The First Department

First Department" is a community of lawyers and journalists fighting against government secrecy. We open the doors to closed court hearings, retrieve unlawfully classified data from archives, and defend citizens unjustly accused of crimes against the state. Why "First Department"? It's quite simple. We are from Russia. In our country,"first departments" are associated with everything related to state secrets. This is a kind of reclamation. The First Department of the FSB's Investigative Directorate handles criminal cases of treason and espionage. The First Department of Russian courts oversees proceedings in such cases. The First Departments of enterprises manage the classification of documents and the safeguarding of secrets. But our "First Department" fights to ensure that all employees of these first departments follow the law and respect human rights. They close and imprison, we open and liberate.