Mediazona

Mediazona is a Russian independent investigative media organisation founded in 2014 by Pussy Riot members Maria Alyokhina and Nadya Tolokonnikova together with activist Pyotr Verzilov, who serves as publisher. Sergey Smirnov is editor-in-chief. Originally focused on Russia's prison system and criminal justice, it expanded after February 2022 into systematic documentation of Russian military deaths in Ukraine. The outlet operates in exile from Riga; its website is blocked inside Russia, and Smirnov and Verzilov are among several staff formally listed as individual foreign agents by Russian authorities.

Mediazona's casualty methodology is built on open-source verification: obituaries published by families and local media, graveyard visit reports, social media announcements, regional court records, and conscription documents. Each death is individually confirmed before it enters the count. The outlet maintains its named-attribution database jointly with BBC Russian. By 5 June 2026, Mediazona had verified 225,019 confirmed Russian military fatalities, running at approximately 330 confirmed deaths per day, well above the 207-a-day rate recorded in late March. In May 2026, Mediazona and Meduza published a parallel statistical estimate using Probate Registry excess male mortality methodology, placing total Russian military deaths at 352,000 by end-2025, including approximately 90,000 court-declared deaths of missing servicemembers, a separate methodology running alongside, not replacing, the named list. Mediazona's casualty count is treated as the benchmark open-source verified floor by Western defence ministries, international press, and academic researchers. Russia's government does not acknowledge the database.