Russian informers: Hunting the enemy within

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.3 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 4 June 2025

⏱️ 22 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Informers are playing a key role in helping the Russian government silence dissent, now one victim has turned detective to uncover their persecutor’s true identity. In today’s Russia there is a hunt for the enemy within. Anybody who is accused of voicing opposition to the war in Ukraine can face losing their job, or being prosecuted and facing a fine, or in many cases prison. Academic Aleksandra Arkhipova was denounced by a mysterious serial informer called Anna Korobkova, and decided to become an exile in France. Korobkova boasted of taking pleasure in reporting hundreds of people for allegedly being unpatriotic. But nobody had met her or even knew what she looked like. So, Arkhipova began to piece the clues together to discover the true identity of the anonymous figure who ruined her life. This episode of The Documentary, comes to you from BBC Trending in-depth reporting on the world of social media.

Transcript

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0:00.0	In a packed Moscow courtroom, photographers snap away as a handcuffed woman is brought in to learn her fate.
0:10.0	Uniformed guards escort 68-year-old Dr. Nadashda Buyanov to a glass and metal cage.
0:18.9	It's absurd. I can't get my head around what's happening, she tells a scrum of journalists.
0:26.8	The grey-haired pediatrician is charged with spreading false information about the Russian armed forces.
0:34.0	It's alleged that in a private conversation, she expressed the view that Russian soldiers
0:40.1	fighting in Ukraine are legitimate targets. Dr. Buryanova protests her innocence. But after the media
0:48.4	are cleared from the court, she's sentenced to five and a half years in prison.
0:55.0	The sentence is monstrously harsh, says her lawyer, Oscar Cherziev.
1:01.4	Even given what's happening in Russia today, we didn't expect this, he says.
1:06.6	In today's Russia, there's a hunt for the enemy within.
1:10.6	Anybody who's accused of voicing opposition to the war in Ukraine can face serious consequences.
1:16.9	That can mean losing your job or being prosecuted and facing a fine, or in many cases, prison.
1:24.2	Thousands had been denounced to the authorities by their fellow Russians.
1:29.0	In Dr. Brayanov's case, she was accused by a war widow, the mother of a child she was treating.
1:36.2	But there are many ways that people can be denounced.
1:39.5	Some are publicly shamed by the star presenters on state TV.
1:46.4	You're an enemy of this country. For me, you're a scumbag.
1:50.9	Others find that somebody has written to the authorities to report them.
1:55.5	Following the invasion of Ukraine, one such serial denouncer quickly rose to prominence.
2:01.5	I keep a list of the results of my denunciations. How many people are fired and how many are fined?
2:08.9	Using the name Anna Karopkova, she became one of Russia's most prolific informers,
2:14.7	somebody who claimed to take pleasure in destroying the lives of those she accused.
	...

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