Coda Story

Coda Story is an independent investigative journalism outlet focused on authoritarianism, emerging technology, and information warfare. Originally founded to cover post-Soviet states, it has expanded its scope to track global disinformation campaigns, state surveillance, and the intersection of technology with authoritarian governance. Its reporting on Alabuga Polytech's recruitment of African workers to assemble Geran-2 drones in Russia attracted international attention as evidence of Russia's efforts to expand industrial drone production capacity beyond its domestic labour pool.

Coda Story operates primarily as a digital publication with an editorial model built around long-form investigative pieces and data-driven analysis. Its beat includes surveillance technology, propaganda ecosystems, and state-sponsored disinformation, giving it particular credibility when covering Russia's exploitation of both information channels and foreign labour for military-industrial purposes. The Alabuga reporting was part of a broader investigation into how Russia is sustaining its military production in the face of Western sanctions and manpower constraints.

For the drone and defence intelligence audience, Coda Story functions as a specialist open-source intelligence source on Russian industrial practices and authoritarian technology use. Its work on Alabuga contributes to the wider picture of how Russia is globalising its drone assembly base, a story that has direct implications for Western sanctions policy and supply-chain interdiction efforts.