By Galina Korol | 2025-06-09

KYIV -- While Moscow flaunts doomsday missiles and rattles the nuclear saber, a very different picture of Russia's military might is hiding in plain sight -- for anyone who knows where to look.

Armed with little more than laptops and persistence, journalists from Denmark's Danwatch and Germany's Der Spiegel unearthed more than 2 million documents detailing the inner workings of Russia's most secretive military facilities. No deliberate leaks, no spies -- just open-source sleuthing and a network of servers stretching from Belarus to Kazakhstan.

"The Russian authorities have gradually restricted access to the database, but we managed to circumvent these restrictions," journalists wrote in Danwatch on May 28.

The Kremlin's prized secrets were not behind locked doors -- they were buried in a public database, waiting to be found.

'The ultimate intelligence'

Among the findings were blueprints of strategic nuclear facilities attached to tenders dated summer 2024.

Despite Kremlin efforts to shut down bidding platforms and tighten rules, sensitive military information continued to surface in public sources.

Russia, long accustomed to tight control, was exposed where it believed itself invulnerable.

"Material like this is the ultimate intelligence," Philip Ingram, a former colonel and leader of the 1 Military Intelligence Battalion in the British army, told Danwatch.

The leak is more than a technical failure: it strikes at the image of a country that claims everything is under control, say analysts.

"This means that the cybersecurity on the Russian web is weak, no matter how much they've bragged about it," Dmytro Zhmaylo, executive director of the Ukrainian Center for Security and Cooperation, told Kontur.

The breach will force Russia to overhaul critical projects, Ivan Stupak, an analyst at the Ukrainian Institute for the Future and former Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) officer, said.

"When a project is exposed, it has to be rethought and reworked. That takes time and money," he told Kontur.

'It looks like a PR stunt and intimidation'

The documents uncovered by Danish and German journalists reveal the scale of Russia's nuclear modernization.

Workers have built new facilities across Russia and leveled and rebuilt some old bases, they found.

The construction appears more about intimidation than about military necessity, say analysts.

"It looks more like a PR stunt [by Russia] and another attempt to intimidate the world," Oleg Zhdanov, a Soviet and Ukrainian veteran, military analyst and colonel in the Ukrainian reserves, told Kontur.

Russia's show of strength masks deeper economic troubles, said Zhdanov.

"Russia is the kind of country where they'll eat shchi [cabbage soup] out of a wooden shoe if they have to, but they'll still churn out missiles to make sure the world fears them," he said sarcastically.

'A weak point to attack'

Among the millions of documents, journalists found material that could leave Russia's military more vulnerable.

"Nuclear threats, to put it mildly, will now be met with far less alarm," Zhmaylo said.

Blueprints for a Strategic Missile Forces base in Yasny, Orenburg province -- home to the Avangard missile system since 2019 -- were found online.

This system "plays a central role in [Russian President] Vladimir Putin's ambitions in the arms race against the West," Danwatch reported.

At first glance, the Avangard system appears to be a powerful new weapon. In reality, the Soviet military-industrial complex developed it with help from Ukrainian engineers.

Military watchers remain skeptical about its current capabilities.

"It's not a given that it's still flying. And it's not a given that it flies with the technical features that Russia now says it has. The Bulava missile hasn't been able to fly the way they want it to for 20 years," Zhdanov said.

The documents do not confirm the missile's condition but reveal detailed information about the supporting infrastructure, including information technology systems, power supply, plumbing, ventilation, heating and security systems.

"If you can understand how the electricity is conducted or where the water comes from, and you can see how the different things are connected in the systems, then you can identify strengths and weaknesses and find a weak point to attack," Ingram told Danwatch.

A glimpse of daily life on base

The documents offer a rare glimpse into daily life on Russia's military bases, detailing where soldiers eat, sleep and use the lavatory.

They describe rest areas, exercise equipment and even the games troops play during downtime, including chess and checkers.

They map out where protective gear is stored and the locations of weapon cabinets, offering insights into the bases' security layouts.

The tactical security of Russia's nuclear facilities is not the only thing this document leak undermines. It strikes at the myth of Russia's invincibility.

Zhmaylo said the documents will allow the United States and Europe to study Russia's defenses in detail and adjust their strategies. He added the material is "at least as valuable for Ukraine," whose intelligence services have already assassinated Russian officials and attacked infrastructure.

"To put it mildly, the Russians need to prepare, revise their communication protocols and conduct internal exercises," Zhmaylo said.

Beyond exposing vulnerabilities, the leaked documents could become an Achilles heel for Putin's regime.