Draft:Anna Korobkova

Anna Vasilyevna Korobkova (b. 1985) is a person who in 2022-2023 wrote a number of denunciations against residents of Russia who opposed Russia's policy towards Ukraine. On behalf of Anna Korobkova, many denunciations were written against people who appeared in foreign media: Dozhd ,Deutsche Welle, Voice of America, Belsat, and Radio Liberty. In addition, Dozhd, Belsat and Radio Liberty were recognized as "undesirable organizations" based on denunciations on behalf of Anna Korobkova, and the foreign media agency Kedr.media disbanded itself after the speakers received warnings on behalf of Anna Korobkova that they would be recognized as foreign agents in the event of the following cases: continuing to participate in the activities of a media outlet that is a foreign agent

Early years

About the life of Anna Korobkova is known only from the words of this person, who willingly gave written interviews to the media. This person announced himself in May 2023 that he was 37 years old[1]. This person reported that he was brought up by his grandfather, who was a Soviet officer during the Great Patriotic War, was also an informer — he collaborated with the NKVD[2], and after the Great Patriotic War he worked as a teacher in several technical schools[3]. Korobkova's grandfather was from a well-to-do family that was not subject to repression. [4] Korobkova's grandfather in 1983 had more than 10 thousand rubles in the savings bank account[3]. Korobkova's grandfather was engaged in writing various kinds of complaints in order to obtain certain benefits, and Korobkova had to help him, which gave her experience in writing appeals to various state bodies[2]. Korobkova and her grandfather had a chance to live together for about 20 years[2]. At the same time, Korobkova had to deal with snitching at school — in the 10th grade, two-thirds of her classmates wrote a collective denunciation against this person with a request to expel this person from school[3].

Korobkova has a higher education and experience as a teacher in a higher educational institution and in a college[4]. According to Korobkova, it is known that this person lived in a city of one million people[4]. This person has never worked in the law enforcement agencies. Korobkova has a competent written speech and very anti-democratic views. So, in an interview with "Lawyer Street" Korobkova expressed the wish that the Russian authorities would reduce the number of Russian lawyers and subordinate them to the supervision of bar associations, since in the conditions of military operations, lawyers lost the ability to significantly influence court decisions in relation to their clients[5].

Korobkova managed to accumulate savings of about 3 million rubles, which became a source of income for this person[3]. At the same time, Korobkova's expenses turned out to be small: this person was never married, he never had children, and he did not own a car or a dacha[4]. They lived in their own apartment in a city with a population of one million, but they were never outside of Russia[4].

Korobkova did not want to work in the police because of the large amount of clerical work and the almost complete ban on initiative[3]. In addition, the savings allowed Korobkova not to seek to earn money[3].

Korobkova's denunciations

In early 2022, Korobkova wrote a denunciation against lawyer Yulia Fedotova, who took part in a rally of Navalny's supporters in Yekaterinburg. The denunciation included a demand to involve Fedotova for refusing to stop participating in the rally of Navalny's supporters, and the denunciation indicated that the evidence of Fedotova's guilt was in such and such an administrative offense case[6]. On April 7, 2022, the judge of the Oktyabrsky District Court of Yekaterinburg appointed Fedotova an administrative fine of 20 thousand rubles[7].

Since the end of February 2022, Korobkova has been regularly monitoring foreign media outlets in order to write denunciations. For the period from February 24, 2022 to February 24, 2023, 764 denunciations were sent to Korobkova in electronic form[2].

At the beginning of 2023, Korobkova had a clear work schedule: for 2 days, this person watched all the videos from the YouTube channels of foreign media (Dozhd, Deutsche Welle, Radio Liberty and Present Time), noted those who spoke in these media and lived in Russia, then he wrote denunciations against them, and then rested for 2 days[2]. It is known that denunciations were also sent on behalf of Anna Korobkova to those who also spoke in other media-foreign agents, for example, on behalf of Anna Korobkova there was a denunciation of linguist Elena Shmeleva, who made a short comment on Voice of America[8]. There were denunciations of people who spoke on Novaya Gazeta Europe, Important Stories, The Insider, and Belsat.

