An investigation by The New York Times found patterns of abuse and coercion in the Russian military. This is the story of how the accidental release of official complaints led to the revelations.

Earlier this year, a person who had filed a complaint with the Russian government’s human rights ombudsman went online to check its status.

The person accidentally typed the wrong complaint number and, instead of receiving an error message, was shown an entirely different person’s complaint, according to Maxim Kurnikov, a Russian journalist in Berlin.

The mistyped number, he said, led to a stunning revelation: Thousands of complaints, including by Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine, had been made publicly available on the ombudsman’s website.

The information made public was extraordinarily sensitive, including medical records, passport details and contact information. It was also of great public interest — in particular, its accounts of abuse and coercion within the Russian military.

California stands in solidarity with the people of Iran, who are confronting violent repression, mass internet and power shutdowns, and economic collapse imposed by a theocratic authoritarian regime.

The scale and persistence of protests across Iran demand fundamental change after decades of state violence and denial of basic rights.

In support of California’s Iranian community and in defense of universal human rights, we urge an immediate end to violence against civilians, the restoration of internet access, and respect for the Iranian people’s right to chart their own future.

Endorsers featured:
🇵🇱 Mateusz Morawiecki (Poland)
🇺🇸 Rob Schneider (United States)
🇮🇹 Giorgia Meloni (Italy)
🇷🇸 Aleksandar Vučić (Serbia)
🇫🇷 Marine Le Pen (France)
🇮🇹 Matteo Salvini (Italy)
🇨🇿 Andrej Babiš (Czech Republic)
🇦🇷 Javier Milei (Argentina)
🇩🇪 Alice Weidel (Germany)
🇪🇸 Santiago Abascal (Spain)
🇮🇱 Benjamin Netanyahu (Israel)
🇦🇹 Herbert Kickl (Austria)

Denmark will not hand over Greenland even if the USA threatens us with nuclear weapons.

I am not saying this to stump our chest and try to be tough. We are small and no match for the USA. We know that. But we are not doing it under any circumstances.