Confession“There is no such thing as a ‘sense of humor’ in the Criminal Code”: Russian stand-up comedians on surviving war and censorshipVMValentina MatreninaSeptember 4, 2026
Confession“Many won’t make it through the year”: Fuel shortages are hitting businesses across RussiaVMValentina MatreninaAugust 9, 2026
Confession“He saw a document — 19,500 losses from the Airborne Forces”: Confessions of a Russian headquarters sergeant who fled the frontViktoriia PonomarevaJuly 21, 2026
Confession“He was burning in the hallway, and they laughed”: Inside Russia’s systematic torture apparatus for Ukrainian POWsTPTetiana PopovaJuly 17, 2026
Confession“Trying to change Russia from within gets you nowhere”: Former TV Rain journalist Pyotr Ruzavin on serving in the Armed Forces of UkraineThe InsiderJuly 15, 2026
Confession“We were told we were developing antidotes”: The inner workings of the St. Petersburg lab where Novichok was testedMKMikhail KalininJune 3, 2026
Confession“I delivered bags of money from Mogilevich to the police chief, and more for Orbán": Former Budapest gang member László Kovács tells allThe InsiderApril 7, 2026
Confession“In Russia, you will atone for your guilt before Putin”: Stories of three Russians deported from the United StatesMKMikhail KalininFebruary 26, 2026
Confession“Programs about Christ followed by beatings half to death”: Kherson’s ex-mayor Volodymyr Mykolaienko on his years in Russian captivityViktoriia PonomarevaFebruary 6, 2026
Confession“You must not show that you are afraid”: Tales of captivity in the Kremlin-controlled “People’s Republics”Viktoriia PonomarevaJanuary 5, 2026
Confession“They forced me to cook, clean, and fulfill their sexual whims”: Testimony of a Ukrainian woman enslaved by Russian soldiersDNDaria NilovaDecember 18, 2025
Confession“This isn’t the Middle Ages, and we aren’t serfs”: Locals in Ukrainian-controlled parts of Donbas react to Putin’s territorial demandsAAArden ArkmanNovember 12, 2025
ConfessionTracked down, coerced, threatened: How Russia hunts down deserters and forces them back to the front lines in UkraineViktoriia PonomarevaNovember 10, 2025
Confession“Thou shalt not idolize your motherland”: Russian Orthodox priests on the war in Ukraine and the degradation of their churchVMValentina MatreninaNovember 10, 2025
ConfessionThe Kremlin’s missionary: A former aide shares the secrets of the Russian Orthodox Church in HungaryAnastasia MikhaylovaOctober 23, 2025
Confession“Our people poisoned Navalny”: Former FSB officer on surveilling opposition figures and running black ops in Russia and UkraineMKMikhail KalininOctober 18, 2025
Confession“We tried to leave as few buildings intact as possible”: Russian-speaking IDF soldiers on their service in GazaALAlexander LeonidovichOctober 10, 2025
Confession“Even if the war in Gaza ends, this hatred isn’t going anywhere”: Soviet-born émigré Jews speak out on the rise of antisemitism in the U.S.ARAnna RudnitskayaSeptember 8, 2025
Confession“Nobody wants to help the army anymore”: Confessions from Russian pro-war volunteersVMValentina MatreninaAugust 26, 2025
Confession“If a colonel couldn’t do anything, what could I do?”: A Belarusian border guard’s confession MKMikhail KalininAugust 24, 2025
ConfessionThose who stayed: Stories of Ukrainians who refuse to leave their war-torn towns and villagesDNDaria NilovaAugust 20, 2025
Confession“GRU officers do time for drugs, the police for protection rackets”: Inside Russia’s prison colony for crooked cops and spooksSergey KanevAugust 8, 2025
Confession“The president lives in his own reality”: Confessions of police officers and government officials in Russia’s borderlandsAUAnastasia UlyanovaJuly 26, 2025
Confession“Everyone wants me to pick a fight with my cousin”: Nate Vance on war, family politics, and the fight for UkraineThe InsiderJuly 25, 2025
Confession“They tied me to a chair with duct tape and started torturing me with electricity”: Testimonies of Ukrainian women abducted by Russia The InsiderJuly 19, 2025
Confession“If we got captured, we’d probably be executed”: Confessions of three foreign volunteers fighting for UkraineThe InsiderJuly 14, 2025
Confession“In emigration, the war was all we ever talked about. In Russia, it’s bad form.” The life of activists who returned to their home countryIva TsoyJuly 10, 2025
Confession“The officer made it clear we were being deported”: How Trump’s anti-immigration policies impacted Russian asylum seekersAKAlex KreynJune 25, 2025
Confession“Even if you feel opposition inside, you have to demonstrate support”: Confessions of teachers in Belgorod schoolsAUAnastasia UlyanovaJune 10, 2025
Confession“Photos of Putin and Kadyrov were in the dean’s office, like icons”: Russian students expelled for their anti-war views share their storiesViktoriia PonomarevaMarch 5, 2025
Confession“We ditched our uniforms and hid in a swamp”: Chechen POWs from “Akhmat” share their accounts from KurskMKMikhail KalininFebruary 27, 2025
Confession“The only way to wash away the shame is with weapons”: Why Russian volunteers choose to fight for UkraineVKVasily KrestyaninovDecember 30, 2024
Confession“Their shouts of ‘Allahu Akbar’ drowned out our footsteps as we approached from the back”: Confessions of Ukrainian scoutsMAMaxim AkimovDecember 6, 2024
Confession“For 72 days I was electrocuted, beaten, not allowed to eat or sleep”: how Russian convicts are driven to “meat-grinder assaults”Viktoriia PonomarevaOctober 31, 2024
Confession“They tied me to a tree and said: ‘We’re gonna put you down now.’ There were 30 bodies in a ditch nearby”: Confessions of a Russian deserterThe InsiderAugust 20, 2024
