrainians were being held and disappeared herself. A year and a half later, her body was repatriated with signs of torture

29 April

Polina Uzhvak, Irina Dolinina, Rina Nikolaeva

Ghost Detainees. The Story of Viktoriia Roshchyna

How the son of a CIA deputy director set out to backpack around the world and to save the planet — but ended up in the Russian army and died in the war in Ukraine

25 April

Sonya Savina, Egor Feoktistov

“He Was Forging His Own Hero’s Journey When He Was Tragically Killed in Eastern Europe”

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How Russia Imports Foreign Components and Machinery

Belarus-based Izovac captured a fifth of the global market in its field by 2020. We found its other clients as well — Russian military-industrial complex enterprises

24 April

Editors

How an Apple and Samsung Supplier Helps the Russian Military Industry

IStories identified 1,500 of them and found out how the recruitment of foreigners works in Moscow

23 April

Sonya Savina, Egor Feoktistov

Mercenaries From at Least 48 Countries Are Participating in the War on Russia’s Side

The Judicial Department at the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation has published new data on the number and composition of convicted individuals. The IStories data team explains what has become known from this data

18 April

Sonya Savina, Polina Uzhvak, Rina Nikolaeva, Egor Feoktistov

How and for What Russians Are Judged in 2024

Russian elites are obtaining Serbian passports with visa-free access to the EU during the war. Among them are an FSB special forces member, a friend of Nikolay Patrushev, nuclear weapons manufacturers, a close associate of Ramzan Kadyrov, and dozens of others

16 April

Nikita Kondratyev, Editors

Belgrade Syndicate

The main task of the special services is to intimidate and divide the scientific community. They do not care about anything else

10 April

“We Will Imprison This One and Buy That One.” Why Are Scientists Being Persecuted in Russia

VChK-OGPU, an opposition Telegram channel known for leaks, has been removed from Telegram, the largest platform for uncensored media. The messenger denies involvement, but what happened looks extremely strange and even dangerous

7 April

“To Show That Russian Special Services Have Long Arms Also Regarding Telegram”

The National Technology Initiative was supposed to give young startups a chance and make Russia a global technology leader. Now, the companies it sponsors are working for the war effort and complaining that there is no other market in Russia

19 March

Kirill Aruzov

Who and How Involves Russian Startups in Defense Order Work

Moscow, Berlin, and Washington are discussing the resumption of raw material supplies to Germany at Rosneft’s refineries. This could be an argument for a ceasefire with Ukraine

13 March

Marcus Bensmann, Alexej Hock, David Schraven, Nikita Kondratyev

“Russians and Americans Are Clapping Their Hands”

Meet the bloggers who criticize the West and lure foreigners to Russia — to enjoy “traditional values.” These bloggers are considered independent, but they are paid by the propaganda channel RT

13 March

Rina Nikolaeva, Anastasia Korotkova, Dmitry Velikovsky

Propaganda for Export

Who is Kirill Dmitriev, the key Russian negotiator with the U.S.?

18 February

Putin’s Man From Stanford

Servicemen can pay a bribe to escape the frontlines, with the cost ranging from 700 thousand to 3 million rubles. However, bribery is not always an option. Here is how the system works

17 February

Aleksandr Atasuntsev

How Russian Soldiers Bribe Their Way Off the Frontline

A Russian vessel delivered over 20,000 tons of wheat to Egypt. The company behind the shipment sells grain from occupied regions

5 February

Selma Mhaoud, Shaya Laughlin, Misha Gagarin

Russia May Have Exported Wheat From Occupied Ukrainian Territories to Egypt

Coal goes to Turkey and other countries, and money goes offshore

4 February

Maria Zholobova

Son of Ousted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych Makes Billions Selling Coal From Occupied Territories

How a well-known Russian “human rights activist” Maria Chashchilova falsified her biography and gained access to information that posed a threat to people persecuted by Russian authorities

31 January

“I Admit That I Deceived You”

Leaked data on Dubai property owners shows that Ramzan Kadyrov’s cousin, Chechen official Shahruddi Edilgiriev, has become the owner of 4 luxury mansions worth more than $20 million

30 January

Graham Stack, Editors

Chechnya’s Unofficial Embassy in the UAE

They offloaded hundreds of thousands of tons of petroleum products onto vessels involved in exporting from Russia in circumvention of sanctions

28 January

At Least 11 Volgoneft Type Tankers Went to Sea With the Same Violations as Those That Sank in December

IStories gained access to port data for Russian shadow fleet vessels that have fallen under sanctions

22 January

Egor Feoktistov

New U.S. Sanctions Affected Vessels That Transported a Fifth of Russia’s Oil Exports in 2024

How a financier сlose to Putin’s friends bought an American company with access to the data of millions of air passengers in the US and Europe — and made the son of the FSB’s First Deputy Director a partner in a similar project in Russia

13 January

Roman Katin

American Startup for the FSB General’s Son

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The Case of Children Deportation from Ukraine to Russia

The story of the life and death of Oleksandr Yakushchenko, a teenager who was taken from Ukraine to Russia and committed suicide in his foster home

24 December

Katya Bonch-Osmolovskaya

“He Was Buried in a Day Like a Dog”

Drones and other new technologies are important, but the basis for success is still economic mobilization, numerical superiority and artillery. Military expert summarizes three years of Russian invasion

23 December

How Russo-Ukrainian War Changed Military Science

Who controls business in occupied Ukrainian cities

20 December

Ksenia Churmanova

“Almost All of Russia is Here”

In 2022, 74 lieutenants graduated from the Donetsk Higher Combined Arms Command School. At least 17 of them died, more than half of them in the first year of the war

5 December

Aleksandr Atasuntsev

A Deadly Graduation: One in Four Cadets Killed in War