Mistyped Number Exposed Thousands of Sensitive Complaints About Russian Military

Russian journalists and The New York Times say a simple mistyped complaint number on the human rights ombudsman’s website led to the public availability of thousands of sensitive filings, including accounts of abuse and coercion in the military. A person who had filed a complaint checked its status, entered the wrong number and was shown another person’s complaint instead, according to Maxim Kurnikov, a journalist who runs Echo from Berlin.

That discovery alerted Mr. Kurnikov, who compiled complaints that were publicly accessible. The earliest visible files were dated April 2025, shortly after the ombudsman, Tatyana N. Moskalkova, said her office updated its I.T. systems. The postings appear to have stopped in September, when the office apparently realized complaints were being exposed.

Mr. Kurnikov and his team gathered more than 9,000 complaints from the five-month period and shared the documents with The New York Times, whose reporters spent about two months analyzing and categorizing them and following up with complainants. The files contained highly sensitive material, including medical records, passport details, contact information and other personal documents.

The Times used software to identify more than 6,000 complaints related to the war in Ukraine. About half of those were missing-person inquiries from relatives searching for lost soldiers.

Key Topics

World, United States, Russia, Military, Ombudsman, Leaks, Ukraine