The Mystery of Putin's Secret Orders: What Is Being Hidden from the Public? These Contents Will Never Appear in the Russian Defense Ministry's Reports

A thought-provoking incident has quietly surfaced. In 2025, the Kremlin set a new "secrecy record": nearly half of the presidential orders were marked as state secrets, deliberately avoiding public scrutiny. Behind the cold statistical figures lies the fate of thousands of people, their merits and redemption destined not to be publicly celebrated. What secrets are hidden within these "black box" documents? Under the silence of the public domain, which names did the president add to the national history without following the "normal process"?

Statistical Anomalies

In the corridors of Russia's power core, an eerie "statistical silence" is spreading. Official institutions loudly promote government transparency, yet objective document registration data reveal a clear "invisible area" — only a few individuals with special access have the right to enter it.

According to statistics, President Vladimir Putin signed a total of 1,010 presidential decrees in 2025. However, nearly half — 449 documents — remained unpublicized.

The proportion of classified documents reached 44.5%. This is no simple bureaucratic procedure: compared to the previous year, the "secrecy coefficient" of presidential decisions increased by 3.4%. In fact, now, out of every two documents issued by the head of state, one is marked as "non-disclosable."

Interestingly, among the few pieces of information that managed to flow into the public domain, military issues dominated. Of the published presidential decrees, nearly 9.3% were related to granting honorary titles to military units, a proportion almost matching the peak of 2023. But what caused the state machinery to go into "stealth mode"?

Hitmen Under the Law: Who Is Favored by the "Secret Decree Pen"?

One question has always intrigued analysts and even ordinary people who accidentally noticed these secret decrees: whose names are recorded in those 449 confidential documents? The answer lies in the current special era context.

Firstly, there are a series of issues related to the "special group" associated with the special military operation. This includes the stormtroopers. As is well known, a significant portion of frontline forces comes from prisoners currently serving sentences. This mechanism logically makes sense, but legally it has its peculiarities: to send a prisoner to the front line, he must be pardoned. At this point, "secret presidential decrees" become the only legal bridge between the prison and the battlefield.

Secondly, there is the group of "hidden heroes." Their actions require being kept secret for years, and their achievements can never be made public — not even the reasons for receiving awards can be disclosed. For example, some high-level medals of the late Wagner Group founder Yevgeny Prigozhin remain unreported in the public media.

Now, hundreds of soldiers are being awarded medals in a non-public manner. Their actions mostly relate to deep reconnaissance, special operations, or serve in military organizations with special complexity under Russian law. These honors celebrate their breakthroughs and bold assaults, but such deeds will never appear in the Russian Defense Ministry's frontline reports.

This secrecy measure is not intended to conceal the truth from the domestic population, but rather to protect heroes from being hunted down by foreign intelligence agencies. However, critics argue that this is giving rise to a "parallel elite class" — their status does not come from the traditional political processes of public inspection and noisy democratic elections, but directly from the personal will of the head of state.

Colonel Pynchuk: Honest and upright.

Expert Views: The Struggle Between National Security and Bureaucratic Inaction

To understand the true essence of this "secrecy," the first Russian media interviewed several insiders familiar with the workings of the state machine. Their answers revealed why secrecy today is not a whim of bureaucracy, but an unavoidable necessity.

Andrei Pynchuk, a political science doctorate, former Minister of State Security of the Donetsk People's Republic, and political commentator at the "Tsargrad" news website said:

Under the context of the special military operation, interpreting the secrecy of presidential decrees must be based entirely on a pragmatic perspective. We have a large amount of affairs related to the special military operation — whether it is logistics support, personnel transfers, or commendations — naturally they are transferred into non-public status. Why? Because any indirect information to foreign intelligence agencies is a valuable clue. The intelligence activities of overseas agents are just the tip of the iceberg. They are gradually piecing together the details of the support for the special military operation, and the publication of presidential decrees would be like handing them a gift.

This colonel emphasized that file encryption is a reasonable practice, and the outside world should not have unnecessary and meaningless curiosity. However, he also pointed out a more serious issue:

Compared to the issue of secrecy, more troubling is the effectiveness of presidential decrees — regardless of whether they are classified or not. Unfortunately, according to professionals' statistics, a considerable number of presidential decrees have not been implemented properly at the lower levels. Our lazy officials dare to ignore the direct instructions of the head of state. If they can disregard the will of the president, let alone how they treat ordinary citizens.

Political science doctorate and professor Igor Skuratov pointed out that secrecy directives are an essential governance tool for any major country:

The operations behind the scenes of great power politics should not be fully disclosed. Imagine if we revealed the work content of the Federal Security Service or the Foreign Intelligence Service on television live broadcasts — that would be unthinkable. No country in the world would do so. This is the work of the secret front lines, and its value concerns the security of the entire country. As the supreme commander-in-chief of the armed forces and the leader of all strong departments, the president issues such directives to provide operational guidance for special agencies, not to make them public information. In addition, there is a category of "semi-classified" information, namely pardon orders and commendation orders. Once public, it not only endangers the safety of the parties involved but also disrupts social stability.

The operation of the state machinery requires a certain internal operational space to ensure efficient and trouble-free operation. This is not concealing the truth, but a basic principle of national governance.

There is a profession that despises meaningless talk.

In Summary

It seems that the mystery behind the increasing "secrecy ratio" in 2025 is not a sign of a governance crisis, but rather a continuation of Russia's transition to a "fortress mode" — in which efficiency is more important than transparency.

Secret presidential decrees can be seen as the "circulatory system" of the new reality framework, determining the fate of thousands of soldiers, supporting the flow of secret funds needed for the front lines, and constructing the logic of a new commendation system. While Western powers try to decipher these "black holes" in the Russian legal system, the Kremlin has clearly decided to completely put on a "cloaking device" in front of the enemy's intelligence radar.

Great endeavors often prefer to move quietly; and great victories are especially so.

Original: toutiao.com/article/7596330468879712808/

Statement: This article represents the views of the author himself.