Roskomnadzor reported on 144,835 “appeals” from citizens in the first half of 2022. Most of these denunciations are related to the war in Ukraine: the Russians complained about “fakes” about the actions of the Russian military and “pro-Ukrainian propaganda”.

Most of the denunciations were received by the department in March, when the war had just begun - 10,323 appeals, which is almost four times higher than last year.

At the same time, in annual terms, the number of denunciations increased immediately by a quarter.

With the outbreak of the war in Russia, the Stalinist culture of “squealing” fully “bloomed”. Administrative and criminal cases about “discrediting” and “faking” about the Russian army are often initiated after denunciations. For example, the St. Petersburg artist and activist Sasha Skochilenko is now in a pre-trial detention center for replacing price tags in a store with anti-war propaganda, and a pensioner denounced her. There are cases of denunciations even against close relatives. So, a resident of the Moscow region wrote a denunciation to the police about his wife, because she criticized the war, and a Muscovite denounced her own son for evading military service in the conditions of a “special operation”.

In August, a man in the Moscow region wrote a denunciation of himself: he said that a drunk had painted the wall of the house with blue and yellow colors and wrote “No to war.” Then he allegedly realized his guilt and decided to surrender to the police.