Ruwiki is a Russian state-affiliated fork of the Russian Wikipedia, launched in 2023 and described as editorially aligned with the Kremlin.
Key Facts
- Fork source
- Russian-language Wikipedia
- Soft launch date
- 24 June 2023
- Full launch date
- 15 January 2024
- Project leader
- Vladimir Medeyko
- Languages
- Russian and other languages of the Russian Federation
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
The Russian Wikipedia had increasingly published content at odds with the Russian government's positions, prompting Vladimir Medeyko, a former director of Wikimedia Russia, to seek the creation of an alternative encyclopedia more amenable to official Russian narratives and state interests.
Ruwiki was launched on 24 June 2023 as a fork of the Russian-language Wikipedia, offering editions in Russian and other languages of the Russian Federation. Its full-scale public launch followed on 15 January 2024, under the leadership of Vladimir Medeyko.
The platform has been widely characterized by media as a Kremlin-aligned, state-sponsored encyclopedia that omits or alters content unfavorable to the Russian government, raising concerns about information control and the integrity of publicly accessible knowledge in Russia.