Putin to rewrite history with new state run Russian Wikipedia

Russian President Vladimir Putin has stepped up his war on foreign information, signaling he may take another step to isolate his citizens from the rest of the global internet.

Putin recently met with Maxim Dreval, CEO of the state-sponsored Znanie (“Knowledge”) foundation, who will be assisting with a Russian alternative to Wikipedia.

“Of course, objective, important, in-depth information that’s been gathered properly and skillfully… this is in great demand,” Putin said, according to a translation of the segment was posted on state-owned RIA’s social media accounts.

“And that’s why you can’t just use Wikipedia.”

“And we know the quality of the information there,” Putin continued.

“But when you have talented people who are professionals whose opinions you can trust, that is, of course, worth a lot. It’s like an encyclopedia, but living and breathing.”

Putin, the Internet expert, warns against reading Wikipedia, where Russians incidentally can learn easily about their country’s war of aggression against Ukraine, not to mention many atrocities committed there by Russian troops. pic.twitter.com/wsMxNDmDpb

— Kevin Rothrock (@KevinRothrock) May 5, 2022

Dreval told Putin that Znanie-approved lecturers are “forming the knowledge base that is already an alternative to Wikipedia.”

Putin had plans for Russia’s own online encyclopedia since as far back as 2014. Documents from 2019 said the project would run about 2 billion rubles ($30 million) and contained more than 80,000 articles from the 35-volume Great Russian Encyclopedia.

Registered users will be able to propose new entries, but a panel of experts will have the final say on any changes or additions, reports The Moscow Times.

Putin has repeatedly demanded Wikipedia delete information about Russian casualties in Ukraine, promising to block the site in the country if it did not. Wikipedia has so far refused.

Russian citizens are increasingly being cut off from information about the outside world, as Twitter and Facebook has already been blocked in retaliation to Western sanctions. The Kremlin briefly blocked Wikipedia in 2015 over articles on drugs.