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Russia’s war against Ukraine

Daily updates as Moscow’s full-scale invasion enters its fourth month

Since February 24, Meduza has been tracking major developments in Ukraine, Russia, and around the world, following President Vladimir Putin’s decision to launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. For coverage of the first month of the war, see Meduza’s original live reporting here, here, and here.Below, you will find the latest major developments and fresh stories from Meduza, updated daily.

25 марта 2022 г. 16:38:26

Earlier live coverage from Meduza

25 марта 2022 г. 16:48:55

Latest major developments, 5:45 p.m. Moscow time (10:45 a.m., EST)

Devastation in Mariupol: According to eyewitnesses, about 300 people died as a result of Russian airstrikes on the city’s Drama Theater, where up to 1,300 civilians were sheltering in the basement. This was reported by the Mariupol City Council and could not be independently confirmed by Meduza. Before the building was bombed, Ukrainian officials painted the word “CHILDREN” on the ground next to it in large, Cyrillic letters to warn Russian forces that the building was being used as a bomb shelter for civilian families. Many people are still trapped in the theater’s basement, though ongoing Russian bombing has limited the authorities’ ability to rescue them. As a result, it’s unclear how many have died in the week since the bombing.
Last train out of Russia: Finland is suspending its train service between Helsinki and St. Petersburg. Trains will officially stop running on Sunday, ending the last remaining direct rail route to Europe from Russia. An official from Finland’s national rail company said that it is “no longer appropriate to continue operating the service as a result of sanctions.”
Apple drops Mir: Apple Pay will stop supporting cards issued by Mir, Russia’s national payment system. The company stopped allowing registration of new cards on March 24, and service for existing cards will stop working in the next few days.
Targeting more civilians: Four Ukrainians died after Russian troops fired at a medical clinic in Kharkiv's Osnoviansky district. The clinic was also serving as a humanitarian aid distribution point. “Obviously, the enemy wants to sow panic and prevent the receipt of humanitarian aid,” said Kharkiv regional military administration head Oleh Synehubov.
Medvedev hints at death penalty return: Russian Security Council deputy chairman Dmitry Medvedev said that Russia’s moratorium on capital punishment might be reconsidered in the wake of Russia’s exit from the Council of Europe, which Russia joined in 1996, and which requires such a moratorium. According to Medvedev, the decision will depend on Russian society, and “if everything is calm, these legal positions will remain as they are now.”
Zelensky calls out Hungary: In a speech to the Council of Europe, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, asking him to stop hesitating about whether to continue trade relations with Russia and whether to supply weapons to Ukraine. He also likened the deaths of Ukrainian civilians to the deaths of Hungarian Jews at the hands of fascists in the Second World War: “In Mariupol, there are the same people. Adults and children. Grandparents. And there are thousands of them. And these thousands are gone.”
The war’s effect on food: World Trade Organization head Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala warned that the impact of the war in Ukraine on world food prices could lead to revolts in poorer countries. She compared the situation to the COVID-19 pandemic, in which wealthier countries bought most of the world’s vaccines early on, to the detriment of poorer ones. She also pointed out that 24 percent of global wheat supplies come from Russia and Ukraine.
Print may be dead for Novaya: The Russian Postal Service has stopped allowing users to sign up for paper subscriptions of Novaya Gazeta online. The company stated that “if the site isn’t allowing people to sign up for a subscription, the publication itself must have decided that.” Novaya Gazeta, however, denied turning off the service. Novaya Gazeta, one of Russia’s last remaining liberal news outlets, has so far managed to avoid being blocked or outlawed by the authorities by following the letter, though not always the spirit, of newly-implemented Russian censorship laws.

25 марта 2022 г. 17:25:23

The Russian Defense Ministry reported that 1,351 Russian soldiers have been killed and 3,825 have been injured.

This is only the second time the Russian authorities have publicly reported the number of deaths since the war began. Estimates from other sources have been much higher; NATO, for example, put the estimated Russian death count at 7,000 to 15,000 on Wednesday, relying on information from Ukrainian authorities and open source data.

25 марта 2022 г. 17:49:47

28 марта 2022 г. 18:16:16

Monday’s top news, 6:15 p.m. Moscow time (11:15 a.m., EST)

No evacuations today: Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk announced that humanitarian corridors would not open on Monday, due to intelligence reports about potential Russian provocations targeting evacuation routes. At the same time, Mariupol’s Mayor Vadym Boychenko has underscored that the besieged city’s remaining civilian population, more than 160,000 people, need to be urgently evacuated.
Civilian casualties: Since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, at least 143 children have been killed in Ukraine and another 216 have been injured, according to Ukrainian Human Rights Commissioner Lyudmyla Denisova. On Sunday, the UN Human Rights Office reported that at least 99 children have been killed and 126 have been injured in all of Ukraine. In total, UN Human Rights confirmed 1,119 civilian deaths and 1,790 injuries countrywide, adding that the actual toll is certainly much higher. Local authorities in Mariupol said on Monday that by their estimates alone, 5,000 of the city’s residents have been killed, including 210 children.
Peace talks: A new round of Russia-Ukraine negotiations are set to take place in Turkey on Tuesday, March 29. But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov says direct talks between Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky still aren’t on the cards.
Selling citizenship: The European Commission is urging European governments to end “golden passport” programs and halt the sale of visas to citizens of Russia and Belarus. “Some Russian or Belarusian nationals who are subject to sanctions or are significantly supporting the war in Ukraine might have acquired EU citizenship or privileged access to the EU, including to travel freely in the Schengen area, under these schemes," the European Commission said on Monday.
‘Unfriendly’ updates: As a response to Western sanctions, Putin is preparing to sign a decree that will restrict entry into Russia for citizens of “unfriendly countries,” his Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Monday. Russia’s list of “unfriendly countries,” which the government approved in early March, includes the United States, the UK, Canada, and all EU member states, among many others. In related news, G7 energy ministers have rejected Putin’s demand that “unfriendly” countries pay for Russian gas in rubles and called on companies not to comply.
Not a ban: Using Facebook and Instagram is not illegal in Russia. This follows from the text of last week’s judgment declaring the social networks’ parent company, Meta, an “extremist organization.” The ruling, which was made public on Monday, says that it “does not restrict” individuals and legal entities in Russia from using Meta’s products, so long as they aren’t using them to engage in illegal activities. In related news, a prototype of Russia’s Instagram knockoff, Rossgram, is supposed to be rolled out on Monday.
Novaya goes dark: Independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta is pausing print and online publication until the end of Russia’s “special military operation.” Novaya’s editors made the announcement after the newspaper received a second warning from Russia’s censorship agency for allegedly neglecting to post “foreign agent” disclaimers in their articles. This second warning puts Novaya Gazeta at risk of losing its media license. In a comment to Meduza, Novaya’s editor-in-chief Dmitry Muratov said that the newspaper hopes to “return at some point” but declined to provide further information.
Media clampdown continues: The Russian Justice Ministry has labeled German broadcaster Deutsche Welle a “foreign agent.” This comes after Russian authorities shut down DW’s Moscow bureau in early February and blocked the broadcaster’s website in early March. Also on Monday, Roskomnadzor blocked the Ekaterinburg-based news site It’s My City for distributing “false information about the special operation in Ukraine.” In addition, the censor also blocked the Russian-language websites of three of RFE/RL’s Central Asian services.

28 марта 2022 г. 21:52:49

Meduza publishes interview with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky

On March 27, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky gave his first major interview to Russian journalists since the beginning of Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Shortly before the interview came out, Russia’s censorship agency (Roskomnadzor) demanded that no media outlets publish it. In turn, the Russian Attorney General’s Office said it would provide a “fundamental legal assessment of the contents of all published statements and the fact of their dissemination.” Meduza published the interview anyway (you can read our English translation here).

Zelensky later commented on Roskomnadzor’s threats as follows:

“Again and again, we are seeing how very different we are from the Russian Federation. Apparently my interview with Russian journalists deeply upset the people in the Kremlin. Those of them who are allowed to speak the truth, at least to themselves. While the journalists were preparing our interview for publication, the Russian censorship agency issued a threat… This would have been funny if it weren’t so tragic.

They’ve completely annihilated freedom of speech in their country. They are attempting to annihilate their neighbor. They pretend to be an important player on the world stage when, in reality, they’re afraid of a short conversation with a handful of journalists. If that’s their reaction, it must mean that we’re doing everything right. That’s why they’re so afraid. Maybe they’ve realized that the citizens of their country have more and more questions about what’s going on with their government.”

After Zelensky issued this statement, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov responded by claiming that the Kremlin is “not afraid” of what Zelensky said in his interview, but simply concerned with “not permitting the publication of anything that breaks current laws.” According to Peskov, Roskomnadzor demanded that Russian media outlets refrain from publishing the interview in order to have time to assess it and make sure it doesn’t violate any regulations. At the same time, Putin’s press secretary stated that the Kremlin had yet to see the interview.

29 марта 2022 г. 07:01:15

Major developments throughout the evening of March 28, 2022

A ray of hope? Russia is no longer requesting that Ukraine be “denazified” and is prepared to let Kyiv join the EU if it remains militarily non-aligned as a part of ceasefire negotiations, sources told The Financial Times. Some are cautiously saying it could indicate that Moscow is lowering its demands to claim victory and end the war.
More mysterious poisoning(s): Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich and Ukrainian peace negotiators suffered symptoms of suspected poisoning after a meeting in Kyiv earlier this month, sources told The Wall Street Journal. Contrary to initial reports, a spokesperson for Abramovich later told the BBC that he has not commented on the story.
Insufficient bandwidth: Citing the rising “unavailability of foreign equipment,” Russia’s federal government is now advising domestic telecoms operators to reduce mobile Internet service to keep Russia’s networks from overloading.
Code switching: An internal email at Google obtained by The Intercept shows that the company ordered Russian translators not to call the war in Ukraine a war, bowing at least in part to Kremlin censorship. The memo instructed translators to use euphemistic terms like “emergency in Ukraine” in their Russian version but “war in Ukraine” in the English version.
Catastrophe in Mariupol: City officials in Mariupol say Russian attacks have killed almost 5,000 civilians, including 210 children. Exact numbers are still impossible to know. 170,000 people reportedly remain in the city.
Prosecuting another opposition figure: Former Yekaterinburg Mayor Evgeny Roizman has been charged with “discrediting the military” — only a misdemeanor as a first offense, but felony liability under Russia’s law against hate speech activates upon a second violation within a year, risking up to three years in prison.

