Frightened Putin Has Classified Half of What His Government Does

Half of presidential decrees in Russia are now classified: here's the list of what no one is allowed to read. There have been no precedents to this kind of blackout in modern history.

Putin is clearly scared. As his real support erodes, he is hiding the collapse of his “fortress” behind a wall of classified decrees. The wall faces inward, built to keep Russians from seeing how badly the regime is failing. In 2023, Putin set a record: 49.5% of presidential decrees were secret. Even last year, almost 45% of his orders remained hidden from public view.

What gets classified tells you what he fears

The “cannibal battalions”: secret decrees likely mask the mass pardoning of murderers and rapists sent to the front. The state calls them heroes but keeps the paperwork hidden because the public would revolt.

Economic decay: statistics on oil, gas, and trade — the lifeblood of Putin’s war machine — have been scrubbed. Data on military deaths and casualties is classified to keep the human cost of the invasion out of the public record.

By last year, over 300 datasets had been concealed from the public eye. More than 30% of the national budget is now “closed” spending. We no longer know where the money is going, or how many people are actually dying at the front.

Not all of the secrecy hides the war’s impact. Much of it protects the elites. Real estate records have been classified, officials’ income declarations abolished, and photos of MPs in the State Duma banned outright.

It is now happening each time something inconvenient surfaces or threatens to surface.

A timeline of the blackout:

• April 2022 — Customs and foreign trade data (Barents Observer)

• May 2022 — Detailed federal budget expenditure (Carnegie)

• December 2022 — Officials’ income declarations (publication suspended) (Moscow Times)

• March 2023 — Real estate ownership records (Rosreestr) (Moscow Times)

• April 2023 — Oil and gas extraction statistics (Meduza)

• July 2024 — Mortality data on deaths from external causes (Worldcrunch)

• August 2024 — Diesel, fuel oil and petroleum production statistics (Hydrocarbon Processing)

• December 2025 — Annual income and asset declarations fully abolished (Bloomberg)

• January 2026 — Photographers banned from State Duma plenary sessions (Moscow Times)

• February 2026 — FSB given power to shut down communications under classified rules (Meduza)

The echo chamber Putin built for himself

Putin has created an echo chamber so secure that he is losing touch with reality. Generals report “victories” in places like Kupiansk to keep the boss happy, but the situation on the ground is the opposite. He is a leader making decisions based on obsolete or false information.

The peak of the absurdity: secret laws. There are now laws people are bound by but cannot know. Under Secret Decree 605, the FSB can shut down any communications that violate classified rules. You can be arrested for breaking a law you aren’t allowed to read.

Most governments classify information to protect it from foreign rivals. Putin’s classifications protect the regime from its own citizens. Their function is to cover for incompetence and systemic failure at home.

When a dictator feels the need to hide half of his decisions, it’s obvious that even he knows nothing he is doing is going to improve people’s lives. This curtain of secrecy is designed to conceal the fragility of the regime’s position.