Korobkova worked to stop the activities of foreign media outlets, whose editorial offices stopped working in Russia at the beginning of 2022 and broadcast from abroad. Korobkova began to put pressure on experts who lived in Russia and spoke in the media-foreign agents. For each expert, for each appearance in the media-a foreign agent Korobkova was sent a denunciation of his work (if it was known where the expert worked) and the authorities to bring to justice (if the expert said something illegal from the point of view of the Russian authorities). Denunciations were rarely sent to Korobkova who left Russia, as it was difficult to bring those who did not live in Russia to justice[4]. This person explained his activity by the desire to create an atmosphere of fear among experts, comparing himself to the activities of submarines, which sank a few enemy ships, but forced the enemy to spend a lot of effort on protecting flights[2].

Denunciations were sent to Korobkova against lawyers, teachers, doctors, and university teachers. So, in the summer of 2023, Korobkova was sent a denunciation to the FSB Department of Russia on lawyer Kaloy Akhilgov, who spoke on Dozhd[9]. At the same time, the employer was denounced even if the employee did not mention his place of work in a speech in a foreign media outlet. So, in June 2023, on behalf of Korobkova, a denunciation was received about Valeria Fedorenko's speech on " Dozhde "to the newspaper" Far Eastern Vedomosti", where Fedorenko was at that time a freelance correspondent, despite the fact that" Dozhde "did not mention that Fedorenko worked in"Far Eastern Vedomosti" [10].

Korobkova also reviewed interviews with Russian prisoners of war published by Ukrainian journalists. Korobkova identified cases when a prisoner of war reported that he had surrendered voluntarily or, in her opinion, spread false information about military operations on the territory of Ukraine[4]. Korobkova reported such cases to the authorities in order to initiate criminal cases against prisoners of war[4].

A letter from the government about launching an administrative investigation into discrediting Russian troops in connection with a citizen's statement on Radio Liberty. The style of Korobkova's denunciations was exceptional. Candidate of Historical Sciences Alexandra Filippenko, who received several denunciations from Anna Korobkova, noted that they contained a detailed analysis of Filippenko's statements on Dozhd and Deutsche Welle, and the denunciations were written in the style of the 1930s[11]. Alexandra Arkhipova in 2023 noted that this person owned both legal terms and used judicial statistics[12].

Denunciations were also filed by Korobkova against those who spoke out in support of the Russian authorities, if Korobkova did not like the way they spoke. So, Korobkova was sent a denunciation to Roskomnadzor with a request to bring to administrative responsibility the newspaper of the National Liberation Movement, which advocated expanding the powers of V. V. Putin. Korobkova did not like that the newspaper called for a nuclear strike on the territory of the United States. Korobkova was sent an appeal with a request to bring to administrative responsibility a citizen of the Donetsk People's Republic Maxim Fadeev, who participated in the battles for Mariupol as a military operator. Korobkova did not like that Fadeev accused the Russian military of looting.

Reaction of the Russian authorities to Korobkova's appeals to bring to justice supporters of the Russian government's policy in Ukraine Refusal of Roskomnadzor to involve the newspaper of the National Liberation Movement. Refusal of Roskomnadzor to involve the newspaper of the National Liberation Movement.

Refusal to involve the military operator Maxim Fadeev. Refusal to involve the military operator Maxim Fadeev.

Letter of the State Security Committee of the Republic of Belarus on blocking Dozhd in Belarus. Korobkov and site blocking requirements were also practiced. So, in March 2022, Korobkova was sent a denunciation to Roskomnadzor with a request to block the new site of OVD-Info[4].

One of the areas of struggle against the activities of foreign media agents was the desire for Korobkova to recognize them as "undesirable organizations". Recognition as an "undesirable organization" made any speech in the media administratively punishable. In May 2023, Korobkova sent a notice to Dozhd that a denunciation had been filed regarding the recognition of Dozhd as an "undesirable organization" [13]. So, after recognizing Dozhd as an" undesirable organization", N. Y. Nizovkina was fined under Article 20.33 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation, who gave Dozhd a comment about which a denunciation was received on behalf of Anna Korobkova[14]. At the same time, Nizovkina was attracted not for the content of the comment, but for the very fact of giving it to an "undesirable organization".

