Plus: How a bill in Alabama to severely punish false reporting could harm crime victims.

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** THE WEEKLY REVEAL
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Saturday, April 6, 2024

Hello! In this issue:
* An underground network of Russian anti-war activists is helping soldiers abandon Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.
* False reports are rare. That’s why a new push for prison time can harm crime victims.
* The country’s biggest psychiatric hospital chain is profiting off kids trapped in a broken child welfare system.
* Florida has effectively banned abortion after six weeks.
* Some exciting news for a Reveal reporter.


** THIS WEEK’S PODCAST
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** Escaping Putin’s War Machine
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Oleksii Yukov examines the body of a Russian soldier in the Sloviansk region of Ukraine in October 2023. Credit: Bram Janssen/Associated Press

As the war in Ukraine grinds into a third year, Russian soldiers on frontline deployments are getting desperate.

“You can only leave wounded or dead,” a former military officer tells Associated Press investigative reporter Erika Kinetz. “No one wants to leave dead.”

He decided his best option was to ask a friend and fellow officer to shoot him in the leg – and then he fled with the help of an anti-war group called Idite Lesom. It’s a play on words in Russian – a reference to the covert nature of its work, but also a popular idiom that means "Get lost.” The group has helped thousands of people evade or desert military service, leaving the horrific conditions in Ukraine for a life that will be spent in hiding.

Now, former soldiers are waiting for a welcome from Western nations that hasn’t come. To the countries grappling with Russia’s vast and growing diaspora, the military defectors present particular concern: Are they spies? War criminals? Or heroes?

This week, in partnership with The Associated Press, we hear about why these military defectors are not finding sanctuary in the West and how the staggering casualties are playing into the future of the war. Then, we meet a Ukrainian man on a quest to give fallen soldiers – Russian and Ukrainian alike – a final resting place.
Listen to the episode ([link removed])
🎧 Other places to listen: Apple Podcasts ([link removed]) , Spotify ([link removed]) or wherever you get your podcasts.

Dig Deeper:

📰 The true toll of the war in Ukraine is measured in bodies. This man brings them home, one at a time. ([link removed]) (The Associated Press)

🎧Listening in on Russia’s War in Ukraine ([link removed])


** OUR LATEST
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** Alabama Lawmakers Want Prison for False Reporting Charges. That Could Have Serious Consequences.
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by Rachel de Leon
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Illustration by Molly Mendoza

It took only 48 hours for Carlee Russell’s disappearance in Hoover, Alabama, last year to turn from a captivating mystery to a cautionary tale. After she returned home saying she had escaped a kidnapping, investigators concluded that it never happened, and she was charged with false reporting.

Alabama legislators are pointing to the damage done by the case in their push this session ([link removed]) to make false reporting that “alleges imminent danger” a felony that could bring up to 10 years in prison. But this bill ignores two key points ([link removed]) : that false reports are relatively rare and that police have a problematic track record of deeming reports of violence to be made up.

Related: Watch our documentary “Victim/Suspect,” now streaming on Netflix ([link removed])


** A Quote to Remember
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“I cried myself to sleep every single night, praying I would wake up from this nightmare.”

In 2021, celebrity Paris Hilton testified before the Utah Legislature about her experience as a teenager who was sent by her parents to a psychiatric facility, now owned by Universal Health Services. Hilton alleged that she was physically and sexually abused there, allegations that have continued under UHS’ leadership and were investigated by our colleagues at Mother Jones.

Listen: Cashing in on Troubled Teens ([link removed])


** Headlines with a Reveal Context
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This past week, the Florida Supreme Court made two decisions affecting reproductive rights ([link removed]) in the state: One effectively banned abortion in the state after six weeks of pregnancy, and the other will allow voters to weigh in this November on whether to expand access to the procedure.

Florida had long been one of the last bastions of abortion access in the South. Listen back to recent episodes detailing the battle in Florida, the fall of Roe v. Wade and what happens next.
* Blue State Barriers and the Messy Map of Abortion Access ([link removed]) (March 2024)
* The Post-Roe Health Care Crisis ([link removed]) (June 2023)
* The Long Campaign to Turn Birth Control into the New Abortion ([link removed]) (updated May 2023)

Listen at the links above, or find Reveal wherever you get your podcasts.


** In Case You Missed It
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🎧 Black in the Sunshine State ([link removed])
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🎧 A Whistleblower in New Folsom Prison ([link removed])


** Ending on a Good Note
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🎉 The New York Times recently announced its latest class of local investigations fellows, and we’re proud to share that Reveal reporter Laura C. Morel has joined the program ([link removed]) . Laura will spend the next year working with The Times to continue investigating the impact of abortion restrictions in her home state of Florida. We’ll be sharing all of her work with you here. Congratulations, Laura!
This issue of The Weekly Reveal was written by Kate Howard and edited by Nikki Frick. If you enjoyed this issue, forward it to a friend ([link removed]) . Have some thoughts? Drop us a line (mailto:[email protected]) with feedback or ideas!

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