Ruwiki () is a Russian multilingual online encyclopedia, with editions in Russian and other languages of the Russian Federation. It was launched on 24 June 2023 as a fork of the Russian-language Wikipedia, and has been described by media as "Putin-friendly" and "Kremlin-compliant", as well as a state-sponsored encyclopedia that is a clone of the original Russian Wikipedia but which conveniently has been edited to omit things that could cast the Russian government in poor light." A full-scale launch took place on 15 January 2024.
The project is led by Vladimir Medeyko, who was formerly involved with the Russian Wikipedia project and was a director of Wikimedia RU. Medeyko reportedly created the project as an alternative to the Russian Wikipedia, which would be more friendly to the Russian government.
The words "" and its English version, "ruwiki", have long been used to refer to Russian Wikipedia among Wikipedians.Переписать «Википедию»: что думают администраторы свободной энциклопедии о проекте Рувики?, SOTA, 29 June 2023
History
On 24 May 2023, long-time Wikimedia RU director Vladimir Medeyko announced Ruwiki as a Russian fork of Wikipedia on the Russian technology website Habr. The Russian politician Anton Gorelkin stated that the new website would be hosted on Russian servers and managed by a Russian organization. Medeyko has stated that Ruwiki will follow Russian laws, but is independent of the Russian government.
In late May 2023, Stanislav Kozlovsky, then executive director of Wikimedia RU, stated that "anyone can take Wikipedia content and use it, it's perfectly normal. It's not normal to use the authority of the director of Wikimedia RU for this purpose and to do it in secret for several years".
On 21 August 2023, without further announcement, user registration was opened for everyone on Ruwiki.
At the end of November 2023, five new editions of Ruwiki were added: Bashkir, Mari, Sakha, Tatar and Chechen.
In December 2023, Ruwiki signed a long-term cooperation agreement with the Museum of Moscow.
On 28 December 2023, six new editions of Ruwiki were added: Altai, Tuvan, Mokshan, Udmurt, Chuvash and Erzyan.
In April 2024, Ruwiki launched new editions in Buryat, Veps, Ingush, Kalmyk, Komi, Permian Komi, Livvian-Karelian and Khakas languages with a total number of articles in the new sections exceeding 29 thousand, the website interface was improved and portals with materials for preparation for the Unified State Exam and Basic State Exam were launched.
In August 2024, the Hill Mari language edition of Ruwiki was launched.Пользователям «Рувики» стало доступно около 10 800 статей на горномарийском языкеИнтернет-энциклопедия «Рувики» запустила раздел на горномарийском языке
In October 2024, the portal launched a mechanism for forming answers to questions based on the YandexGPT neural network trained on Ruwiki articles, providing the user with information, references to relevant source articles and articles for a more complete familiarization. During the same month, the materials from the Great Russian Encyclopedia were incorporated into the Ruwiki portal.
In 2025, artificial intelligence-based services were added to Ruwiki, which began to be used to create new articles and update the content of existing ones.https://www.forbes.ru/tekhnologii/546058-po-vsem-stat-am-ii-pomozet-ruviki-analizirovat-i-verificirovat-kontent Ruwiki's creators cite the use of a neural network as a key advantage over competitors. Journalists from the publication Meduza note its uselessness: Ruwiki's neural network is incapable of providing precise answers, uses vague, evasive wording, and also broadcasts unverified or contradictory Kremlin propaganda theses.https://meduza.io/feature/2025/06/15/vikipediya-popytalas-vnedrit-ii-no-otkazalas-ot-nego-na-sleduyuschiy-den
In December 2025, access to Ruwiki was added to the Sferum educational space, which operates in the Max (app).https://ria.ru/20251210/ruviki-2061081631.htmlhttps://www.cnews.ru/news/line/2025-12-10_entsiklopediya_ruviki_poyavilashttps://www.ixbt.com/news/2025/12/10/v-otechestvennom-messendzhere-max-zapustili-internetjenciklopediju-ruviki.html
As of 1 January 2026, only verified editors can edit Ruwiki.«Рувики» запретила редактировать статьи пользователям без верификации«Рувики» отказалась от анонимного редактирования статейАвтоматизация, ИИ, проверка данных: как изменилась «Рувики» за два года
As of 22 March 2026, it is not possible to edit Ruwiki freely.https://sotaproject.com/news/110724
Content and editorial policy Ruwiki was created by copying all 1.9 million articles from the Russian Wikipedia, as well as several media components from Wikimedia Commons, and data items from Wikidata. However, articles containing content contrary to the Russian government's official line have been removed. Removals of content considered "anti-Russian propaganda" include coverage of the Russo-Ukrainian War, the Wagner rebellion, and criticism of Vladimir Putin.
In mid-July 2023, Ruwiki was not yet editable by third parties. Medeyko had stated that he planned to allow public editing to resume, but that content will be vetted by panels of experts. , Ruwiki was available to edit by all registered accounts. Analysis from the independent Russian media outlet Mediazona shows that the majority of Ruwiki edits take place during weekday work hours. Mediazona deduces that teams of paid writers are responsible for Ruwiki's editorial activity, which contrasts with Wikipedia's volunteer model.