Korobkova was sent appeals to the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation to recognize Belsat, Dozhd, Deutsche Welle and Radio Liberty as" undesirable organizations". Since the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation spent several months checking these appeals, Korobkova filed appeals to the State Duma of the Russian Federation complaining about the slowness of the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation.

Letters from the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation to Korobkova's appeals to recognize foreign media outlets as "undesirable organizations". Letter about the beginning of the Radio Liberty audit. Letter about the beginning of the Radio Liberty audit.

Letter of recognition of Radio Liberty as an "undesirable organization" and refusal to recognize Deutsche Welle as an "undesirable organization". Letter of recognition of Radio Liberty as an "undesirable organization" and refusal to recognize Deutsche Welle as an "undesirable organization".

A letter about the start of the Belsat audit. A letter about the start of the Belsat audit.

Letter of recognition of Belsat as an "undesirable organization". Letter of recognition of Belsat as an "undesirable organization".

Letter of the Prosecutor's office of the city of Yekaterinburg on the appeal on behalf of Korobkova about the publication of a meeting with Maria Zakharova on E1.ru. In addition to the media-foreign agents Korobkova sent appeals on the facts of publications in the media that were not recognized as foreign agents. Thus, an appeal was sent to Korobkova with a request to prosecute for discrediting the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation a participant in a meeting with Maria Zakharova at the Ural Federal University. At this event, the participant of the meeting asked Zakharova a question that was regarded by Korobkova as discrediting the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. In Korobkova's appeal, it was stated that the participant's speech was on the website E1.ru.

Letter from the military prosecutor's office on a denunciation on behalf of Anna Korobkova to an interview with the BBC Russian Service Korobkova also sent denunciations of speeches in foreign media that were not recognized as foreign agents. So, Korobkova was sent a denunciation to the military prosecutor's office on the fact of an interview with the BBC Russian service of the defected Russian officer D. A. Mishov.

Korobkova also monitored the behavior of individuals who were accused by the Russian authorities of making prohibited statements in criminal cases. Korobkova's statements were reported to the prosecutor's office in order to request a more severe punishment. So, Korobkova was informed to the prosecutor's office about the actions of Alexey Gorinov and Boris Kagarlitsky. The prosecutor's office promised to take into account the information provided by Korobkova.

Letter from the prosecutor's Office about Alexey Gorinov. Letter from the prosecutor's Office about Alexey Gorinov.

Prosecutor's letter about Boris Kagarlitsky Prosecutor's letter about Boris Kagarlitsky It is known that Korobkova studied the bases of decisions of Russian courts in cases of statements that the Russian authorities considered discrediting the Russian army. So, Radio Liberty reported on the case of a teacher who put up leaflets of the "Freedom of Russia Legion", which was also denounced by Korobkova[15] Korobkova sent appeals to school principals about the dismissal of teachers involved in discrediting Russian troops. If school principals did not respond to these appeals as Korobkova wanted, then complaints were sent to the school principals-to the management of the education authorities

Letters of education authorities on complaints on behalf of Korobkova against school principals. Letter from the Palkinsky district Administration refusing to dismiss a teacher for discrediting the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. Letter from the Palkinsky district Administration refusing to dismiss a teacher for discrediting the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.

Letter from the Administration of Severodvinsk on a complaint on behalf of Korobkova about the inaction of the school principal. Letter from the Administration of Severodvinsk on a complaint on behalf of Korobkova about the inaction of the school principal.

