The post went viral, and seeing the demand for their work, by December 10, on the eve of the rally on Bolotnaya Square in Moscow, Okhotin and Beilinson launched the OVD-Info website.

[10][11][12] On 25 December 2021 the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media (Roskomnadzor) blocked the website of OVD-Info after a court ruling.

[15] OVD-Info monitors politically motivated persecutions and cases of abuse of authority by Russian police.

[16][17] The project provides legal aid in the form of consultations and a 24/7 hotline (through the hotline the project receives most of the information, which it then publishes in its bulletins on the website), lawyer visits to custody, legal defense in courts (up to filing complaints to European Court of Human Rights).

[16][17] OVD-Info published a weekly English-language newsletter that monitors and explains Russia’s crackdown on human rights as well as activists’ struggle.

The website also maintains a mailing list with reports on political persecution in Russia, along with an English-language newsletter.

[22][23] In June 2019, the project played a significant role in drawing public attention to the case of journalist Ivan Golunov.

At the same time, the project itself managed to become more widely known — on June 12, 2019, OVD-Info received an average monthly amount of donations in one day.

The project is aimed at the development of civil society an ending repressions in Russia and relies mostly on grassroots donations to operate.

[17] Since 2013 till 2022 the Nobel-winning Memorial Human Rights Center has acted as an infrastructural partner of OVD-Info.

[42] Leonid Drabkin (Russian: Леонид Драбкин), Operations Coordinator of OVD-Info, was selected to be a winner in the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in the Social practices category.