The Real Russia. Today.

Russian troops send stolen Ukrainian items home

Tuesday, April 5, 2022

For ongoing coverage of the invasion of Ukraine and its consequences back in Russia, follow Meduza’s live updates. Please note that the authorities are now blocking our website in Russia, and we’re turning to you, our global audience, for financial support.

What you’ll find in today’s newsletter:

• Latest major developments
• Evidence of Russian looting in Ukraine
• The worst of the Russian state has coalesced
• Facing treason charges, Russian journalist Ivan Safronov speaks in court

Latest major developments in Russia and Ukraine

• Another hospital bombed: A four-person team from Doctors Without Borders visited Mykolaiv in southeastern Ukraine and witnessed a Russian airstrike against the city’s oncology hospital, which has been treating wounded since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion. As they were leaving the area, the team saw injured people and at least one dead body. A nearby pediatric hospital was also hit.
• Russia’s elusive public opinion: In comments to the Council on Foreign Relations, Levada Center director Denis Volkov offered a methodological explanation for his sociological group’s survey and focus-group work, arguing that its respondent refusal rate hasn’t changed significantly since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. He acknowledged, however, that respondents sometimes share what they want to share, not what they actually believe.
• Navalny says Kremlin propaganda is a war crime: In new comments shared with the public through his lawyers, imprisoned opposition leader Alexey Navalny described learning through Russian state television about the massacre in Bucha. He argues that the people sustaining Russian state media outlets should be treated as war criminals, not journalists.
• No apple for the honest teacher: A schoolteacher in Sakhalin has been fined 30,000 rubles (about $350) and fired for telling students (in a conversation between classes) that she thinks the invasion of Ukraine is a “mistake.” One of the students recorded her making the remarks and later showed the video to their mom, who informed the school’s administrators. The principal dismissed her for allegedly “politicizing the students.”
• Some help for Russia’s Nobel laureate: The Norwegian media company Amedia has transferred control of its four printing presses in Russia to Novaya Gazeta editor-in-chief Dmitry Muratov, who says he’ll find a buyer and use the proceeds to fund his newspaper (which has suspended operations for the time being) and other independent media projects in Russia.
• Return of the butchers: Ukraine’s military intelligence community says the Russian troops allegedly responsible for massacring civilians in Bucha (the 64th Motorized Rifle Brigade of Russia’s 35th Combined Arms Army) will be rotated back to the front line sooner than normal, possibly for another “cleansing” assignment, this time near Kharkiv.
• The MoD’s shadow-ban: Google no longer includes in its Russian-language search results for “Defense Ministry of the Russian Federation” any hyperlinks to the ministry’s official website, instead directing users to ministry’s pages on Wikipedia and social media. Russia’s federal censor has already complained to the U.S. company and demanded the restoration of links to the military’s official website.

Russian soldiers have been stealing Ukrainian goods since the start of the war (5-min read)

In early April, the Telegram channel Belaruski Gayun, which has been monitoring military activity in Belarus since February, reported that Russian soldiers were sending large packages to Russia through a courier service. Journalists from the project believe the packages contain items the soldiers stole in Ukraine. In an effort to help hold Russian soldiers “responsible for stealing from and murdering people in Ukraine,” the channel published the names and phone numbers of 16 Russian soldiers.

Maxim Trudolyubov on how Russians’ inability to condemn the crimes of the past has led them to war (11-min read)

Nearly six weeks ago, on February 24, 2022, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. From that moment, the history of the Russian state’s past crimes ceased to be history, argues Meduza’s Ideas editor, Maxim Trudolyubov. Russia’s shared present once again includes a fight against the country’s own population, the trials of “enemies of the people,” deportations, occupations of neighboring countries, and “cleansing operations” in countries that were once part of the Soviet bloc. In the war against Ukraine, all of the Russian state’s worst facets in its Imperial, Soviet, and post-Soviet guises have coalesced. This war is a living indictment that brings together all the things Russian society can no longer ignore.

Meduza translates Ivan Safronov’s remarks from the first day of his closed-door treason trial (13-min read)

On Monday, April 4, the Moscow City Court began to review the case of Ivan Safronov on its merits. The former defense reporter and Roscosmos communications advisor stands accused of treason; therefore, his trial is taking place behind closed doors. Meduza has translated the text of the appeal Ivan Safronov made to the court on the first day of the proceedings. Our newsroom received a copy of these remarks from human rights lawyer Ivan Pavlov, who was involved in Safronov’s defense.

Yours, Meduza