Warnings about being recognized as foreign agents

The letter of the deputy Egor Nikolaev with the promise not to act in mass media-foreign agents. Korobkova practiced not only denouncing her job, but also warning people who appeared in foreign media that they would be denounced to the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation for recognition as foreign agents. These warnings were not unfounded — in Russia in 2022, the law allowed recognizing as a foreign agent any citizen who constantly spoke in the media-foreign agents, even if the citizen was not held accountable under Russian laws and did not receive any funding for his speeches. So, in November 2023, the director of the Public Verdict Foundation received a letter from Anna Korobkova, in which it was proposed to give a commitment within 5 days that the employee of Public Verdict, Hasmik Novikova, who spoke on Radio Liberty, would no longer speak in foreign media[16]. It was reported that in case of non-acceptance of this proposal, materials on A. Novikova may be transferred to the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation to resolve the issue of recognizing A. Novikova as a foreign agent[16]. A similar warning was received at the end of 2023 by Alexey Lakhov, who was asked to stop speaking on Radio Liberty and Present Tense, and his speech on Radio Liberty was compared to the speech of a British lawyer in 1942 on Radio Goebbels[17]. In December 2023, lawyer Anastasia Rudenko, whose husband participated in the fighting in Ukraine, received a similar warning-Korobkova was discovered performing Rudenko at Deutsche Welle[18].

The text of Korobkova's warning took into account the social status of the person being warned. So, Korobkova was sent a proposal to the Courier association to expel Oleg Zhukov from the Courier for a comment to Radio Liberty, indicating that if this proposal is not accepted, not only the Courier can be recognized as a foreign agent, but also the military commissariats, with the assistance of food delivery services, will show special interest in the members of the" Courier"[19].

Korobkova's warnings in one case led to the liquidation of a foreign media outlet. In January 2024, the media outlet-the foreign agent Kedr. media-was closed and all information from the Kedr.media website was deleted after the speakers received warnings from Korobkova.

Proposals on behalf of Korobkova on changing Russian legislation

Letter from the Presidential Administration of Russia on the proposal of Anna Korobkova on toughening criminal liability for the destruction of buildings occupied by state authorities. In 2022, there were frequent cases of attempted arson attacks on government buildings in Russia. In response to these cases, a letter was sent on behalf of Anna Korobkova to Vladimir Putin with a request to toughen criminal liability for damage and destruction of buildings occupied by State authorities. This proposal was supported by the Russian authorities.

Korobkova's motives

Korobkova's motives for snitching turned out to be exclusively material Korobkova was told the following by social anthropologist Alexandra Arkhipova [2]:

...My interest is purely material. The fact is that the Ukrainian authorities have been saying from the very first days that Russia "must" pay them "reparations". Moscow officials will definitely not offend themselves, but they will collect "reparations" from the provinces, plus, as in the 90s, they will reduce the power structures. This means that in my city there will be huge unemployment and its sister-crime, since among criminals there are always unemployed people who predominate. Plus, everything will go up sharply. This means that I will have to work much harder than today, eat much worse. I don't want to sell anything on the street at all, and therefore I don't like the idea that the new authorities will allow freedom of entrepreneurship…

.

At the same time, no one paid money for Korobkova's denunciations[4].

Korobkova turned out to have a contemptuous and indifferent attitude towards Ukraine. Korobkova did not have any relatives in Ukraine, and Ukraine was considered by this person as a backward state[4].

Korobkova also showed no leniency to the relatives of the dead Russian servicemen. So, in June 2023, Korobkova was sent a denunciation for discrediting the army against Alla Fathelislamova, who in an interview with Novaya Gazeta Europe told about her son who died from Ukrainian shelling, and the denunciation indicated that even in the Great Patriotic War, relatives of military personnel were punished[21]. A protocol was drawn up against Fathelislamova, but later the proceedings on the administrative offense case were stopped[22].

According to a denunciation on behalf of Korobkova, A. I. Grigorieva, the daughter of a Russian military pilot, was brought to administrative responsibility for discrediting the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation in 2022, who gave an interview to France — Presse[23].

Korobkova was particularly disliked by retired Russian military personnel who opposed the fighting in Ukraine. So Korobkova sent a number of denunciations to the military pensioner Vitaly Votanovsky, who repeatedly told about the graves of dead Russian servicemen he discovered. As a result, Votanovsky left Russia under the threat of a criminal case, Korobkova was told by the Danish National Radio that Russian officers for the most part did poorly in school and therefore should refrain from speaking out against the Russian authorities, who gave them not only free military education, but also high pensions[24].

