Since the beginning of the war between Russia and Ukraine, the share of secret decrees of Russian President Vladimir Putin has become the highest in 20 years, Mediazona calculated .

Judging by the serial numbers of Putin’s decrees on the publication.pravo.gov.ru website , in March 2022, 54% of all decrees signed by the president in a month were classified. In April, the share of such documents was 49%.

This is a record high since December 2002, when the share of Putin’s secret decrees was 59%. At that time, the second Chechen war was going on in Russia, Mediazona notes.

With the help of secret decrees in Russia, among other things, military personnel are awarded – including posthumously. “Mediazona” found a mention of such a decree in a  post about the death of a military man from the Orenburg region. The administration of the district where the deceased lived reported that he was posthumously awarded the Order of Courage by Presidential Decree No. 85SS of March 3 .

Soldiers who died in the war with Ukraine are usually awarded the Order of Courage posthumously. Of the more than 1700 publications about the death studied by Mediazona, this order is mentioned in almost 600 cases. We did not find any pattern in these awards, so we assume that almost everyone receives a posthumous award – but this is not always mentioned publicly, especially when it comes to the posts of relatives.MEDIA ZONE

(C)MEDUZA 2022