Hello!

I'm Maxim Polyakov, a correspondent for the online magazine '7x7'.

A week ago, VKontakte, Russia’s most popular social network, turned 18. Once widely used by journalists, many have left it over the past few years. Since organizations close to Putin gained control of the platform, it has become a tool of repression. In the 2.5 years since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine began, about 90% of criminal cases under the so-called “discrediting the army” law have been based on posts and comments made on VKontakte. In this newsletter, I will explain how the social network betrayed its users’ trust and why activists continue to use it despite the authorities’ presence.

Estimated reading time: 10 minutes

Online Questionnaire for Friends

Businessman Pavel Durov created VKontakte as a platform where students and graduates could reconnect and keep in touch. The Russian social network replicated the success of Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook and soon became popular not only across the country but also beyond its borders. VKontakte allowed users to form online communities around shared interests, hobbies, professions, locations, and more.

Activists—including those helping animals, feminists, human rights defenders, eco-volunteers, charities, and politicians—quickly took advantage of the platform.For well-established organizations, VKontakte became one of the main ways to stay in touch with supporters and collect donations, while newer groups used it to find their audience.

Through VKontakte, animal rights activists found volunteers and adopters for homeless animals and raised funds for their work. For example, the Vologda-based animal protection group Veles created a community in 2009. In their early posts, volunteers asked subscribers to donate to cover debts, rent spaces to house animals, and buy firewood for heating.

VKontakte was also used by organizations raising funds for the seriously ill and those in difficult life situations. In 2007, the Saint Petersburg-based charity Nochlezhka, which has been helping homeless people since 1990, launched its community. Initially, Nochlezhka’s online wall was a bulletin board: activists posted news, invited subscribers to events, shared schedules for donating goods, and searched for volunteers as well as items like crutches and bandages for homeless people.

During VKontakte's early years, dozens of groups focusing on women’s rights also emerged. In 2011, activists created the "Tatarstan Feminist Society in Kazan," purportedly the first feminist community with a regional name in its title. Until 2020, the group posted news about women’s rights in Russia and globally, as well as information for those suffering from domestic violence.

Later, similar communities were established by activists from Moscow, Yekaterinburg, Krasnoyarsk, Khabarovsk, and other cities. There were even feminist groups led by men.

Territory of Protest

In 2011, Alexey Navalny and the Solidarity movement mobilized thousands of Muscovites through VKontakte. On December 4 of that year, elections for State Duma deputies of the sixth convocation took place. The Solidarity movement urged Russians to protest against widespread election fraud and other violations. Navalny posted his appeal on his personal LiveJournal and VKontakte pages, as well as in his group “RosPil – Fight Against Corruption.” The next day, around 10,000 residents of the capital joined the demonstrations.

After the first protest, LiveJournal user @edvvvard published a correspondence with VKontakte founder Pavel Durov, where Durov revealed that the Federal Security Service (FSB) had requested the closure of opposition communities prior to the protests. Durov refused, earning him hero status among users and activists. However, in a letter to Lenta.ru, he justified his decision by referring to market competition.

"[Law enforcement] offered me the chance to give rival platforms a head start by driving the active and passionate audience away from us. Competing in the social media market without the ability to meet the demand for free communication is like boxing with your hands tied. <...> It’s pointless to remove content from one site if it can easily be found on another," Durov stated.

Following the rally, Durov reminded users about the "Meetings" feature on VKontakte, which allowed event organizers to invite people to events, and users to respond with "I'm Going" or "Maybe Going."

Later, the Solidarity movement created a "meeting" for the December 24 rally. Over 4,000 users clicked "I'm Going," but according to the organizers, the actual number of attendees reached between 100,000 and 120,000. The protests against election fraud continued until May 2012, becoming the largest in modern Russian history.

In 2017, Navalny Headquarters launched regional VKontakte groups, where coordinators published investigations into officials and corruption. In 2021, new protests erupted following Navalny’s arrest upon his return to Russia after being poisoned with the Novichok nerve agent. Before these rallies, VKontakte blocked most of the groups that had announced the protests' times and locations. In June, Navalny Headquarters was declared an extremist organization, and in September, VKontakte blocked several pages belonging to Navalny’s supporters and regional headquarters.

Your Personal Pocket Cop

In 2013, the FSB urged VKontakte to reveal the personal data of the organizers of Euromaidan in Ukraine, and in March 2014, the prosecutor’s office called for the closure of Alexey Navalny’s group. Once again, Durov refused to apply censorship.

Pressure from the security forces compelled Durov to sell his stake in VKontakte in 2014. “Since December 2013 [the sale process continued until spring 2014], I have not owned any property, but I have something more important that remains—a clear conscience and values I am ready to defend,” Durov wrote on his personal page. In the following years, he actively worked on launching Telegram.

The largest stake in VKontakte was purchased by Mail.Group, a company owned by billionaire Alisher Usmanov, who is loyal to Putin. In 2021, Usmanov sold his share to Sogaz, a company led by Putin’s friend Yuri Kovalchuk. Sogaz subsequently shared a block of shares with Gazprom Media.

These changes allowed the authorities to freely spy on Russians. Human rights defender Mikhail Klimarev considers VKontakte the most convenient tool for repression, as it actively collaborates with security forces by revealing users’ IP addresses and hidden data. The social network is required to do this under the so-called Yarovaya Law—legislation adopted in 2016 that mandates major Russian social networks to store user data and prohibits the use of certain encryption methods.

A new wave of repression related to VKontakte posts emerged in 2022 when the authorities adopted laws on discrediting the army and spreading fake information about the war in Ukraine. Following demands from Roskomnadzor, administrators began blocking communities and personal pages for anti-war posts and criticism of the Kremlin.

Many regional activists, however, continued using VKontakte for various reasons, such as its large audience and reach, or a firm belief that in modern Russia, one could be fined for posts on any platform. Kaliningrad activist Anton Gendrikson publishes investigations into corruption and local officials across nearly all social networks and messengers, with particularly large audiences on YouTube and VKontakte.

However, the police drew up a report against Gendrikson for postings on Telegram, which is thought to be much safer. Gendrikson’s allies also faced criminal charges for using the same messenger.

Human rights defenders emphasize that refraining from political commentary on VKontakte does not guarantee safety.

“Political topics are definitely the number one trigger. However, everyone is at risk, from politicians to environmental activists. It’s important to understand that cases are initiated randomly. You may go unnoticed for years, and then suddenly, your case may be aggressively pursued,” explains Artem Kozlyuk, head of Roskomsvoboda.

Human rights advocates advise unfollowing undesirable organizations, deleting potentially risky old posts, and using the social network less frequently.

“I always tell everyone: delete your VKontakte accounts. VK is, in fact, your personal pocket cop. We see that security forces even track the music people are listening to. Even if you are a staunch supporter of the war, your safety isn’t guaranteed,” concludes Mikhail Klimarev.

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