MOSCOW — After February 2022, when Russia blocked nearly all independent media, Wikipedia has remained one of the few platforms providing accessible and objective information without requiring a VPN. The Russian-language version of the online encyclopedia receives over a billion monthly visits.
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Roskomnadzor, the Russian government’s media watchdog, has consistently demanded the removal of articles related to the war in Ukraine from Wikipedia and threatened to block the site, citing “blatantly false” information as the reason why. Moscow courts have imposed millions in fines on the U.S. Wikimedia Foundation, and the Russian government has invested billions of rubles in pro-government versions of the online encyclopedia, which feature the Kremlin’s own version of fact and fiction.
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One of the most recent projects in this regard is a website called Ruviki, launched on Jan. 15. Interestingly, some of the individuals involved in creating Ruviki were original contributors to the Russian-language Wikipedia and the Wikimedia RU project.
At the same time, Wikimedia RU, which has nurtured a community of encyclopedia authors in Russia for over a decade, announced its dissolution following pressure on its director, Stanislav Kozlovsky. Here is what he had to say about the current state of disinformation and media freedom in Russia at the moment.
Wikipedia’s arrival in Russia
Vazhnyye Istorii: Many users are familiar with Wikipedia, but not everyone is aware of Wikimedia RU. Can you explain who created it and why, and what its connection is to Wikipedia?
Stanislav Kozlovsky: Wikipedia was established by U.S. entrepreneur Jimmy Wales in 2001. Two years later, he founded the Wikimedia Foundation in the U.S. to mitigate risks like selling Wikipedia or establishing dictatorial control. All rights, including trademarks and server control, were transferred to the foundation.
The Wikimedia Foundation doesn’t have branches, but Wikipedia expanded globally. Independent non-profit organizations emerged in various countries, like Wikimedia Germany and Wikimedia France, created by Wikipedia authors in those languages. Operating in around 40 countries, they use Wikimedia and Wikipedia logos for similar projects but lack representation in courts or server access. The U.S. foundation retains these rights.
As a Wikipedia author since 2003, I and other Wikipedians contemplated forming an NGO in Russia around 2005, but we only officially registered Wikimedia RU in 2008.
What binds these organizations to the U.S. foundation is the shared goal of compiling, organizing, and making global knowledge accessible. They aren’t funded by the U.S. foundation. Wikimedia RU relies on grants from Russian foundations, including the Presidential Grants Fund, sponsorships from Russian companies, and private donations, albeit small.
Apart from Russian, we supported Wikipedia in languages spoken in Russian regions. Approximately 10% of the world’s Wikipedia languages are from Russian regions like Tatar, Bashkir, Sakha, Tuvan, and Chuvash. Notably, the Chechen Wikipedia ranks second in article count after Russian. For instance, the Bashkir and Tatar Wikipedias were mainly contributed to by elderly women, fondly referred to as “wiki-grandmothers.”
With the official representatives of Wikipedia disappearing in Russia, no one is likely to continue this work
The peak of Wikipedia in Russia was around 2008-2012. In 2011, then-president Dmitry Medvedev met with us. Discussions on free licenses followed, involving working groups under the Ministry of Communications and the Ministry of Justice. We participated in round tables at the Ministry of Culture, leading to the authorship of an article in the Civil Code. Wikimedia RU organized online editing courses, collaborated with numerous universities, attracted new authors, and held annual wiki awards for outstanding contributions.
It’s a substantial undertaking, but with the official representatives of Wikipedia disappearing in Russia, no one is likely to continue this work. In the organization’s prime, there were 30 of us working behind the scenes. When I started receiving threats from the government about being designated a “foreign agent,” more than half of the organization’s members promptly resigned.
Ruviki, a Russian Wikipedia clone
VI: Did the authorities, particularly the presidential administration, attempt to exert control over Wikipedia or influence its operations?
SK: To my knowledge, the administration actively supports the Knowledge Society, responsible for the “Knowledge.Wiki” encyclopedia (established by Vladimir Putin’s decree in 2015, with its Wiki version launched on March 3, 2023) boasting around 18,000 articles. The government also backs the Great Russian Encyclopedia project.