29 марта 2022 г. 16:26:42

Moscow announces ‘drastic reduction’ in military activity

Russia’s Army is withdrawing some of its forces from around Ukraine’s capital in what Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin is calling “drastically reduced military activity” aimed at Kyiv and Chernihiv. The announcement follows another round of negotiations held in Istanbul. The decision is intended to “increase mutual trust and create the necessary conditions for further talks to achieve the ultimate goal of an agreement and signing of that agreement,” Fomin told journalists on Tuesday.

30 марта 2022 г. 05:55:53

Major developments throughout the evening of March 28, 2022

Sounds like progress: At talks in Istanbul on Tuesday, Ukraine offered Russia a 15-year negotiating period to determine the status of Crimea, during which Ukraine would vow not to use military force to solve the conflict. According to Ukrainian officials, the conflict in the Donbas would be handled separately over the course of future talks between the two countries’ presidents. Ukraine also offered to vow not to join NATO in exchange for security guarantees from another country, such as the U.S., France, Turkey, Germany, Canada, Poland, or Israel. The Ukrainian side maintained that any changes to Ukraine’s security status would have to be approved by nationwide referendum followed by ratification by the Verkhovna Rada and then ratification by the parliament of the country providing the security guarantees.
If you put your trust in me, I’ll make bright your day: Russia’s Army says it will withdraw some of its forces from around Ukraine’s capital in what Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin is calling “drastically reduced military activity” aimed at Kyiv and Chernihiv. The announcement follows another round of negotiations held in Istanbul. The decision is intended to “increase mutual trust and create the necessary conditions for further talks to achieve the ultimate goal of an agreement and signing of that agreement,” Fomin told journalists on Tuesday. Journalists in Kyiv, however, report continued air-raid sirens.
Euros or nothing: German Economy Minister Robert Habeck said the G7 was rejecting Russia’s demand that “unfriendly countries” pay for Russian gas in rubles, calling it a “clear breach of the existing agreements,” which all specify euros or U.S. dollars as payment currency. Data from the transport company Gascade showed that gas flows on the Yamal-Europe pipeline, which usually flows westwards from Russia to Germany but has flowed eastwards since Poland began purchasing oil from Germany on March 15, fell to zero on Wednesday. Meanwhile, gas deliveries from Russia to Europe on other major pipelines remained steady.
A decade in the making: Denis Pushilin, the head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR), announced plans to consider the republic’s incorporation into Russia, though only after the DNR has secured control over all of Ukraine’s Donetsk territory. Leonid Pasechnik, the head of the neighboring self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic, said on March 27 that a referendum on that republic joining Russia would be held soon, but later walked the comments back.
A dangerous game: The Ukrainian Interior Ministry accused Russia of using naval mines that were left in Crimea by Ukraine after Russia’s annexation of the peninsula to “provoke and discredit Ukraine before its international partners.” On March 19, Russia’s FSB announced that Ukrainian mines installed near the ports at Odessa, Ochakiv, Chornomorsk, and Yuzhne were becoming detached from their anchors and “freely moving to the western part of the Black Sea.” Drifting mines have recently been found off the coasts of Turkey and Romania. The Ukrainian authorities claim that these mines are old models that the country no longer uses.
The ruble’s back up: On March 29, the ruble’s value reached a one-month high of 88 to the dollar. Economist Dmitry Polevoy attributed the rebound to measures such as the government's requirement that Russia exporters sell 80 percent of foreign currency earnings, the recent drop in imports, and currency control measures from the Central Bank.
'Sick fantasies': Russian General Vladimir Shamanov announced the capture of two Ukrainians accused of torturing Russian prisoners of war, Sergey Velichko and Konstantin Nemichev. Several hours later, Velichko and Nemichev released a video in which they deny they’ve been captured and say the video showing the Russian soldier’s torture is fake. “Friends! I’m being held captive — captive in the sick fantasies of sick people from a neighboring country that took Ukraine in three days, that took me and Kostya hostage, that shot down the helicopter of the commander of the Azov regiment. Good luck! Come on over! We won’t be happy to see you,” says Velichko in the video.
Writing the words of a sermon no one will hear: Lawmakers in Kyiv have drafted legislation that would effectively ban the Russian Orthodox Church’s activities and seize its property in Ukraine. The bill targets the activities of religious organizations with a governing center “in a state that is recognized by law as having committed military aggression against Ukraine and/or temporarily occupied part of Ukraine’s territory.” (In 2018, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine formed and received ecclesial independence in a break with the Moscow Patriarchate.)
You know it ain’t easy, you know how hard it can be: Human rights monitors at the Net Freedoms Project have tracked more than 220 misdemeanor convictions across Russia for “discrediting the armed forces,” making it likely that felony hate-speech liability for repeat offenses will come into play soon. In other words, peaceful antiwar protesters could soon be sentenced to prison for speaking ill of the military.

30 марта 2022 г. 15:59:57

Several conscripts have returned from Ukraine to St. Petersburg. One of their mothers sent a message to Putin.

Two military conscripts from St. Petersburg who were sent to join the war in Ukraine have returned to Russia. This was announced on Wednesday by St. Petersburg Human Rights Commissioner Svetlana Agapitova, Interfax reported.

According to Agapitova, seven people have reached out to her office since the beginning of the war: six mothers of military servicemen and one wife.

“Their messages included reports of involuntary signing of military service contracts, reports of conscript soldiers allegedly crossing the border with Ukraine, and requests for assistance obtaining information about a serviceman,” said Agapitova.

According to Rotonda, one of the conscripts who returned from the war is the son of Marina Ivanova, a woman who requested Russian President Vladimir Putin return contract soldiers to the bases where they’re supposed to be serving their conscription periods.

In Ivanova’s letter, excerpts of which were published in Fontanka, she wrote that military officers were trying to sway conscript soldiers “to participate in the special operation on Ukrainian territory and to sign contracts with the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation against their will.”

30 марта 2022 г. 18:53:49

Latest major developments, 6:55 p.m. Moscow time (11:55 a.m., EST)

Russia’s assessment of Wednesday’ talks: In a video posted on Telegram, Russian delegation head Vladimir Medinsky said that the Ukrainian side had expressed willingness to “meet the most important conditions” for normal relations with Russia in talks on Wednesday, evidently referring to Ukraine’s offer of a 15-year negotiating period to determine the status of Crimea. In the same video, Medinsky accused Kyiv of working to develop chemical weapons and conducting a genocide in the Donbas. He also said that there’s still work to do, and that Russia’s demands regarding Crimea and the Donbas remain unchanged.
Refugees surpass predictions: The U.N. reported that four million refugees have now fled Ukraine, surpassing the agency’s prediction for the entire war and making the current crisis the largest movement of people in Europe since the Second World War. Half of the people who have fled are children.
Russian officials unwelcome at Holocaust memorial: The Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorials Foundation announced that officials from Russia and Belarus will not be welcome at ceremonies marking the 77th anniversary of the concentration camps’ liberation next month. The statement mentioned the death of Boris Romantschenko, a survivor of the concentration camps who was killed by Russian shelling last month.
Because Russia’s gone postal: The Russian Postal Service has stopped receiving shipments from Poland and Denmark. Denmark has stopped processing shipments to and from Russian, while the lack of shipments from Poland is due to a “lack of logistic options on the part of the Polish Postal Service,” according to the Russian Postal Service. Two days ago, Russia stopped receiving shipments from Sweden after the Swedish mail operator PostNord announced it would cease operations with Russia.
Still in danger: The Ukrainian Defense Ministry reported that Russia has not stopped trying to surround or take over Kyiv or Chernihiv. “The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces has noted a certain partial movement of individual units from the Kyiv direction as well as from the Chernihiv direction,” said Ministry representative Oleksandr Motuzyanyk. According to him, there’s currently no mass withdrawal of troops from those areas. “Obviously, our opponent is withdrawing the units that have suffered the greatest losses in order to reinforce them,” Motuzyanyk was quoted as saying.
Zelensky’s message to the Storting: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed the Norwegian Parliament by video link on Wednesday. He asked for more weapons supplies, new sanctions against Russia, assistance for European energy, and support for the idea of closing Russian ports. “Your company Motus and other companies must stop supporting Russia’s ability to destroy its neighbors. How can you supply Russia with naval equipment when it uses its fleet to lay mines in the sea and destroy opportunities for free navigation?” said Zelensky.

31 марта 2022 г. 12:41:15

Latest major developments

Hey, teacher, leave them kids alone: Education officials in St. Petersburg have instructed schools and universities to conduct a “unified lesson” on April 19 to teach students about Nazis and their modern-day “accomplices” throughout the West. Students are supposed to write about it afterward on social media. The lessons are intended for students ages 12 and older. Officials are reportedly working with two “patriotic” groups to put together the lecture.
Return to sender: Ukraine is reportedly urging Poland and the Baltic states to close their borders with Russia and Belarus, hoping to block all deliveries through those countries into the Union State.
Putting AdBlock out of business: Advertising spending in Russia will plunge this year, research firm Insider Intelligence Inc. said in a new forecast. Ad spending in Russia is expected to total $3.55 billion in 2022, down 49.7 percent from last year, the company told The Wall Street Journal. The decline is due largely to Russia’s economic slowdown and Western businesses fleeing amid the invasion of Ukraine.
A soft suspension of operations: Everyone but a skeleton crew posting breaking news updates at the business news publication RBC is reportedly being sent on a two-week holiday. Sources told Meduza that the break could last even longer, as the news outlet apparently hopes to wait out the war to avoid a crackdown by the state authorities. RBC editor-in-chief Petr Kanaev denies the rumors of mass work stoppages but says he did encourage editors to make vacation time available to staff not reporting on Ukraine.

31 марта 2022 г. 12:42:16

Recent expert analysis

🧠 Russia’s current leadership gets its ideas from the USSR’s ‘stagnation’ heyday

Historian Andrey Zorin told Meduza that the mythology and ideology that guide Russia’s leaders imprinted on their generation back in the 1970s, when ideas of “Russian national-imperial messianism” were overtaking the USSR’s old Communist universalism. It was through this lens that the Kremlin and most of society came to feel that the West “betrayed” Russia in the 1990s by violating the supposed contract according to which Moscow abandoned its empire.

