{
  "id": 6413394,
  "title": "Unsafe Connections: the Classified Files Archive and the Philosophy Shared by an FSB Surveillance Project Ex-Developer",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/03/unsafe-connections-the-classified-files-archive-and-the-philosophy",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-09-03T05:50:07.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "iStories (Important Stories)",
    "slug": "istories-important-stories",
    "url": "https://istories.media/en/stories/2026/09/03/unsafe-connections/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Ivan Kirsanov, a 24-year-old former programmer, recalls his journey from attending violent protests and facing interrogation to working on a surveillance system for Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB). Kirsanov, who grew up in a modest household in Zelenodolsk, Russia, developed an interest in programming at the age of 11 by watching YouTube tutorials. He became increasingly interested in politics after watching Alexei Navalny's videos, particularly a mention that Russian schoolchildren were not given textbooks.\n\nKirsanov's activism led to him writing a complaint to the Ministry of Education about his school not providing textbooks. Although his relationship with teachers deteriorated, they eventually provided him with the materials. His activism also helped restore hot water in a friend's home and allowed him to avoid summer obligatory work.\n\nAfter being detained and fined for participating in a protest against Navalny being banned from the 2018 presidential election, Kirsanov was expelled from his college for threat of being drafted into the army if he did not complete his college tasks. However, he found a new path through School 21, a Russian franchise of the French programming school École 42. This school taught Ivan for free, without lectures or teachers, and allowed him to learn independently and grade his peers' work.\n\nWithin six months of enrolling at School 21, Ivan secured an internship at Sber, Russia's largest bank, earning about 50,000 rubles ($650 approx. as of 2021) a month. Despite his newfound financial success, Kirsanov faced challenges balancing his work and college responsibilities. Eventually, he quit his job at the bank and now works as a shepherd on a farm in France, earning four euros an hour, while secretly holding onto the technical documentation archive related to SORM, a Russian interception system.",
  "summary": "Ivan Kirsanov had been working on a surveillance system project for the Russian Federal Security Service. Then he left the country taking a copy of its internal documents archive. Why did he do it and what can we learn from the files?",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}