In late May 2023, it came to light that Vladimir Medeyko, a former director of Wikimedia RU and other ex-employees, had clandestinely worked for a year on a Wikipedia clone named “Ruviki.” This term had been used for years to refer to the Russian Wikipedia and was registered as their trademark. The revelation of this project sparked considerable outrage, leading to Medeyko and another former Wikimedia RU employee being blocked from Wikipedia.
Ruviki is essentially a clone of Wikipedia, reportedly utilizing a database of Russian-language Wikipedia articles up to May 2023. The project’s funding remains unclear, but it is believed to be substantial, possibly in the range of several hundred million rubles annually. While many suspect backing from a major bank, there is no official confirmation of such support.
VI: Does Ruviki operate on the Wikipedia engine?
SK: Yes, Ruviki utilizes the free MediaWiki engine, developed by the Wikimedia Foundation.
700,000 corrections
VI: Is creating an analogue of Wikipedia a straightforward task?
SK: There are approximately 150 clones of Russian Wikipedia, primarily designed to attract traffic, display banners, and generate revenue. Creating a Wikipedia clone is relatively easy; one can download and set up a clone in about an hour, even without advanced programming skills. Wikimedia releases a dump of all articles that anyone can download, and the engine powering Wikipedia is freely available for installation.
But the challenge lies in the constant upkeep of Wikipedia articles. They require regular updates, clarifications, and error corrections. In Russian Wikipedia alone, around 700,000 corrections are made to 330,000 articles each month, with approximately 7,000 new articles created monthly. It’s a substantial undertaking.
There is no widespread migration of authors
But in these clones, articles are often generated by individuals participating in competitions for prizes or monetary rewards. The concern arises when funding dries up. For instance, in 2017, deputies announced the creation of a youth virtual front to write articles for Wikipedia about USSR heroes, resulting in only two or three articles written by Wikipedia participants.
Mass leaving of comments or likes differs significantly from the meticulous process of delving into books, researching information, formulating thoughts, and independently writing texts. It took two decades to form a community that fully shares our values, possesses writing skills, knows how to search for sources, and consistently excels in their work.
From a content perspective, these projects are not genuine competitors to Wikipedia. The real danger lies in the potential misunderstanding by decision-makers, who might mistakenly perceive them as a “domestic analogue” and consequently block the authentic Wikipedia.
VI: Are Medeyko and his colleagues attempting to attract former colleagues from Wikimedia RU?
SK: They are making attempts. Some individuals have joined Ruviki to write articles for a salary. However, there is no widespread migration of authors. The Russian Wikipedia community remains intact.
Wikipedia trials in Russia
VI: In 2012, you led a protest against the creation of a register of prohibited sites, receiving support from VKontakte, Yandex, and other major platforms. Today, such collaboration seems unimaginable.
SK: Indeed, in 2012, the Wikipedia community, upon learning of the proposed bill, which had already passed the first reading, decided to go on strike to prompt reconsideration by the authorities. Wikipedia was inaccessible for 24 hours during the protest.
Initially, assurances were given that this law primarily targeted pornography and drug-related content, and Wikipedia would not be affected. However, a few months after its introduction, Wikipedia was included in the register. Initially, the watchdog Roskomnadzor discussed each case individually, spending considerable time explaining the reasons. I recall the article “Smoking cannabis” being repeatedly flagged, leading to interactions with the State Drug Control Service representatives at Roskomnadzor’s office. We would go through each proposal, presenting sources such as manuals on the State Drug Control website, and they would remove the Wikipedia article from the registry. This cooperation lasted until around 2014.
Since the summer of 2022, Yandex has labeled all Wikipedia articles with the warning “violates the law of the Russian Federation”. This label led to a significant decline in offline support for Wikipedia, with museums, universities, and libraries refusing to cooperate.
VI: Currently, more than 120 Wikipedia articles are in the register of prohibited sites, most related to the war in Ukraine. How did you respond to these complaints?
SK: Initially, we explained the general workings of Wikipedia. The fundamental principle is neutrality. Articles are edited constantly, and the more popular the topic, the more authors contribute, leading to continuous changes. While debates arise, such as those around Nagorno-Karabakh in the Russian-language Wikipedia, the self-regulating system ensures neutrality, excluding unverified facts, fakes, and propaganda.