Zorin calls this “the triumph of official interpretation over historical reality,” given that the Soviet Union collapsed due to internal problems, and the West hoped to save the USSR, fearing nuclear proliferation. Russia has resorted multiple times to the kind of isolationism seen today, after a failed attempt at “Europeanization.”

💰 The West’s evolving approach to sanctions against Russia

Speaking to Meduza, lawyer Pavel Ivlev described his years of work lobbying the U.S. government to sanction various Russian officials and oligarchs involved in the seizure of the oil company Yukos. He also argued that the main purpose of Washington’s sanctions today is to prevent further Russian aggression by punishing the political operators responsible and pressuring the businesspeople who have benefitted from the Putin regime’s stable functioning. Ivlev says Russian officials are more exposed than you might expect because many decided to hide their ill-gotten gains and buy coveted real estate in the West, believing that commitments to private property in Europe and America would protect them against seizure. For many years, this held true, and officials in the U.S. even remained reluctant to dismiss the legitimacy of Russia’s justice system, but the American government gradually changed its view and agreed to target Russian judges with sanctions and reject criminal convictions in politicized cases, like the verdicts against Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

Asked about sanctions against then Yandex deputy CEO Tigran Khudaverdyan, Ivlev acknowledged that there is little evidence connecting the tech figure to the Kremlin, but he says such actions by the West are intended more to warn business leaders more broadly. Washington has also started pursuing “passive assets” (for example, oligarchs such as Yuri Milner investing in businesses like Facebook using resources from Alisher Usmanov, who is under sanctions). These measures are forcing some businesspeople to reassess their relationships with the Russian state, but other businesses are so intertwined with the state (for example, Gazprom and Rosneft are their main clients) that “changed attitudes” are impossible.

In the United States, the government process for collecting the expertise that determines sanctions designations is classified and kept “in house,” but officials absolutely rely in part on investigative journalism, says Ivlev.

👀 Putin’s two-front war at home

In an article for Republic, journalist Dmitry Kolezev argues that the Russian elite’s “war party,” led publicly by Chechen ruler Ramzan Kadyrov, rejects any potential compromise with Ukraine. The “illusion of total support” for the war at home threatens to crumble once the body bags start returning, says Kolezev (though he recognizes that the Kremlin’s propaganda is flexible enough to declare victory even in defeat). As the regime tries to find and punish those responsible for the failures in Ukraine, Putin’s position as president grows weaker, necessitating not just a harsher crackdown against the opposition but within Russia’s political establishment itself.

🕊️ Russian Spring 2.0: Or how Moscow learned to stop worrying and love the non-West

In a lengthy article for Russia in Global Affairs, Carnegie Moscow Center director Dmitri Trenin (credited here merely as “a member of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy”) lays out a plan for a “new edition of Russia” based on the principle that geopolitics now trumps economic interests. He argues that the nation attempted something similar in the “Russian spring” movement of 2014 but failed. Now Russia has a “second chance” to make fundamental changes to its national orientation, “defeating not only theft and embezzlement but also cynicism, primitive materialism, and unbelief” under the conditions of “self-purification and self-determination.” At home, this means repatriating wealth, “reinvigorating” the ruling elite, and “renegotiating” the social contract, basing it on “trust and solidarity.” The country needs a renewed “Russian idea,” says Trenin, that reinforces the state’s values at home and abroad.

Trenin describes the West as newly consolidated around the United States thanks to a consensus that Russia is a common threat (he says nothing in this context about the invasion of Ukraine). Trenin argues that Russia should respond by accelerating its pivot to India and especially China but also to the global “non-West,” seeking to develop a shared agenda based on mutual interests. (He says this should include redirecting Russia’s expert and diplomatic resources from the West to the “non-West” in the East and South, particularly the non-European former Soviet Union.)

Moscow’s other main international goals, says Trenin, are (1) the strategic containment of the U.S., (2) facilitating Russia’s “self-development,” and (3) increasing integration with Belarus, the Eurasian Economic Union, and the Collective Security Treaty Organization.

Speaking delicately about Ukraine (and only in any depth at the end of the essay), Trenin says Moscow needs to be sure that Kyiv poses no “security threat” to Russia and also accepts the annexation of Crimea and independence of the Donbas.

Note: Meduza has received a complaint from one of Dmitri Trenin’s colleagues stating that the ideas expressed in this article represent Trenin’s understanding of the Kremlin’s decision-making, not his own views. Meduza has reached out to Dr. Trenin for clarification and apologizes in advance for any misunderstanding.

Update: Dr. Trenin told Meduza that his essay is neither “a summary of the Kremlin thinking” nor “an opinion piece.” He calls the text “a Realist impression of what Russia would need to do to stay in the game.”

🐉 The USA is still too worried about China to get serious about its anti-Russian coalition

In an article for the state newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta, Fyodor Lukyanov argues that diplomacy could be making a comeback in Ukraine as military methods prove to be incapable of achieving anything more than has already been achieved on the ground (at too high a price, he adds). Whatever the future of peace talks in Ukraine, Russia’s pivot to the East is now assured. It doesn’t even make sense for Moscow to sustain the time and resources it pours into diplomatic engagement with Europe and the United States, says Lukyanov.

If it really wanted to devastate Russia, the U.S. could try to tempt the likes of India and China into joining its anti-Moscow coalition, but Washington has relied on “moral reproaches” instead of real carrots and sticks. Lukyanov says this is because, even now during the war in Ukraine, America still sees China, not Russia, as its main adversary. As a result, he argues, a united anti-Russian front will be elusive.

31 марта 2022 г. 15:59:47

Kremlin spokesman rejects U.S. intelligence reports that fearful advisers are ‘misleading’ Putin

On Thursday, a reporter from the state news agency TASS asked Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov to comment on U.S. intelligence reports that Putin’s relationship with the Russian military command has deteriorated because he felt “misled” by his own staff. Peskov responded as follows:

“To our regret and, as a matter of fact, this is probably even cause for our concern, it turns out that neither the State Department nor the Pentagon have real information about what’s happening in the Kremlin. They simply don’t understand what’s happening in the Kremlin, they don’t understand President Putin, they don’t understand the decision-making mechanism, [and] they don’t understand the style of our work. This is not only a pity, but it causes concern. Because such complete misunderstanding just leads to erroneous decisions, to rash decisions, which have very bad consequences.”

1 апреля 2022 г. 06:20:15

Latest major developments in Russia and Ukraine

No helping the émigrés: Russia’s federal censor blocked “The Ark,” a support group established by the Russian Anti-War Committee to assist emigrants fleeing the country because they condemn the invasion of Ukraine and “see no opportunity for themselves in Putin’s Russia.” According to records posted by the committee online, Roskomnadzor acted on orders from Russia’s Attorney General.
Ratings are up, but ad revenue is way down: According to data shared by media analyst Ksenia Boletskaya, the state-run TV network Rossiya 24 (owned by VGTRK) has enjoyed the biggest wartime ratings boost in Russian television, tripling its share of viewers since late February to 4.5 percent. At the same time, however, ad revenue has plummeted, and the station is actually losing money. Advertisers have retreated from news broadcasts generally, and only Russia’s entertainment programming has maintained this revenue source. But Boletskaya says the money is only a secondary concern for VGTRK: influence and audience size are what matter now.
Dressed to kill: Anti-extremism police in Krasnoyarsk arrested journalist Maria Antyusheva in her newsroom on Thursday, a day after she attended a local police briefing in a blue-and-yellow dress (the colors of the Ukrainian flag). The officers presented her with copies of antiwar comments she posted on Instagram and fined her 30,000 rubles (about $360) for “discrediting Russia’s armed forces.”
A modest request of Meta: The “Council of Bloggers” (a puppet organization under parliamentary control) is demanding $1 billion in compensation from Meta for lost monetization revenue due to the blocking of Instagram in Russia. The council says it will take the matter to court if (when) Meta refuses to pay up. The group’s claim letter also demands that Meta apologize to the Russian people for permitting death threats from users in Ukraine against invading Russian soldiers (this was Russia’s stated reason for blocking Facebook and Instagram).
No rallying around this flag: State Duma deputy Vasily Piskarev has asked federal prosecutors to seek a court order banning the “white-blue-white flag” (a symbol of antiwar protests in Russia). Researchers at the watchdog group Net Freedoms Project listed three possible outcomes of Piskarev’s appeal: (1) specific demonstrations of the flag become illegal but the flag itself isn’t considered extremist; (2) the flag is designated as a symbol of an invented “extremist” group and demonstrations of that symbol then become illegal extremist activity; or (3) either the courts or the prosecutors reject Piskarev’s appeal.
Russia gives Germany a role in the ‘bioweapons’ conspiracy, too: Ambassador Gennady Gatilov (Russia’s permanent representative to the Conference on Disarmament) said in a speech that German scientists processed “blood samples of the Slavic ethnic group” collected by Ukraine’s Health Ministry. In another allusion to “gene bombs,” Gatilov also accused Germany of funding research in Ukraine to explore the effects of various diseases on “the local population.”
More branches on Putin’s family tree: Investigative journalists at Proekt have found a whole new slew of Putin’s relatives, tracking his cousin’s family. They, too, got rich off ties to the state, and they own lavish real estate, the journalists discovered. For example, Putin’s great niece and her daughter are “important people” in Russia’s healthcare and pharmaceutical industry. Proekt also confirmed that a luxury apartment in Sochi traded hands between Putin’s relatives, his mistress, and his friends, before it was finally registered under the name of a “nominal” third party to hide it better from reporters and researchers.

