Quote

I'm just asking how you know it's impossible.

Now that is the right question. The answer is - because unlike many, I've read it.

The story originated on the report of one investigator who requested a record on a person and was answered that the record was destroyed because the record owner was 80+. That was the person who did not die a prisoner, so his paper records are not mandatory to keep forever. The investigator was given details on the multi-agency record keeping directive that defines the rules (when the ex-prisoner reaches 80, his paper records are deleted). At the same time, the destruction of paper records is a formal process. 1st - it undergoes an expertise that defines whether the data contained within is worthy of permament keeping, if it is, it's moved to the federal archive for permanent keeping. If it's not - the digital copy is made for the archive and the paper is destroyed.

So long story short - there is no Putin, no destruction of documents for "victims of Gulag", and no destruction of documents whatsoever.