Russian newspaper Vedomosti tags 1825 Decembrist uprising ‘undesirable,’ apparently after its software confused the historical rebels with an unrelated, banned German NGO

In an article about the trials of participants in the 1825 uprising on St. Petersburg’s Senate Square, the Russian business daily Vedomosti mistakenly labeled the Decembrists an “undesirable” organization — a legal status that bans a group from operating in Russia and criminalizes any involvement with it.On the morning of July 28, Alexey Polorotov, a journalist with Ostorozhno Media, was among the first to spot the label in the article.Vedomosti published the article on July 25. At that time, the Decembrists were not labeled “undesirable” in the article, according to a copy archived that same day. It remains unclear exactly when the label appeared or why. A copy from July 27 already includes the label — though only in one of the article’s three mentions of the Decembrists. The label has since been removed.The mix-up was most likely caused by an algorithm used by Vedomosti’s editors, which confused the participants in the 1825 uprising with a German nongovernmental organization called Dekabristen e.V. Russia’s Prosecutor General’s Office declared that organization “undesirable” in 2022.At Meduza, we are committed to transparency about our use of artificial intelligence in the newsroom. The story you’re reading was written by one of our living, breathing journalists and translated from Russian using an AI model configured to follow our strict editorial standards. This translation process is the result of extensive testing and refinements to ensure our English-language coverage is timely and accurate. A Meduza editor reviews every draft before publication.If you find any errors in this translation, please contact us at [email protected].To read Meduza’s exclusive content in English, please subscribe to our newsletter.