Yelizaveta Surnacheva is journalist for Systema, RFE/RL's Russian Investigative Unit. Focused on political and social issues, she previously worked as an editor for the Russian investigative outlet Proyekt and BBC News.
RFE/RL’s Russian investigative unit, Systema, has obtained a draft treaty that Moscow proposed early in talks that began days after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. It would have left a truncated Ukraine deeply vulnerable, with a minuscule military and no hope of protection from the West.
How and when will Russian President Vladimir Putin’s 25-year rule come to an end? And who might take his place? These are the questions RFE/RL's Russian investigative unit posed to dozens of international Russia experts, who in all mentioned 34 possible successors by name.
In late June, drone footage appeared showing a soldier in Ukraine shooting a wounded comrade in the head. Russian state television and other pro-Kremlin media claimed the shooter was a Ukrainian “fascist.” But RFE/RL’s investigation concluded the soldiers in the video were Russians.
A Russian ultranationalist’s digital campaign for “chaos” in Ukraine may explain the photos of mysterious crosses on roads, rooftops, and other locations -- described as missile markers -- that appeared on Ukrainian social media as Russian soldiers stormed toward Kyiv in February 2022.
Russia maintains manpower and avoids a politically risky call-up by offering contract soldiers what the Kremlin calls “very, very attractive” terms for signing up to fight in Ukraine. But RFE/RL’s Russian investigative unit, Systema, found numerous cases in which the promised benefits never came.
Amid venomous outbursts from his father in support of the war on Ukraine, former President Dmitry Medvedev’s 27-year-old son joined the ruling United Russia party this summer. Current Time and Meduza take a look at Ilya Medvedev as he emerges from the shadows.