Finances There is no reliable data on the source of funding for Ruwiki. Vladimir Medeyko reports the presence of private investors, but does not disclose them, indicating that there is a corresponding agreement with investors. According to Vladimir Medeyko, the project receives money from wealthy investors with whom he is pleased to cooperate, who understand Ruwiki's tasks and share the project's goals. Edits made by several administrators in the article about Naila Asker-Zadeh, as well as some other facts indicate a possible connection between Ruwiki and VTB Bank. The money was presumably allocated with the expectation of the future commercial success of the project: if the site becomes popular, it will be possible to earn money through ads. Vladimir Medeyko notes that investors expect to make a profit, but they are very interested in what is realized in Ruwiki – free content, access to knowledge for everyone.
Ruwiki has launched an active advertising campaign: It purchases advertising from popular bloggers (e.g., Alexander Pushny, on the channel "Cosmos Just"), since spring 2024 it has been advertised on numerous street banners in 19 Russian cities (including Moscow, Rostov-on-Don, Omsk, Krasnoyarsk), and one of the trains of the Sokolnicheskaya line of the Moscow Metro was decorated for 6 months as a themed "Ruwiki's Cognitive Train". Also in support of outdoor advertising, similarly styled banners were developed for demonstration on digital platforms. Interesting facts appeared on the homepage of Yandex, on the websites of Lenta.ru, Gismeteo, Afisha and others. One Ruwiki employee told the publication Point that authors who write articles in Ruwiki for payment also advertise the site on social networks, leaving positive one-size-fits-all comments from fake profiles.
Two years since its creation, over 2 billion rubles has been invested in the project. As of 2025, the company that owns Ruwiki remains unprofitable.
Public launch
In January 2024, it was reported that Ruwiki would enter full public service on Monday, 15 January. Ruwiki confirmed the statements shortly thereafter, announcing the "end of beta testing on January 15, 2024". Public launch happened on 24 June 2023, following a heavy advertisement campaign in Russia.
Similar projects There were other Russian encyclopedic projects advertised as an alternative to Wikipedia: an online portal to Great Russian EncyclopediaРоссийский аналог "Википедии" обойдется бюджету РФ почти в 2 млрд рублей and a wiki (Znanie.wiki) by the ("Knowledge Society"), inherited from the Soviet times.Помощник Путина предложил скопировать Википедию ("Putin's assistant suggested copying Wikipedia")
Project 2026 In 2026 Bloomberg reported Russian Project 2026 was creating a second Wikipedia style fake clone to train ChatGPT.
Censorship
According to Medeyko, Ruwiki is supposed to comply with both Russian legislation and the principle of presentation from a neutral point of view. It is claimed that the project does not have censorship, and the content can be devoted to any topic, as long as it does not violate the legislation of the Russian Federation. However, in the Internet community, the creation of Ruwiki was perceived as a "censored analogue of Wikipedia". It is noted that the essence of the Ruwiki concept is manifested in articles devoted to modern politics (primarily Russia's foreign policy). At the same time, the emphasis is shifted in the opposite direction from the Wikipedia articles.
Facts removal
The Insider reported that Ruwiki consistently removes information that may be deemed undesirable by Russian authorities. The article "A321 crash landing near Zhukovsky", which described the incident with the landing of a civilian aircraft in a cornfield in 2019, after which Russian President Vladimir Putin awarded the crew medals was also censored. However, Ruwiki removed the subsequent criticism of the aircraft crew's actions by aviation experts. In the article about Yevgeny Prigozhin, among other things, information about Prigozhin's recruitment of Russian prisoners for the war with Ukraine was deleted. Also, the articles "human rights in Russia," "freedom of speech in Russia," "censorship in Russia," and "political prisoner" have been greatly reduced.
The Economist noticed the following:
the article "Kherson" does not mention either the battles for the city in 2022 nor the Russian shelling after deoccupation; the article about the Katyn massacre of Polish officers expresses doubt about the authenticity of documents pointing at the role of the NKVD; all references to Alexei Navalny call him a blogger, not an oppositionist.
At some point in April 2024, tracking edits was difficult: the functionality that allows comparing two arbitrary versions of an article was excluded from the edit history. According to Alexander Sergeyev, "Ruwiki is censorship in its purest form, it's not a collective of authors, but a collective of censors to clean up Wikipedia".
Taras Tarnalitski () reports how Ruwiki started to seriously diverge from the Russian Wikipedia in the articles related to the modern politics of Belarus, in particular, by removing facts about Alexander Lukashenko and about suppression of Belarusian protests.Як у "рускай Вікіпедыі" перапісваюць мінулае і сучаснасць Беларусі euroradio, 3 April 2024
Anti-Ukrainian propaganda
Ruwiki has been noted for containing anti-Ukrainian propaganda.