The business daily Vedomosti erroneously applied a legal ban status to historical rebels, likely due to an algorithmic error involving a similarly named German NGO.

The Russian business daily Vedomosti recently labeled the participants of the 1825 Decembrist uprising as an "undesirable" organization. This legal designation, which prohibits an entity from operating in Russia and criminalizes involvement with it, appeared in an article about the historical trials on St. Petersburg’s Senate Square. The label has since been removed from the publication.

Origin of the error

The article was originally published on July 25 without the label, as confirmed by an archived copy from that day. By July 27, the designation appeared in one of the three mentions of the Decembrists within the text. Journalist Alexey Polorotov of Ostorozhno Media first publicly noted the error on the morning of July 28.

Likely cause of the mix-up

The error is attributed to an automated system used by Vedomosti’s editors. The algorithm likely confused the 19th-century rebels with Dekabristen e.V., a Berlin-based organization that supports civil society projects and opposes Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office declared the German NGO "undesirable" in 2022.