The Real Russia. Today.

Vladimir Zhirinovsky’s legacy

Wednesday, April 6, 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
• A new project to help Russians leaving the country
• Life outside Chernobyl under Russian occupation
• Fleeing Russia’s Donbas war again
• How Vladimir Zhirinovsky shaped Russian politics

Latest major developments in Russia and Ukraine

• Another boost for the ruble: The Central Partnership film production company (now a Gazprom-Media subsidiary) reportedly plans to sell the rights to its Russian films in Latin America and China in local currencies and rubles, not dollars or euros like it does currently.
• 21st-century lend-lease: The U.S. Senate unanimously passed legislation on Wednesday to revive Washington’s WWII-era lend-lease program to send more weapons and other supplies to Ukraine. According to Politico, it’s unclear if the House of Representatives will take up the legislation before both chambers begin a previously scheduled two-week recess on Thursday.
• Money for Putin: The European Union has paid 35 billion euros ($38.2 billion) to Russia for energy supplies since the start of Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and given 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) to fund Ukraine’s national defense, said top EU diplomat Josep Borrell in a speech on Wednesday.
• Hijacking the airwaves: After expelling the TV network Euronews from Russia, regulators have awarded its old television frequency to Kremlin propagandist Vladimir Solovyov, whose Solovyov Live stream will now air there.
• War crimes in Ukraine: A video posted online on Monday and verified by The New York Times appears to show a group of Ukrainian soldiers executing captured Russian troops outside a town west of Kyiv. The killings appear to have been the result of a Ukrainian ambush of a Russian column that occurred on or around March 30, as Russian troops were withdrawing from small towns west of the capital.
• It’s not desertion if it ain’t a war: At least hundreds of National Guardsmen have refused to fight in Ukraine, mostly because they fear for their own lives, journalists at Mediazona learned. The absence of martial law and the legal peculiarities of Russia’s “special operation,” however, make it virtually impossible to prosecute these “deserters.” Instead, Russia’s security agencies are firing these men, some of whom are challenging these dismissals in court.
• Air ball: Ramzan Kadyrov, the ruler of Chechnya, is very bad at basketball.

Tens of thousands of Russians have fled to Turkey and Armenia. A new project seeks to ease their transition. (16-min read)

As Russia has cracked down on dissent since invading Ukraine in late February, tens of thousands of people have fled the country. Many have left with less than a day's notice, which means they often have no luggage, no money, and no idea where to spend the night when they arrive in a foreign country. Kovcheg (“The Ark”) is a new organization working to provide shelter and legal support to Russian emigrants in need. Meduza tells the story of how it came to be.

The mayor of Chernobyl’s satellite town describes life under Russian occupation (8-min read)

Slavutych is one of the youngest towns in Ukraine. It was purpose-built 35 years ago in the aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster, to provide a new home for the nuclear power plant’s employees and their families. In the early days of Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russian forces occupied the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, using it as a bridgehead for an advance on Kyiv. Slavutych, located 50 kilometers (31 miles) from the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant and home to 25,000 people, found itself isolated. Nevertheless, the Russian troops who entered the town were met with civil resistance, with local residents staging a mass protest. After Russian forces retreated from the Kyiv region in early April, Slavutych came back under Ukrainian control. Speaking to Mediazona, Slavutych Mayor Yuri Fomichev described the month his town spent under Russian occupation. Meduza has translated the most striking excerpts from his account here.

In 2014, many Luhansk residents fled the city and built new lives elsewhere. In February 2022, war found them again. (20-min read)

Viktoria Vualo lived in Luhansk until 2014, when she and many of her friends fled the armed conflict sparked by Russia. Eight years later, in February 2022, Russia’s war forced many of them to flee again. Viktoria now lives in France, but she’s been in touch with her friends in Ukraine since the war began. They answer intermittently; when they can, they send audio messages with updates about hiding from bombs, fearing for their loved ones, and trying to get to safety. With their permission, Meduza is publishing their messages to Viktoria.

Remembering Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the man who gave the Kremlin its blueprint for Russian nationalism and abrasive public diplomacy (9-min read)

Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the long-time leader of the misleadingly named Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, died on Wednesday at the age of 75 after a long battle with the coronavirus. Though he lost six presidential races, Zhirinovsky nevertheless exerted colossal influence on Russian politics, helping to shape how the Russian state looks and behaves today. Earlier this year, shortly before he was hospitalized with COVID-19, Zhirinovsky publicly predicted Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, getting the date wrong by just two days. Meduza special correspondent Andrey Pertsev looks back at Zhirinovsky’s unique role in post-Soviet Russian politics.

Yours, Meduza