1 апреля 2022 г. 19:00:21

Latest major developments in Russia and Ukraine

Explosions — and confusion — in Belgorod: An oil depot exploded in Russia’s Belgorod region near the Ukrainian border, leading Russian officials to claim that Ukraine forces attacked the facility. Other airstrikes and artillery strikes were reported in various places near Belgorod on Friday. Ukrainian officials have declined to confirm or deny their involvement in the attacks, while the Kremlin said in a statement that the attacks “do not create comfortable conditions for continuing negotiations” between the two countries.
Ukraine’s domain: Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, passed a law allowing the seizure of property that belongs to Russians and Ukrainians who publicly support Russia’s invasion. The bill would expand an existing law that allowed the state to seize assets and property owned by Russia or Russian citizens. The law is now applicable to anyone who publicly denies or supports Russian military aggression against Ukraine and anyone who supports Russian occupation of Ukrainian territory.
Gazprom says tschüss: Russian state energy company Gazprom announced a split from its German subsidiary and an exit from the German market after a rift in which Russia demanded payment in rubles instead of euros. It is unclear whether the move will entail a German transition away from Russian natural gas, which makes up 40% of the country’s supply. It was reported earlier this week that German officials were considering expropriating Gazprom Germania and Rosneft Deutschland.
Russia leaves Chernobyl: Russian troops have ended their occupation of the Chernobyl nuclear plant for the first time since the war began, though a few have stayed behind in the exclusion zone. According to Ukrainian authorities, Russian troops were exposed to dangerous levels of nuclear radiation during their occupation of the facility; this may have contributed to their decision to leave.
Just edit it yourself: Russia has threatened to fine Wikipedia up to four million rubles (about $49,000) for failing to delete information about the war in Ukraine. The website’s offenses include referring to the war as a war and providing counts of injuries and deaths among Ukrainian civilians.
The food front: Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev threatened to ban Russian food exports to Russia’s “nonfriends,” calling food Russia’s “quiet weapon” in the fight against sanctions. Russia has already implemented some small restrictions on food exports, such as a ban on exporting sunflower oil, but the effects of these limitations pale in comparison to the anticipated global effects of the war in Ukraine, the world’s fifth largest wheat exporter.

2 апреля 2022 г. 07:27:20

Latest major developments

The latest ‘foreign agents’: Russia’s Justice Ministry designated several new “foreign agents,” adding individuals 120th thru 127th to its national list. April 1’s additions include multiple journalist like Maria Borzunova and Elizaveta Osetinskaya, as well as Viktor Vorobyov, a local deputy in Russia’s Komi Republic — the first sitting lawmaker to be added to the “foreign agents” registry. (The designation appears to be punishment for his criticism of the invasion of Ukraine.)
A series of tubes: Russia’s Ministry of Education and Science has ordered universities to migrate all their YouTube content to VK Video and RuTube by April 4. The move suggests preparations for YouTube’s potentially looming inaccessibility in Russia.
RIP, Babitsky: Russian journalist and war reporter Andrei Babitsky, who was kidnapped during the Second Chechen War, died on Friday at the age of 57. He controversially lost his job at RFE/RL in 2014 after defending Moscow’s annexation of Crimea.
Illegal newspaper covers: A court has fined the Urals-based publisher VK-Media (not to be confused with Vkontakte) 1.5 million rubles (roughly $17,000) for publishing antiwar cover pages in several local newspapers. The judge determined that the publishing house “knowingly disseminating false information” about ongoing “national security measures.”
The eight-year error: Lithuanian actress Ingeborga Dapkūnaitė (who played Russian diplomat Irina Sidorova in the Norwegian hit show “Okkupert”) has left Russia, saying it was a mistake for her to remain in the country after the annexation of Crimea.

4 апреля 2022 г. 12:40:23

Latest major developments

Europe responds to the news from Bucha: The EU released a statement condemning Russian actions in occupied territories near Kyiv: “The Russian authorities are responsible for these atrocities, committed while they had effective control of the area. They are subject to the international law of occupation. The perpetrators of war crimes and other serious violations as well as the responsible government officials and military leaders will be held accountable.”
No UN Security Council meeting: The UK, which currently chairs the UN Security Council, has rejected Russia’s request for a meeting to be held in response to the “monstrous provocation of Ukrainian radicals in Bucha,” according to Russia’s Foreign Ministry. Russia called for the meeting in response to shocking images of the dead bodies Russian troops left behind when they were driven out of Kyiv suburbs they had been occupying last week.
More Rosgvardia officers say no to war: 11 Russian National Guard officers from Russia’s Republic of Khakassia have refused to join the war in Ukraine. According to a journalist from the Republic’s capital, the officers “not only refused to participate in the ‘special operation,’ they said everything they thought about it to a certain high-ranking Rosgvardia general. The senior commanders were so alarmed and frightened, to put it mildly, by the mood among the fighters and its possible consequences, especially after the recent actions of 12 Krasnodar officers, that the zealous Khakas officers were taken out of harm’s way and returned back to Khakassia.”
Macron wants to hit Russia where it hurts: French President Emmanuel Macron called for tougher global sanctions against Russia in response to the murders of dozens of citizens in Bucha. According to Macron, new sanctions should affect Russian petroleum exports. Reuters reported that in an interview with France Inter, Macron said that “it is more or less established that the Russian army is responsible (for the Bucha killings).”
No relief: According to local authorities, seven people were killed and 34 people were injured as a result of night shelling in Kharkiv. The city has been under constant Russian shelling for almost six weeks, and supplies of food, water, and medicine are critically low.
Private reinforcements: The UK Ministry of Defense announced that new Russian forces were being transferred to the Donbas, including mercenaries from the Wagner group, a private militia run by one of President Putin’s allies. The new fighters have reportedly been flown in from Central Africa and Syria in recent days.

4 апреля 2022 г. 18:39:45

New podcast episode

5 апреля 2022 г. 12:41:00

Latest major developments in Russia and Ukraine

A treason trial gets underway: Journalist Ivan Safronov’s treason case finally began behind closed doors on Monday. Prosecutors say he collected and sold data on Russian defense capabilities to intelligence agencies in Germany and the Czech Republic. He categorically denies the charges. Safronov’s lawyers say the case is riddled with procedural violations that have been ignored.
Taking on the Wikipedians: Russia’s federal censor has ordered Wikipedia to remove information from entries about Russian war atrocities committed in Ukraine. Ekaterina Mizulina (the head of the Safe Internet League and the daughter of the reactionary senator by the same surname) claims credit for alerting Roskomnadzor to the offending content.
No more hidden fees: The housing rental marketplace Airbnb has suspended service to all users based in Russia and Belarus, including any individuals who identified themselves using documents issued in either country. The company previously suspended all operations in Russia and Belarus.
Cursed classrooms: The Russian authorities have issued new guidelines to schoolteachers, recommending special lessons devoted to the supposed benefits for Russia from Western sanctions, as well as how the sanctions are actually hurting other countries.
Criminalizing evidence of atrocities: Russia’s Federal Investigative Committee and Attorney General’s Office have both threatened to press felony charges against anyone who disseminates “false claims” that Russian troops massacred civilians in Bucha. (Moscow both blames Ukrainian forces for these killings and argues that the corpses themselves were “staged.”)

5 апреля 2022 г. 12:58:16

Expert analysis

Hawks and doves in Russia can’t agree on the legitimacy of Zelensky and Ukrainian statehood

In an op-ed for Forbes Russia, Russian International Affairs Council director-general Andrey Kortunov argues that there are no clear socioeconomic conditions that determine support for either a negotiated political settlement or military ultimatum in Ukraine. The main division, he says, is ideological: those who view Zelensky as the legitimate leader of a major European country are inclined to favor peace talks. On the other hand, those in Russia who believe that Zelensky and his team are merely puppets of the West see no value in negotiations with Kyiv and think the war in Ukraine is a geopolitical battleground between Russia and the West.

Rejecting diplomacy assumes that Russia must pursue a “complete reset of the Ukrainian project,” tearing down and rebuilding Ukraine’s entire state structure. In other words, Moscow would need Kyiv’s total capitulation. This would require “victory at any cost” and long-term commitments throughout Ukraine to prevent guerrilla resistance and terrorist attacks. Meanwhile, continued hawkish rhetoric undermines Moscow’s capacity to convince the public later that a negotiated settlement could ever constitute victory.

A blueprint for genocide in Ukraine

In a shocking essay that openly advocates the “de-Ukrainianization of Ukraine,” columnist Timofei Sergeitsev offers what is essentially a blueprint for the genocide of Russia’s neighbor. In the text (published as an op-ed by the state-run news agency RIA Novosti), he develops ideas about the illegitimacy of Ukrainian statehood that Vladimir Putin has endorsed, adding that most of Ukraine’s population has “passively” enabled a “Nazi regime.”

To rectify this supposed situation, Sergeitsev proposes “reeducation” built on “ideological repression” that features control of the mass media and school curriculum, among other things. (He clarifies, however, that Ukraine’s “Banderite” high command and any “hopeless Nazis” should be “liquidated” outright.) Sergeitsev insists that Ukraine must lose its sovereignty in this process, which will last at least a generation. Russia has to manage this process, he says, claiming that Ukraine’s “artificial ethnocentrism” is a perversion of Greater Russia’s “natural borders.”

Sergeitsev concludes by claiming that Russia is actually the world’s last defender of “historical European values,” having performed selfless services to the West by developing socialism, defeating German fascism, and offering its friendship to the West in the 1990s. He also argues that Russia will now turn from the West and embark on its own path as a “leader in the global process of decolonization.” Given the West’s efforts to “tempt” Ukraine, Russia’s actions there now also constitute a form of decolonization, Sergeitsev says.

The sanctions have consolidated Putinism

Last week, on March 31, journalist Farida Rustamova published an article on her Substack blog warning that foreign sanctions have actually consolidated the Russian elite’s support for Vladimir Putin — a feat that has eluded Putin himself throughout his rule. According to her unnamed sources, state pollsters have concluded that Western economic warfare has enraged and offended the general public in Russia, rallying them to the president. “Society and the elites now feel like they’re in the same boat,” says Rustamova. Few who oppose the invasion of Ukraine can even meet with Putin anymore, she says. Resignations by unpopular figures like Arkady Dvorkovich and Anatoly Chubais do nothing to undermine support for the war, and Roman Abramovich’s role in negotiations with Kyiv says more about his unique relationship with Putin than anything else.

Echoing the sentiments of Rustamova’s sources, Valdai Discussion Club program director Ivan Timofeev argues in a Kommersant op-ed that Russians see Western sanctions as an attempt to humiliate them for being Russian, which only exacerbates anti-Western (not anti-Putin) perceptions. Broadly speaking, he says, Russians “fatalistically” believe that the West’s sanctions will remain in place “forever.”

Avoiding Russia’s draft

Human rights lawyers told Meduza that young men who wish to avoid conscription into Russia’s military can file for “alternative civil service” by declaring conscientious objections to serving in the armed forces. The activists say interest in the alternative civil service has skyrocketed since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. (Even though the deployment of conscripts to Ukraine is technically prohibited, there have been confirmed reports of some of draftees being sent into battle or pressured or tricked into signing contracts and then deployed.)