Roskomnadzor sent Wikimedia RU copies of notifications intended for the Wikimedia Foundation, which we posted on a special page. This allowed Wikipedia members and interested parties to see which articles drew authorities’ complaints.
Regarding the deletion of articles, we lack access to servers; only the U.S. Wikimedia Foundation can perform deletions. The Foundation ignored these demands, resulting in more Russian courts pursuing charges of “inaction” in response to Roskomnadzor’s appeals.
Russian courts imposed 13 fines on the Wikimedia Foundation for refusing to remove articles related to the war
VI: When did these trials begin?
SK: There were none until 2022. Now, there are 15-20 trials annually (in 2023, Russian courts imposed 13 fines on the Wikimedia Foundation for refusing to remove articles related to the war, as well as materials and organizations banned in Russia, totaling over 20 million rubles, approximately 0,000).
Concealing identities
VI: How many Wikipedia authors are there in Russia now?
SK: Over three million people are registered on the site, with approximately 75-80% located in Russia.
Among them, up to 12,000 people regularly contribute edits, and only 500-600 individuals have been writing daily over many years throughout Russia. Each of these contributors is highly valuable; if they were to leave, certain topics would cease to develop.
VI: If Wikipedia is blocked, will all contributors be unable to update and create new articles?
SK: Yes, that’s correct. While Wikipedia can be accessed in Russia using a VPN for reading, editing is impossible. Wikipedia is frequently targeted by vandals and spammers, leading to the prohibition of edits via VPN, TOR, and open proxies — common means to bypass blocking.
Contributors typically write about topics of personal interest, drawing from their readings, surroundings, and sources in languages they are familiar with. Ongoing debates exist on presenting topics neutrally. When there is no one to engage in these discussions, the text risks losing its neutrality. If Wikipedia were to be blocked in Russia, the number of new materials could drop by three to four times. Articles might be primarily written by Russian-speaking individuals outside of Russia, potentially causing a shift in emphasis. This might be a reason why the block has not been implemented yet.
There is, however, already a noticeable decline in the number of participants. Particularly after the war began and the announcement of Wikimedia RU’s dissolution, many changed their alias and created new accounts to conceal their identities. For now, I continue to write under my own name, as I have done for the past 20 years.
“I am not a foreign agent”
VI: How often have security forces approached you with requests to disclose the IP addresses of Wikipedia RU authors?
SK: Just five years ago, these sorts of requests didn’t exist. Now, Russia has risen to second place globally in terms of such requests from authorities, with the U.S. in first place. The Wikimedia Foundation annually publishes a transparency report on these requests, but Wikimedia RU doesn’t have the capability to access the author’s IP.
Several individuals have been imprisoned in Belarus, supposedly for participating in the 2020 rallies in protest against President Alexander Lukashenko’s fraudulent elections, but likely due to their involvement with Wikipedia. Following the conflict in Ukraine, several faced persecution in pro-government Telegram channels, with threats to reveal the names of those “spreading fake news” about the war on Wikipedia pages. In March 2022, Mark Bernstein, a Belarusian blogger, was arrested. A top contributor — he worked particularly on the article on the Russian invasion of Ukraine — Bernstein spent six months in prison and received a three-year sentence for house arrest.
The names of authors contributing to Ukraine-related articles on Wikipedia are now concealed on the website.
Currently, there are no sanctions against Wikipedia contributors in Russia, but I am likely the first to face such issues.
VI: What are your plans going forward?
SK: I will remain in Russia; it’s my country. I am not a “foreign agent”, and I hope charges never come to that. If they do, it would impact my ability to teach at universities, write popular science articles, and engage in the popularization of science. There’s uncertainty about job prospects with the status of foreign agent.
I’ve edited around 40,000 Wikipedia article, not all could have a label stating “material created by a foreign agent.” But it’s unclear whether fines will be imposed or how long such offenses will last. Fifteen years at Wikipedia, 25 years at Moscow State University, and, in one day, it could all come to an end.
Yet I am hopeful that a new stage will begin. Wikipedia is a brilliant project, crucial for global development, and Russian Wikipedia is something our country should be proud of, despite the lack of support. I hope common sense will prevail.