At the same time, Korobkova has full support for the actions of Russian servicemen in Ukraine. Korobkova was told that whatever witnesses appeared in the foreign media and whatever footage was shown there, everything that the Russian servicemen did was "absolutely correct" [3].

Effectiveness of denunciations

In 2023, Alexandra Arkhipova noted that denunciations from Korobkova went to work to experts sometimes the next day after the speech, employers called experts to them and persuaded them to stop speaking in foreign media[25]. Radio Liberty in August 2024 admitted that some experts refused to speak after warnings on behalf of Anna Korobkova[26]. On September 27, 2024, Alexandra Arkhipova noted that the person known as Anna Korobkova poses a great danger to Dozhd ,and E. Mizulina does not pose any danger to Dozhd[27].

In some cases, Korobkova's denunciations led to dismissals. Thus, a Moscow teacher, Tatyana Chervenko, was dismissed, and Korobkova was sent a denunciation in connection with her performance at Deutsche Welle[28]. At the same time, the school administration did not want to dismiss Chervenko and ignored the first denunciation on behalf of Korobkova. Then Korobkova was sent a denunciation to the school administration of Maria Lvova-Belova, and as a result, Chervenko was fired[1].

Letter from the Prosecutor's Office of St. Petersburg about sending materials to block the website of the Moscow Helsinki Group. According to Korobkova's calculations, this person sent 1,303 denunciations for the period from February 24, 2022 to August 7, 2023, according to the results of which[5]:

14 individuals received administrative fines; 6 individuals were dismissed from their jobs; 2 persons received disciplinary sanctions; 5 inscriptions in public places were painted over; 3 websites were blocked (including the website of the Moscow Helsinki Group); 1 a leaflet in a public place has been removed. In many cases, Korobkova's denunciations were ignored. At that time, Korobkova was already denouncing the heads of those officials who did not respond to the denunciations. In some cases, it was necessary to write several denunciations. So, 7 denunciations were written to Alexander Arkhipov Korobkova[29].

Number of denunciations of Korobkova

The number of denunciations of Korobkova varied greatly by month, in particular, in May 2023, 68 denunciations were sent, in June 2023, 105 denunciations, and in July 2023, 70 denunciations[3]. Such fluctuations were explained by Korobkova by the fact that in different periods a different number of Russian residents appeared in foreign media[3]. In general, in 2023, there was a decrease in the number of denunciations, which was due to the gradual recognition of foreign media as "undesirable organizations" [3]. So, after the recognition of "Rain" after denunciations by Korobkova as an "undesirable organization", residents of Russia stopped performing on" Rain " and the volume of denunciations by Korobkova was so reduced that this person began to deal with denunciations for 2 days a week, and rest for 5 days[3].

By Russian standards, the number of denunciations on behalf of Anna Korobkova is very high. "Important Stories" conducted a study in the summer of 2024, which showed that about 3,500 denunciations were filed in Russia in 2 years[8]. The most active was Ekaterina Mizulina, who wrote 143 denunciations[8]. An employee of" Important Stories " noted that among the informers, the person acting under the name of Anna Korobkova was an exception[8].

The reality of Korobkova's existence

In 2023, opinions were repeatedly expressed that Anna Korobkova is not a real person. However, in June 2024, Alexandra Arkhipova, based on the analysis of a large number of texts of denunciations on behalf of Anna Korobkova, stated that the denunciations were written by one person[30].

Fighting Korobkova

Korobkova had to face threats to her address So, lawyer Kaloy Akhilgov published the email address indicated in the denunciation[5] As a result, Korobkova received a number of letters, in one of which the informer was called a "whore"[5].

Performance evaluations

Alexandra Arkhipova gave the following classification of informers::

"people who write denunciations in order to get something, some specific benefit"; "people who get some kind of emotional benefit"; "moral entrepreneurs" who "follow or establish new moral standards." Korobkova Arkhipova attributed to the subtype of "moral entrepreneurs", which is designated by the word "missionaries" [31]. According to Arkhipova, representatives of this subtype are "people who do not just monitor compliance with norms, but who feel that they have a mission to persecute people"[31].

References

(temporary reflist)