Warning that draft boards sometimes reject legitimate conscientious-objection requests, the lawyers urge young men to insist on thorough medical exams, both to search for medical exemptions but also to document their state of health, so the military can be held responsible for any subsequent harm. Additionally, the human rights lawyers point out that conscripts are legally permitted to leave the country until their medical exam is complete (and poor communication among the state agencies often means it’s possible to sneak out, even after the medical board affirms an individual’s physical fitness).

Conscientious objections to serving in armed forces now engaged in an invasion of Ukraine can also rely on family commitments — namely, the fact that many Russians have relatives living in Ukraine. (In other words, they can insist that their blood ties prevent them from taking up arms in a military conducting a “special operation” in Ukraine.)

6 апреля 2022 г. 07:57:00

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.

6 апреля 2022 г. 14:34:21

Graffiti left behind by Russian troops in Trostyanets, Kyiv region

Shaun Walker / The Guardian "Perm" (159 is the vehicle registration number in the Russian city of Perm)

Shaun Walker / The Guardian "Alexandrovsk was here"

Shaun Walker / The Guardian "Company No. 3 was here"; "Zelensky is a dick"

Shaun Walker / The Guardian "Zelensky is a faggot"

6 апреля 2022 г. 14:35:37

Latest major developments in Russia and Ukraine

The forbidden comparison: The Russian State Duma passed a new law against equating the actions of the Soviet Union with those of Nazi Germany. First-time violators will be subject to a fine of one to two thousand rubles or up to 15 days in jails, with even more severe penalties for repeat offenders, government officials, and organizations. The law also prohibits denying the Soviet army’s decisive role in defeating Nazi Germany.
Zhirinovsky dies: Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the longtime leader of the far-right Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, has died at the age of 75, according to a Telegram post made by State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin. Zhirinovsky was hospitalized with COVID-19 on February 2.
New American sanctions: The US will announce new sanctions against Russia on Wednesday, including sanctions against banks, state-owned companies, and Kremlin officials’ family members, according to White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki. The purpose of the sanctions, she said, is to force Russia “to choose between draining remaining valuable dollar reserves or new revenue coming in or default.”
Compulsory donations: Medical workers from the Federal Medical-Biological Agency, Russia’s national public health institute, have been asked to donate several thousand rubles (around $40-90) from their salaries to victims of the war in Ukraine. Two anonymous sources who spoke to The Bell said they had been required to sign a statement indicating how much money they had already donated. One doctor said that when he asked whether the donations were mandatory, he was told, “not yet.” Another employee reported that anyone who refused to donate money was sent to have a “personal conversation with the chief physician.”
An emotional plea to the Security Council: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed the UN Security Council remotely on Tuesday, presenting a graphic video of the aftermath of Russian brutality in Bucha and asking Council members if they were going to respond with action or if they were “ready to close the UN.” A number of heretofore neutral countries, including India, joined the call for an independent investigation of the events.
A bomb threat in Belgorod: All schools in Russia’s Belgorod region were evacuated after a reported bomb threat, according to the Belgorod city mayor. The region has been on edge after an explosion at an oil depot caused Russia to accuse Ukraine of dropping bombs last week. Ukrainian officials have not confirmed or denied the accusations. As of Wednesday afternoon, there was no explosion or bomb discovered at any Belgorod schools.
Russia’s new goal: NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in a press conference that the war is now in a “crucial phase” as Russia, having failed to conquer Kyiv, is now aiming to take over the Donbas and establish a land corridor to Crimea. While he said the repositioning of Russia troops will take “some weeks,” this will give NATO time to resupply Ukraine’s military.
Diplomatic breakdown: EU countries including Germany and France have expelled almost 200 Russian diplomats in response to reports of Russian troops killing civilians in Bucha and other Kyiv suburbs. Denmark, Sweden, Italy, Romania, and Spain reported that they had notified the Russian government that its diplomats are now personae non grata in the countries. In addition to these actions from member countries, the EU itself declared a number of Russians who work with EU institutions personae non gratae for “security reasons.”
Yet another foreign agent registry: The Russian Justice Ministry has created a new “foreign agents” registry — the fourth such registry so far. Previous registries were created to track and limit NGOs, media agencies (including private citizens, most of whom were journalists), and unregistered organizations. The new registry was created to track individuals; the first two people added were Russian journalist Yevgeny Kiselyov and Ukrainian journalist Matvey Ganapolsky. All individuals added to the register are required to mark all published materials with a lengthy notice of their “foreign agent” status, as well as to regularly report their income and expenses to the Justice Ministry. Violating these requirements can carry a prison term of up to five years.

7 апреля 2022 г. 10:48:51

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.

7 апреля 2022 г. 19:17:58

8 апреля 2022 г. 00:17:15

Meduza’s latest reports on Russian atrocities in Bucha

8 апреля 2022 г. 06:07:39

Latest major developments in Russia and Ukraine

Russia out of the Human Rights Council: The UN General Assembly voted to suspend Russia from the UN Human Rights Council due to “gross and systematic violations of human rights.” After the resolution was adopted, Russia’s Deputy Ambassador to the UN Gennady Kuzmin announced that Russia had already made the decision to quit the Council. 93 countries, including Serbia and Hungary, voted in favor of the resolution, while 24 countries, including most Central Asian countries and Iran, voted against. 58 countries abstained.
Kidnapping in Melitopol: Russian forces have kidnapped more than 100 people in Melitopol, according to the city’s mayor, Ivan Fedorov. Ukrayinska Pravda reported that City Council Chairman Serhii Primu had previously been abducted, along with five school directors. According to Fedorov, several of the victims were professors from Melitopol Pedagogical Institute. Fedorov himself was kidnapped on March 9 and released as part of a prisoner exchange on March 16.
The war’s next chapter: UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said that the war in Ukraine has entered a “new and different phase” as Russia launches a “more concentrated” offensive with the goal of controlling “the whole of Ukraine.” Truss said that both NATO and the UK individually will increase weapons supplies to Ukraine.
Taking out tanks: White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said in a press conference that the U.S. “will have or has provided 10 anti-tank systems” for every Russian tank in Ukraine, and that the figure goes up to “90 to 1” if weapons from other allies are included. According to Psaki, the U.S. transfers weapons to Ukraine “almost every single day,” and the types of weapons are often chosen from lists the Ukrainian government provides with its requests. “We provide a vast, vast majority of what they’re requesting,” said Psaki.
Europe targets Russia energy: The EU has agreed to pass a new sanctions package against Russia. The new measures include a ban on importing Russian coal — the first EU sanctions targeting the Russian energy sector. The move comes shortly after a non-binding resolution from the European Parliament calling for countries to pass “an immediate full embargo on Russian imports of oil, coal, nuclear fuel, and gas,” though whether the resolution will lead to action remains to be seen.
Documenting destruction: The Ukrainian Interior Ministry reported that Google Maps will soon show cities destroyed by the Russian military. The Ministry made an agreement with Google to digitize the consequences of Russian military aggression against Ukraine.” Several teams have already begun working on images of Irpin, a town in the Kyiv region that was badly damaged while occupied by Russian forces in March. “The whole world must see how our cities looked before and what the aggressor did to them,” said Ukrainian Deputy Interior Minister Igor Bondarenko.
Diplomats return to Kyiv: Foreign embassies are resuming operations in Kyiv now that the Russian military has retreated. The Lithuanian ambassador returned to the city on Thursday, and the Latvian ambassador plans to return soon. The Turkish Embassy, which was temporarily moved to Chernivtsi, has returned to Kyiv.

8 апреля 2022 г. 13:20:47

Russian missile hits a train station in Kramatorsk

According to Ukrainian authorities, a Russian missile hit a train station in Kramatorsk on Friday, killing at least 30 people and wounding at least 100. The station was a key point for civilians trying to flee the Donbas in anticipation of a widely-predicted upcoming Russian offensive. The Russian Defense Ministry denied responsibility for the attack and called it a “provocation,” implying that the Ukrainian government was responsible.

Kramatorsk Mayor Oleksandr Honcharenko reported that the hospitals in the city were overwhelmed by all of the wounded people, some of whom are "missing arms and legs." Honcharenko estimated that four thousand people were in the station at the time of the missile strike.

11 апреля 2022 г. 06:25:42

Latest major developments in Russia and Ukraine

Russian troops to push westward: U.S. government analysts say Russia is planning an attack from Izium to Dnipro, the next major step in its attempt to take control of Ukraine’s Donbas region, according to The New York Times. Satellite images showed “hundreds” of Russian military vehicles heading towards Izium, a key strategic point for Russia to control the Donbas, on Friday. Ukrainian civilians have been evacuating by bus in anticipation of the attack.
Everybody loses: Russia’s economy is predicted to shrink 11.2 percent this year due to the war in Ukraine and the resulting sanctions, according to the World Bank, while Ukraine’s economy will shrink by 45.1 percent. Other countries in the region with close economic ties to Russia, including Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, and Tajikistan, are also expected to fall into recession because of the war.
A European leader in Moscow: Austrian chancellor Karl Nehammer will travel to Moscow to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday, becoming the first European leader to do so since the start of Russia’s war in Ukraine. While Austria is officially neutral, the country has been providing Ukrainian with humanitarian and non-lethal aid throughout the course of the war. Nehammer met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv on Saturday.
Residents say Kherson is Ukraine: Russian troops have been printing propaganda materials to publicize an upcoming referendum on the establishment of a “Kherson People’s Republic” in the town of Nova Kakhovka, according to the Ukrainian Armed Forces' General Staff. Kherson Regional Council Deputy Serhii Khlan reported that an attempted pro-Russian rally in Nova Kakhovka on Sunday was outshined by a much larger pro-Ukrainian rally, which was then dispersed by occupying Russian forces.
The coming crop shortage: Crops might be planted on as little as 70 percent of Ukraine’s arable land this year, according to Deputy Ukrainian Agriculture Minister Taras Vysotsky, though that figure could be raised to 80 percent if officials are able to demine the farmland in the Chernihiv and Sumy regions. Much of the world’s wheat, sunflower oil, corn, and barley is grown in Ukraine, and World Trade Organization head Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has warned that the war’s impact on global food markets will hurt poor countries the most.
Turkey needs its Russian tourists: Turkey has approved a long-term plan to facilitate Russian tourism in Turkey, including the creation of a new airline that will exclusively run charter flights from Russia. Tour companies working with Russia will be given up to 300 million euros ($326.3 million) in credit, while Turkish Airlines will allocate 1.5 million seats on its own flights for Russian tourists.
A city ruined: 1,617 residential buildings in Kharkiv have been destroyed, according to Ihor Terekhov, the city’s mayor. “It’s impossible to say what can be restored and what can’t. Everything will have to be demolished and rebuilt,” he said in a Telegram post.
Mass kidnapping: Russia has begun issuing passports to Ukrainians that were forcibly moved to Russian territory, according to Ukrainian human rights officer Lyudmila Denisova. She wrote that 12 thousand of these people have already received Russia passports, and that the Russian authorities are “intimidating the most vulnerable categories of society — women, people with disabilities, and pensioners” into applying for Russian citizenship.
Fast track to the EU: European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen traveled to Kyiv on Friday and presented Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky with the paperwork for Ukraine to join the EU. With the initial questionnaire usually takes “a matter of years” to complete, the European Council is expediting Ukraine’s application process and plans for it to take only “a matter of weeks.”

