Unlocking the Black Box Russia

Funded by the Federal Foreign Office as part of the ÖPR programme „Expanding Cooperation with Civil Society in the Eastern Partnership Countries and Russia“, 2026 funding period

Russia is becoming inaccessible. There are ever fewer journalists reporting from inside Russia. Hardly any Western scholars remain in the country to conduct field research. Being a journalist or a scholar in Russia means constantly exposing oneself to danger. Many civil society and media actors have been criminalised by the Russian government. This also applies to academic institutions. Alongside the criminalisation of journalism and academia, another trend can be observed: there are fewer reliable sources and data providing insight into Russia. Statistical data — for example on demographics or the economy — are gradually becoming less accessible. In other words, Russia is turning into a black box.

This situation recalls the period when the Soviet Union was a black box for Western journalists and researchers. Current developments threaten to make Russia once again entirely resistant to analytical scrutiny, causing us to lose the ability to draw a complex picture of Russia and to understand the country in all its complexity.

Here is where the project “Unlocking the Black Box Russia” comes in. The Research Centre for East European Studies at the University of Bremen (FSO), together with the former IT team of the renowned Novaya Gazeta in Moscow — currently based at Novaya Gazeta Baltia — as well as other project partners in Germany, Russia and exile, aims to launch this initiative.

The project is situated at the intersection of journalism, scholarship and technology. Its aims are: 1. to develop digital infrastructure for research, data collection and data analysis; 2. to strengthen the resilience of quality Russian-language media; and 3. to establish and expand a network and foster practice-oriented cooperation among journalists, scholars and developers.

Project coordination: Leonid A. Klimov


The project is supported by: