Investigations, long reads, and open-data analysis A selection of Meduza’s best English-language reporting
Meduza has published tens of thousands of feature stories in the decade since its founding. Our journalists have reported from the scenes of historic events, recorded eyewitness accounts, exposed the activities of Kremlin-linked organizations, and analyzed open data to estimate key figures, such as the number of Russians who have died in the war in Ukraine. We’ve also translated thousands of our most important stories into English. Below, we’re sharing a small selection of the work that gives us pride as journalists.
120,000 dead and counting
In 2022, in collaboration with colleagues at Mediazona, Meduza analyzed open data to estimate the approximate number of Russians killed during the invasion of Ukraine up to that point. As the war has dragged on, so has the counting. In July 2024, journalists estimated Russia’s losses at roughly 120,000 people.
Putin 2024
Another major investigation from Meduza’s journalists focused on Russia’s 2024 presidential election, in which Vladimir Putin secured a fifth term, officially winning 87 percent of the vote. However, our analysis revealed that the election was almost certainly the most fraudulent in the country’s history.
‘I prayed I wouldn’t be next’
Since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russia has abducted thousands of Ukrainian civilians, from volunteers and journalists to former soldiers and officials, and locked them up in Russian prisons. Meduza spoke with Ukrainians who have been released from the facilities, as well as with their relatives and lawyers, to find out how this clandestine prison system works.
Russia’s sprawling wartime fake news machine
In 2019, the Moscow authorities created a nonprofit organization called Dialog, which officials billed as a means to facilitate better communication with the public. The team of “pseudo-hipsters” soon became a crucial part of the Russian government’s propaganda campaigns, especially during the invasion of Ukraine. Together with other outlets, Meduza investigated Dialog’s background.
Hunting down the haters
While the previous story explored how the Russian authorities use Telegram for their own purposes, this report looks at how individuals with government ties leverage their police connections against Russia’s homegrown tabloid industry: anonymous Telegram channels. Meduza’s investigation focuses on how officials at Rostec, the Russian military’s industrial supplier, play this high-stakes game.
Who wants to live forever?
Russian businessman Mikhail Kovalchuk believes in the existence of a U.S.-made “subspecies of human,” claims there are biological weapons that only affect Russians, and is obsessed with the idea of immortality. He’s also one of the few people who has Vladimir Putin’s ear.
‘You can’t breathe freely’
In early 2023, a worker from a Russian government organization traveled to several occupied towns in Ukraine’s Kherson region. During the trip, this person recorded his candid conversations with locals and took photographs of what he saw — and then shared all of these materials with Meduza. This story weaves together his observations and the firsthand accounts from locals, offering insights into the fears, thoughts, and experiences of Ukrainians living under Russian occupation.
The fate of the Daugava
In the aftermath of World War II, Moscow set out to build a cascade of hydroelectric power stations in Soviet-occupied Latvia. However, popular opposition to losing natural monuments along the Daugava River proved to be a stumbling block — one that grew increasingly insurmountable as the decades-long project inched forward. For The Beet, Meduza photo editor Katya Balaban recounts how the fight to save the Daugava River’s natural riches kick-started Latvia’s independence movement.
The radios went silent
In September 2016, eight firefighters were killed while responding to a blaze at a warehouse in East Moscow. It was the deadliest fire for Moscow firefighters in the last 70 years. Meduza reconstructed the day’s events and explored the disaster’s aftermath.