11 апреля 2022 г. 06:44:33

Dnipro International Airport, which was destroyed by Russian missiles on Sunday

11 апреля 2022 г. 16:14:21

New Podcast Episode

11 апреля 2022 г. 21:10:30

12 апреля 2022 г. 21:31:50

Major recent events in Russia and Ukraine

Medvedchuk is caught: President Zelensky announced that Ukrainian special forces have apprehended Viktor Medvedchuk, the pro-Russian Ukrainian politician charged with treason who escaped house arrest four days after Russia launched its full-scale invasion. He is considered a close personal friend of Vladimir Putin, who is the godfather of Medvedchuk’s youngest daughter.
Putin and friend ponder Bucha: During a joint press conference on Tuesday with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, after visiting the Vostochny Cosmodrome, Vladimir Putin called allegations of Russian war atrocities in Bucha, outside Kyiv, a “fake” story. Lukashenko said the massacre is actually a British “psychological special operation.” Additionally, Putin accused the U.S. of bombing hundreds of civilians in Afghanistan and in Raqqa while Islamic State militants occupied the Syrian city.
Mostly good news for the DOXA editors: A judge in Moscow sentenced four former editors at the student journal DOXA to two years of wage garnishment (or community service if they are unemployed) and a three-year ban on administering websites. Their offense was supposedly inciting minors to join unpermitted protests in January 2021 against the imprisonment of opposition leader Alexey Navalny. The editors — Armen Aramyan, Alla Gutnikova, Natalia Tyshkevich, and Vladimir Metelkin — spent nearly a year under restrictions tantamount to house arrest. Everyone was freed in court, except for Tyshkevich, who is currently serving a separate 15-day jail sentence for posting an image of the Ukrainian coat of arms on Instagram in 2017. Though house arrest is typically counted toward convicts’ sentences, the court in this case did not factor in time already served.
Ukraine’s updated civilian death toll: Since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, the UN Human Rights office has recorded the killings of 1,892 civilians, including 152 children. “Most of the civilian casualties recorded were caused by the use of explosive weapons with a wide impact area, including shelling from heavy artillery and multiple launch rocket systems, and missile and air strikes,” officials said.
Muratov’s assailants: Despite the suspension of its reporting, the newspaper Novaya Gazeta broke its silence on Tuesday and published a report about the two men who attacked editor-in-chief Dmitry Muratov aboard a train on April 7. Nikolai Trifonov, the man who allegedly threw red paint laced with acetone at Muratov, remains at large and the police have issued no arrest warrant, despite an abundance of surveillance evidence. Novaya Gazeta discovered that Trifonov has links to a veterans’ group.
Poisoned twice, now jailed again: A court in Moscow sentenced opposition politician Vladimir Kara-Murza to 15 days in jail for supposedly disobeying a police officer. He suffered apparent poisonings in 2015 and 2017. In February 2021, a Bellingcat joint investigation with The Insider and Der Spiegel found that Kara-Murza was followed by the same FSB unit that allegedly poisoned Alexei Navalny.
Et tu, Huawei? The AppGallery has dropped support for Russia’s Mir payment system. The Chinese company Huawei’s app store previously removed apps for several sanctioned Russian banks, including Otkritie, VTB, and Promsvyazbank.
Finders keepers: Lawmakers from Russia’s ruling political party have submitted legislation to the State Duma that would impose external management on the Russian assets of any foreign companies that so much as announce that they are exiting the Russian market, provided that there are “no obvious economic reasons,” the decision is based on “anti-Russian sentiment,” and the company’s activities significantly influence the stability of Russia’s economy.
The brain drain continues: Russian political scientist and public intellectual Ekaterina Schulmann says she’s left Russia and moved to Germany for a year-long appointment at the Robert Bosch Foundation.

14 апреля 2022 г. 07:19:24

Major recent events in Russia and Ukraine

We have impact: The Ukrainian military says it hit the Moskva Naval cruiser, the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, with a Neptune anti-ship cruise missile, causing “very serious damage” to the vessel. Russia’s Defense Ministry confirmed that the warship suffered damage resulting in a complete evacuation, though the Navy attributed the incident to a fire supposedly caused by detonated ammunition.
An early ending: Police raided a cultural center in Moscow and disrupted a concert by pianist Alexey Lyubimov and singer Yana Ivanilova devoted largely to works by Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov. When officers entered the room, Lyubimov was playing works by the Austrian composer Franz Schubert. He was permitted to finish and receive a standing ovation before the authorities shut down the event, claiming that they’d received a bomb threat. In early March, the same cultural center hosted a reading of “poems against war.”
Working for the mayor: The FSB in Kalmykia has charged a man who works for the mayor of Elista with using an office computer to post “offensive and false information about the military” on his personal Telegram channel — now a felony offense in Russia punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
A threat from Moscow: Russia’s Defense Ministry has threatened new military strikes at “Ukrainian decision-making centers,” claiming that Moscow has tracked “attempted sabotage and attacks by Ukrainian troops” against targets inside Russia. “If this continues, Russia’s Armed Forces will strike at decision-making centers, including in Kyiv, from which the Russian Army has thus far refrained,” the military’s spokesman said on Wednesday.
The kids are alright: In a speech to Russia’s Federation Council, Senator Lilia Gumerova complained that many Ukrainian children “from the liberated territories” don’t speak fluent Russian. She announced that the Russian authorities will organize summer language lessons and make them available to these children.
Funding priorities: The Moscow Times found that the Russian government has increased funding for state propaganda by 3.2 times, while funding for the army has risen only 11 percent, since the start of the February 24 invasion.

14 апреля 2022 г. 19:51:13

Update: On Thursday evening, the Russian Defense Ministry reported that due to damage to its haul, the Moskva sank while being towed to port in stormy weather.

14 апреля 2022 г. 23:13:25

Our recent reports on Russia and Ukraine

15 апреля 2022 г. 06:46:31

Major recent events in Russia and Ukraine

Border attacks: Local Russian officials claimed Ukrainian forces were responsible for two attacks on Russian territory along the Ukrainian border. The governor of Russia’s Belgorod region reported that Ukraine had conducted airstrikes on the village of Zhuravlevka, damaging residential buildings and community facilities, while officials in the Bryansk region said Ukrainian helicopters had conducted airstrikes on residential buildings in the village of Klimovo, injuring at least seven people. Ukrainian authorities denied the claims: “The Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation has already warned of the enemy’s intentions to commit a series of terrorist acts on Russian border territory to consolidate the Russian population against Ukrainians.”
The war’s repercussions: The war in Ukraine could lead to “poverty, destitution, and hunger” for more than 1.7 billion people, or over a fifth of the world’s population, according to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres. He called for member nations to take the measures necessary to ensure “a steady flow of food and energy through open markets,” including lifting export restrictions and putting a cap on food prices.
Disarming the populace: Signs calling for people to give up their firearms by Monday, April 18, have started appearing in Mariupol. According to the announcements, which are signed simply “administration,” citizens who keep their arms will be held criminally responsible, and searches for unsurrendered weapons will begin on Tuesday.
No to Russian oil: The EU is reportedly planning to institute a ban on Russian natural gas over the course of multiple phases in order to give Germany and other countries time to find alternative suppliers, according to The New York Times. According to the Times’ sources, EU member countries won’t begin debating the embargo until after the French presidential election on April 24.
Another Tochka-U missile: Ukrainian forces reported that the Russian military hit a residential building in the city of Gorodnya with a Tochka-U missile — the same kind that was used to shell a train station in Kramatorsk late last week. In 2017, the Russian Defense Ministry announced it would retire the Tochka-U, a Soviet tactical missile system, from its arsenal and replace it with the Iskander missile system; the Tochka-U missiles would be put in storage. Ukrainian authorities have suggested Russian forces may have a shortage of Iskander missiles and are therefore supplementing them with Toshka-U missiles.
Turning up the patriotism: Students in Russia’s Voronezh region will soon start their days with the raising of the Russian flag, according to Regional Governor Aleksandr Gusev. “It’s very important right now that we instill in our children the correct ideas about the Motherland and foster respect for their country’s values in them. Authorities in the Kaluga region recently announced a similar initiative; every Monday, the Russian national anthem will be played in Kaluga schools as the flag is raised.
Navalny’s new strategy: In a Twitter post, Alexey Navalny called on foreign leaders to take new actions to combat the “Kremlin war criminal’s” information war. In a long Twitter thread, Navalny called for an ad campaign consisting of “stories, posts, and pre-roll ads” about topics like the “army’s monstrous losses,” the “yachts and palaces of the people sending the soldiers into battle,” and the “massacre of civilians.” According to Navalny, this kind of campaign should make 200 million impressions a day, reaching “every Russian Internet user twice” daily.
Scientists leave Russia out: Russian Academy of Sciences President Alexander Sergeev spoke out about the international science community’s unwillingness to cooperate with Russian scientists, naming German scientists, French scientists, American scientists, and Chinese scientists: “Unfortunately, I can say directly that our Chinese academic colleagues have also pressed pause, and over the last month, we have been unable to enter into serious discussions, despite the fact that we previously had an excellent partnership with regular communication."

