kompas news as of September 25 RUEN

About

When someone is detained, searched or gets a summons, there is no time to figure things out. Help exists, and plenty of it, but it is scattered across dozens of sites and bots; some are blocked and some no longer work. We put it all in one place: pick what happened and see right away what to do and whom to contact.

How we work

  • We don't give legal help ourselves. We show you where to go and briefly retell what human rights groups advise, with links to their guides.
  • We check links every day. If an organisation's bot or site changes or disappears, we notice and fix it.
  • Every organisation shows its status in Russia or Belarus, so you know what you risk by contacting it or sending it money.
  • We don't track you: no analytics and no cookies. The button in the bottom right lets you leave the site quickly.
  • Lawyers who work in Russia are listed only with their consent. We keep no lists of political prisoners of our own.
  • In case the site is blocked, there are mirrors and a PDF copy. The addresses are on the "Where to find us" page.
  • We don't collect money and aren't affiliated with any organisation on the list.

Who we are

  • An independent group of volunteers. We do not publish names, for the team's safety.
  • We are not affiliated with the organisations listed here and do not represent them. Being listed does not imply partnership.
  • We do not provide legal help. Our guides summarise what human rights groups usually advise. Until a lawyer has checked them, they are marked 'draft'.

Money

  • We do not collect donations or act as a go-between for payments.
  • The project runs on volunteers' time and free hosting plans.

What we do not collect

  • No analytics, no visitor counters, no cookies.
  • The site stores no cookies or data of its own in your browser. The browser keeps its own history; the Safety page explains how to clear it.
  • Fonts and our script load only from our own address, so no third-party service learns about your visit when a page opens.
  • The hosting providers that serve the site keep their own logs with IP addresses under their own rules. We do not request or download those logs.

Security

  • We use no counters, ads or cookies.
  • Pages make no requests to third-party services. Fonts and our script load only from our own address, and this is enforced by a security policy (CSP) that the browser follows.
  • The site works without JavaScript. The only script is a small one for the quick exit.
  • The 'Exit' button and the Esc key take you to a neutral page. The current page disappears from your history, but earlier Kompas pages stay there. It is safer to open the site in a private window.
  • The data files (organisations, designations, guides) are sealed: the site will not build if they contain changes an editor has not reviewed.
  • News comes only from a fixed list of outlets, and every item links directly to its source.
  • Besides the main address, the site is available on mirrors, one of them with a different hosting provider. The addresses are on the "Where to find us" page.
  • The PDF copy works offline, but the file can be seen if your phone is inspected. Only download it if you know where you will keep it.

How we choose organisations

  • 'Get help': the organisation is confirmed to be taking requests in 2025–2026 for one of the situations and has an official contact channel.
  • 'Support': the organisation publicly accepts donations from individuals and has no confirmed scandals over misuse of funds.
  • We exclude closed projects, unverifiable channels, and fundraising for weapons or military needs of any side.

Where the news comes from

  • Only from a closed list: human rights groups and independent newsrooms. Every source has a tier: primary documents and human rights databases first, then newsrooms with their own editorial standards. We never use state media or anonymous channels as a source of facts.
  • We retell each event in our own words, one entry per event, always with a direct link to the source. Every name, number and article of law is checked against the source text.
  • Deaths, torture, new designations and long sentences are published only when two independent outlets or a primary document confirm them. What cannot be confirmed is not published.
  • We distinguish between detained, remanded, charged and convicted, and write exactly what the source says. Statements by police or investigators are given only as their claims.

What the designations mean

  • Organisations are shown with the designation given by the Russian authorities: 'foreign agent', 'undesirable', 'extremist', 'on the Rosfinmonitoring list'.
  • A designation is not our judgement but a risk warning for people in Russia: donations, reposts and involvement can lead to prosecution.
  • For organisations designated 'extremist' or on the Rosfinmonitoring list we show no donate buttons — only a link to their website.

Checks

  • Links are checked automatically every day, Russian state registers once a week; every entry shows the date of its last check.
  • An editor re-checks facts about organisations by hand. There is no fixed schedule for this yet.

Corrections and removal

  • Private individuals, such as lawyers, can ask us to remove information about them. We remove it as soon as we learn of the request, no questions asked.
  • If we learn of an inaccuracy, we correct it straight away and record what was wrong on the Corrections page. We never remove material silently.
  • We do not act on requests from the Russian authorities.

Licence

  • Our texts — guides, descriptions, summaries — are licensed under CC BY 4.0: you may copy and mirror them with attribution.
  • The directory data is open on the same terms, except for information about lawyers.

Contact

  • There is no public contact address yet. When there is one, we will put it here.
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