Particle.news
Download on the App Store

Leaked Russian Ombudsman Complaints Expose Military Abuses, New York Times Investigation Finds

The probe uses thousands of exposed ombudsman filings to quantify alleged coercion in Russia’s forces.

Overview

  • A website malfunction let a user see other cases by mistyping a complaint number, revealing that thousands of filings were publicly accessible.
  • Journalist Maxim Kurnikov in Berlin collected more than 9,000 complaints and provided the dataset to The New York Times.
  • The Times flagged about 6,000 war-related cases, closely reviewed roughly 3,000, and found more than 1,500 alleging irregularities tied to the war.
  • Many complaints included corroborating evidence such as videos, photos, voice messages, medical reports, court records, and internal military documents.
  • The exposed records dated from April to September 2025 following an IT system update, included highly sensitive personal data, were later removed, and officials declined to comment.