19 апреля 2022 г. 08:30:20

Major recent events in Russia and Ukraine

The battle for the Donbas: Ukrainian state officials say the Russian military has launched a major offensive along the entire frontline in the Donetsk, Luhansk, and Kharkiv regions, pounding the region with airstrikes and heavy artillery.
Another mother-in-law joke: The pro-Kremlin TV network Tsargrad released an “investigation” claiming that Volodymyr Zelensky’s mother-in-law lives in a luxury Moscow apartment. The reporters ignored the fact, however, that the woman in their story is 12 years younger than Zelensky’s actual mother-in-law. (The woman at the center of Tsargrad’s bogus report merely shares the same name as Zelensky’s mother-in-law, Olha Kyiashko.) After being mistaken for the Ukrainian president’s mother-in-law, Kyiashko said she now fears for her safety in Moscow.
Thought police: Russian police have now opened nearly a 1,000 “discrediting the armed forces” cases against peace activists, bloggers, and ordinary people. Repeat offenses can be prosecuted as hate crimes, punishable by up to three years in prison.
Bucha’s murdered Navalny: When they occupied the town of Bucha, outside Kyiv, Russian soldiers reportedly killed a man who is apparently a distant relative of the imprisoned opposition leader Alexey Navalny. Executed on March 12, possibly because of his surname, Illia Navalny shared a great grandfather with Alexey Navalny.
Guerilla journalism: The independent news outlet Mediazona has ceased all compliance with Russia’s required “foreign agent” warnings, replacing its notice to readers with a plea for crowdfunding.
Internet cleansing: Citing Russian media regulations, the Internet search giant Yandex has removed hyperlinks to Meduza, Instagram, Facebook, and other banned resources, purging the search results it shows to users in Russia. Vkontakte has also modified its search results to comply with Russian censorship.

20 апреля 2022 г. 06:44:35

Major recent events in Russia and Ukraine

Holding out in Mariupol: Russia-backed troops from the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic have begun an operation to storm the Azovstal steel plant, which members of the far-right Azov Battalion are using as a fortress. According to Ukrainian authorities, there are also women and children hiding in the plant; much of the rest of the city has been destroyed by Russian shelling. The Russian Defense Ministry has called for Ukrainian fighters in the plant to lay down their arms multiple times in recent days, but not a single person has surrendered. The most recent ultimatum from Russia will expire at 2:00 p.m. Moscow time on April 20.
Massacre in Kyiv: At least one thousand civilians were killed in the areas of the Kyiv region that were occupied by Russian troops, according to Kyiv Police Chief Andriy Nebytov. The majority of them were shot. Bodies are still being found.
The secret dead: Russia’s Defense Ministry will begin further limiting access to information about soldiers killed in Ukraine. While data on military servicemen killed in “special military operations” has been officially classified since 2015, the benefits the soldiers’ family members received used to be issued by local civilian government officials; the Defense Ministry is now requesting that role be given to military enlistment offices instead.
A familiar playbook: The Ukrainian Defense Ministry's Main Intelligence Directorate announced that Russian troops have been distributing paper material about an upcoming referendum on establishing a Kherson People’s Republic, according to Hromadske. Ukrainian officials believe that in lieu of an actual election, the results of the “referendum” will be falsified using passport data that Kherson residents provided in order to receive humanitarian aid.
Czech on your friends: The Czech Defense Ministry announced that Czech defense companies will repair Ukrainian military equipment that has been damaged or needs to be serviced. According to a statement from the ministry, Ukraine will continue to focus on small repairs while Czech firms will take over “more extensive works, including overhauls and bringing equipment in long-term storage to service.” The Czech Republic has been providing large amounts of weapons and support to Ukraine since the early days of the war.
Meta tries to get unblocked: Meta has filed an appeal against a Russian court’s decision to ban its apps on Russian territory. The apps were banned for “extremist activities” after the company temporarily altered its content moderation to allow some posts calling for violence against “Russian invaders.” The appeal was filed with Moscow’s Tverskoy Court on April 12, though a review date has not yet been set.
TikToodleloo: TikTok has disappeared from the AppStore in Russia.
Censorship branching out: A court in Moscow placed a Colombian national in remand prison, following felony charges that he spread “fake information about the Russian Army” in a Facebook post. The text was in Spanish, making the case unusual, but Facebook’s automatic translation feature apparently brought it to the attention of Russian law enforcement. Facebook and Instagram are both blocked and outlawed in Russia.
Duck and cover: Someone hacked the press service for Russia’s Emergencies and Disaster Relief Ministry, publishing “recommendations in case of a retaliatory nuclear strike by NATO countries.” The text warned the public that the West might (counter)attack on Orthodox Easter. In addition to detailed iodine-dose guidelines broken down for children, the article also featured an infographic depicting the dangers of a nuclear blast radius.
No lesbian nuns on the silver screen: Russia’s Culture Ministry revoked a distribution license issued to Paul Verhoeven’s 2021 drama “Benedetta,” a film about a nun in the 17th century who joins an Italian convent and has a lesbian love affair with another nun. The ministry also fired the employee responsible for issuing the original permit.
No twerking at the eternal flame: Russian officials in Khanty-Mansiysk charged a 21-year-old student from Zambia with “rehabilitating Nazism” because she filmed herself twerking in front of the city’s Great Patriotic War eternal flame. If convicted, she faces 5 years in prison. Local law enforcement also published a video showing her apologizing for the stunt.
Classroom innovations: Russia’s Education Ministry announced plans to introduce “historical factual awareness” (not to be confused with “history lessons”) in the first grade. The traditional study of history won’t begin until the fifth grade, which is how Russian curriculum is currently structured.

20 апреля 2022 г. 15:25:50

20 апреля 2022 г. 18:38:10

21 апреля 2022 г. 07:50:51

Major recent events in Russia and Ukraine

🪖 Deadlock in Mariupol: Humanitarian corridors at the Azovstal iron and steel works in Mariupol failed again on Wednesday. No one managed to escape the factory. Both sides accused each other of violating an agreement to open safe exit passages for civilians.
🧑‍🏫 A glance at Mariupol’s future: Together with Denis Pushilin, the head of the self-declared DNR, United Russia General Council Secretary Andrey Turchak visited the first school in Mariupol to resume classes since Russia occupied the city. “Victory will be ours, the enemy will be defeated, and peace will return to this land,” Turchak told a room of children. Separately, Mariupol’s DNR-appointed “deputy mayor,” Victoria Kalachiova, told the Russian state media that the city is excitedly preparing to celebrate the “Immortal Regiment” — a Victory Day event now co-opted by the Kremlin as a display of Russian patriotism.
🛢️ Germany’s pledge: Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock vowed to end German imports of Russian oil by the year’s end. “We will halve oil by the summer and will be at zero by the end of the year, and then gas will follow,” she told her Baltic counterparts.
🎾 No more scribblings for Andrey Rublev: Tennis players from Russia and Belarus will not be allowed to compete at Wimbledon this year due the invasion of Ukraine. “It would be unacceptable for the Russian regime to derive any benefits from the involvement of Russian or Belarusian players with The Championships,” the All England Club said in a statement.
📠 Help wanted: Studying archives at the Wayback Machine, researchers at the revived publication Proekt determined that there are more job vacancies posted now at Russian state media outlets than at any time in recent years. Journalists also spoke to people who have quit their jobs at these outlets who say others hope to leave, as well, but don’t know where else they can find work.
🛂 Rolling back the welcome mat: As an asymmetric response to Western travel restrictions imposed on Russian businesspeople, Moscow says it will introduce new restrictions on visas issued to journalists from “unfriendly countries,” limiting their visas to single-entry, and raising processing fees.
💳 Friends don’t let friends get secondary-sanctioned: Sanctioned Russian banks, including Russia’s biggest lender Sberbank, won’t be able to issue cards using China UnionPay, sources told the news website RBC. The Chinese financial services corporation is reportedly afraid of being hit with secondary sanctions if it does business with the Russian entities. Alfa-Bank, Otkritie, and VTB were also exploring the use of UnionPay for new bank cards. The international payment systems Visa and MasterCard withdrew from Russia on March 10.

22 апреля 2022 г. 08:51:35

Major recent events in Russia and Ukraine

🛂 Moscow’s Russophobe ‘stop list’: Russia’s Foreign Ministry imposed personal sanctions against 61 Canadians (including Cameron Ahmad, director of communications to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and Canadian Special Operations Forces Commander Steve Boivin) and 29 Americans (including Vice President Kamala Harris, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and Meduza’s own English-language managing editor) in retaliation for their governments’ sanctions against Russian state officials and various individuals connected to the Kremlin. Moscow says the people named in its announcements are “directly involved in the development, justification, and implementation” of the “Russophobic” state policies. All 90 people are banned indefinitely from entering the Russian Federation.
⛔ Not loyal enough: Russia’s federal censor is now blocking Russkaya Planeta entirely, after blacklisting a specific story published by the website on March 2 about Russian soldiers captured in Ukraine. The outlet was created in 2013 to cover politics and social issues, but a conflict between investors and the newsroom in the aftermath of Russia’s annexation of Crimea resulted in a largely pro-regime editorial policy.
🔮 No predicting this: The Russian Internet giant Yandex says it is suspending an unspecified number of its investments in Russia and abroad amid economic uncertainty caused by international sanctions against Russia. The company also withdrew its financial guidance for 2022, which predicted upwards of $6.2 billion in consolidated revenue for the year. “In the current circumstances, our visibility over the […] medium-term is extremely limited,” the company said.
🔱 No man left behind: Dmitry Shkrebets, whose draftee son is one of the sailors aboard the Moskva warship that went missing after it sank in the Black Sea last week, says Russia Today editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan blocked him on Telegram after he criticized her coverage of events inside Russia. “Take a look at the many-sided truth found among our truth-bearers,” Shkrebets wrote online afterward.
🔎 Teaming up to investigate Russia’s atrocities: U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland confirmed on Thursday that the United States is working with Ukraine on collecting evidence regarding possible war crimes committed by Russian occupying forces. Ukraine’s prosecutor general, Iryna Venediktova, previously said her office is investigating more than 5,800 cases of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Additionally, new satellite images show a mass grave in a Russian-occupied village located about 12 miles west of Mariupol — a discovery that Ukrainian officials say is evidence of war crimes against civilians, reports The Washington Post.
🪖 The tank imbalance: Ukrainian forces currently have more tanks on the ground than their Russian counterparts, a senior U.S. defense official told The Washington Post. “Right now, the Ukrainians have more tanks in Ukraine than the Russians do,” the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity under terms set by the Pentagon. The official also noted that about two dozen Russian battalion tactical groups are being refitted and resupplied.
💱 Fortune doesn’t favor everyone: Citing EU sanctions, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world, Binance, announced that it is required to limit services for “Russian nationals or natural persons residing in Russia, or legal entities established in Russia, that have crypto assets exceeding the value of 10,000 euros.” These account holders now have 90 days to close out their positions.
🕵️ Hello, neighbor: The St. Petersburg branch of Russia’s ruling political party has launched a bot on Telegram that allows people to file complaints against individuals for spreading supposed “false information,” including information about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The bot doesn’t work anonymously: users must share their own full names and email addresses. Following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in late February 2022, Russian lawmakers adopted legislation that criminalizes the dissemination of such “false information” (defined as anything that contradicts official government claims). Violations are punishable by up to 15 years in prison. Human rights lawyer Pavel Chikov says officials have opened at least 32 felony cases based on this new statute, as well as dozens more cases against peace activists alleging other criminal acts, such as vandalism, “justifying terrorism,” and so on.
🕊️ Tokyo reassesses the Kurils: For the first time since 2003, Japan’s Foreign Ministry has identified the four southernmost Kuril Islands as “illegally occupied.” The wording used as recently as last year was that these territories “are subject to the sovereignty of Japan,” but there was no explicit denunciation of Russia’s claim to the islands. Japanese diplomats now say that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine undermines “the foundations of the international order” and the prospect of a resolution on the Kuril Islands.

