Svitlana Kizilova – Thursday, 5 May 2022, 20:02 Since the beginning of the war, the proportion of secret decrees issued by Russian President Vladimir Putin has reached a record number not seen since 20 years ago. Such decrees confer awards on Russian invaders who were killed in Ukraine, among other things. Source: Mediazona Details: Mediazona notes that, judging by the serial numbers of Putin’s decrees on the website where legal and regulatory acts are published, 54% of all decrees signed by the Russian president in March 2022 were classified, and 49% of them were classified in April. In Russia, secret decrees can be used to assign awards to soldiers, including posthumously. Mediazona found a mention of one of these decrees in a post about the death of a soldier from Orenburg Region (Russia). The administration of the district where the deceased used to live reported that he had been posthumously awarded the “order of courage” by Decree No. 85SS of the president of the Russian Federation dated 3 March. Quote: “This number is unprecedented since December 2002, when 59% of Putin’s decrees were secret. The second Chechen war was going on in Russia at that time.” “Russian soldiers killed in the war against Ukraine are usually awarded ‘orders of courage’ posthumously. Of the more than 1,700 death notices researched by Mediazona, this order is mentioned in almost 600 cases.” Background: The Russian army has lost about 25,000 personnel in Ukraine since 24 February. The losses are under-reported by the aggressor state.