22 апреля 2022 г. 18:22:36

25 апреля 2022 г. 05:54:09

Major recent events in Russia and Ukraine

Putin’s new goal: Vladimir Putin has lost interest in reaching a diplomatic agreement with Ukraine and instead wants to seize as much Ukrainian territory as possible, according to the Financial Times, who spoke to three anonymous sources familiar with the president’s plans. Putin reportedly considered ending the war by diplomatic means after the Russia army’s initial failures, but no longer sees diplomacy as a viable solution. One major influence on his thinking has been the sinking of the Russian missile cruiser Moskva, which was “humiliating” for Putin, according to one source.
An American in Kyiv: U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv on Sunday, becoming the first high-ranking officials to visit Ukraine since the war began in late February. Weapons will be at the top of the agenda; Zelensky warned the American officials not to come “empty-handed,” as Ukraine’s armed forces need more weapons in order to retake territories currently occupied by Russian forces.
The damage that will outlast the war: The environmental consequences of the war in Ukraine will be felt for decades, according to the Wall Street Journal. The effects may include poisoned water sources due to strikes on mines and industrial facilities; the release of heavy metals associated with developmental delays in children into the environment; air pollution from heavy military equipment; and the spread of asbestos from shelled buildings.
Speaking up in Russia: At least 21 arrests were made against anti-war protesters in Russia this weekend, according to OVD-Info.
Dubious charges: The Russian Investigative Committee has opened a criminal case against the Ukrainian armed forces for allegedly firing on civilians in Mariupol. “Thanks to the professionalism and coordinated actions of the Russian military, none of the civilians were injured,” the agency said in a Telegram post.
A cruel weapon from last century: According to an investigation by the Guardian, “dozens of civilians” whose bodies were found in Bucha after Russian forces fled the town were killed by fléchettes, or “tiny metal arrows,” which were used widely during World War I. Fléchettes are “rarely used in modern warfare.”
OSCE staff captured: Several Ukrainian members of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) have been detained in Russian-occupied Donetsk and Luhansk, according to an OSCE statement. The organization is reportedly “using all available channels to facilitate the release of its staff.”
Eyes on Kirill: Lithuania has called for the EU to impose sanctions against Russian Orthodox Church head Patriarch Kirill, according to the country’s foreign affairs minister. Patriarch Kirill has been an ardent supporter of the war against Ukraine.
False flags: The Russian military marked its tanks with Ukrainian flags before firing on Ukrainian villages in the Kherson region, according to the Operational Command South of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. The goal of the operation was to give local residents the “fake impression of an attack by the Ukrainian military on civilians.”
Another day with no escape: Attempts to open a humanitarian corridor out of Mariupol on Sunday were once again unsuccessful because Russia would not commit to a ceasefire, according to Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk. Negotiations will resume on Monday.

25 апреля 2022 г. 18:23:09

26 апреля 2022 г. 15:29:27

Major recent events in Russia and Ukraine (and Moldova)

Blasts in Transnistria: Moldova’s breakaway region of Transnistria declared a “red” level terrorist threat on Tuesday, April 26. This came after a series of explosions damaged the state security ministry building in Tiraspol on Monday, and two more explosions took out two radio towers near the village of Maiac on Tuesday (both of the towers were broadcasting Russian radio stations). The authorities of the unrecognized republic also said there was a third attack on a military unit near the village of Pacani. No casualties have been reported from the incidents. However, Transnistria has canceled its traditional May 9 Victory Day parade for security reasons.
Shelling across the border: Authorities in Russia’s Belgorod region report that three border villages have been shelled in the last 24 hours. According to Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov, who attributed the shelling to the Ukrainian side, at least two people were injured in the village of Zhuravlevka, and in the village of Golovchino several non-residential buildings were damaged, as well as four homes.
Another mass grave: Satellite imagery has revealed a third mass grave site near Mariupol, reports RFE/RL’s Ukrainian service. These trenches, dug on the grounds of a cemetery in the nearby village of Staryi Krym, were first spotted in satellite images on March 24 — fourteen days after Russian forces took control of the village. At the time, the trenches were 60–70 meters long (65–77 yards). Images taken a month later, on April 24, show that the trenches had stretched to more than 200 meters in length (roughly 220 yards).
Tallying civilian casualties: The United Nations has recorded 5,718 civilian casualties since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, including 2,665 civilians killed (among them 195 children) and 3,050 injured (including 296 children). The actual toll is much higher.
A wanted woman: The Russian Interior Ministry has placed Pussy Riot activist Maria Alyokhina on a wanted list. This comes after a Moscow court ruled that she should serve the remainder of her “Sanitary Case” sentence — 21 days — in a prison facility (Alyokhina was previously given a parole-like sentence). Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service appealed to the court to change Alyokhina’s sentence after she cut off her ankle monitor in late March.

26 апреля 2022 г. 22:33:17

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres meets with Putin in Moscow

Vladimir Astapkovich / TASS / Scanpix / LETA

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres met with President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin on Tuesday. According to the UN’s readout, Guterres and Putin discussed proposals for humanitarian aid and the evacuation of civilians from conflict zones in Ukraine, including besieged Mariupol. “[Putin] agreed, in principle, to the involvement of the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross in the evacuation of civilians from the Azovstal plant in Mariupol,” the statement says.

27 апреля 2022 г. 13:11:24

Major recent events in Russia and Ukraine

Ukrainian drones in Russia: Russian air defense systems shot down Ukrainian reconnaissance drones in Russia's Kursk and Voronezh regions early Wednesday morning, according to the regions' governors. There were reportedly no injuries or casualties.
Gazprom wasn’t bluffing: Gazprom announced it had stopped supplying gas to Poland and Bulgaria, prompting a spike in gas prices. The termination was done in retaliation for both countries’ refusal to pay for gas in rubles, a demand Russian President Vladimir Putin began making in March in response to sanctions. The EU has pointed to the fact that the original gas contracts European countries signed with Russia specified that payment was to be made in euros. “Gazprom's statement on the unilateral termination of gas supplies to consumers in Europe is another attempt by Russia to use gas as a means of blackmail,” said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
Drone makers against war: Chinese drone manufacturer DJI announced it is suspending operations in Russia and Ukraine, citing its opposition to the use of its drone in warfare. “DJI abhors any use of our drones to cause harm, and we are temporarily suspending sales in these countries in order to help ensure no one uses our drones in combat,” a company spokesperson told Al Jazeera.
Visa payment: Visa estimated the losses it’s incurred as a result of leaving the Russian market at $60 million.
More border town trouble: A fire broke out at an ammunition depot in Russia’s Belgorod region early Wednesday morning, but was extinguished without causing any injuries or deaths. It's unclear what started the blaze.
Sympathizers in Belgorod: The FSB reported that two “infiltrators” were detained in Belgorod for allegedly planning an attack on an unspecified public transport facility. The suspects are Russian citizens and, according to the FSB, “proponents of Ukrainian Nazism.” The FSB also claimed that the detainees “sent information about Russian military servicemen who took part in the ‘special military operation’ to the Ukrainian website Mirotvorets.”
Austria sticks to euros: Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer denied reports that the country had agreed to pay for Russian gas in rubles. The only country to accept Russia’s currency demand so far is Hungary, which is more reliant on Russian natural gas than any other European country.

27 апреля 2022 г. 14:02:06

Ukrainian Presidential Advisor Mykhailo Podolyak left little doubt about who's behind recent attacks on military infrastructure in Russia’s border regions.

“The Belgorod, Voronezh, and Kursk regions have now also begun to learn about the concept of ‘demilitarization.’ Disarmament. Periodically, in these Russian regions, large fuel bases that provide fuel for the Russian military’s armored vehicles catch on fire, and ammunition depots explode. For various reasons. And this is being done more and more actively and with increasing confidence.

How is this possible? It’s simple. If you (Russians) decide to launch a wide-scale attack on another country, kill everyone there, crush large numbers of civilians with tanks, and use warehouses in your own country to facilitate the murders, then sooner or later it’s going to come time to repay the debt. Given the intensity and the extent of the Russian armed invasion of Ukraine, we’re not going to be able to sit and do nothing. The disarmament of the Belgorod-Voronezh murderers’ warehouses is therefore an absolutely natural, predictable process. Karma is a cruel thing.

Again, I repeat: the reasons for the destruction of military infrastructure in the border regions may vary widely. They might even include divine intervention in the affairs of sinners who slaughtered people in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol during Holy Week.”

27 апреля 2022 г. 15:15:30

28 апреля 2022 г. 03:20:47

Major recent events in Russia and Ukraine

Putin bares his teeth (again): In a speech to Russia’s Legislative Council on Wednesday, Vladimir Putin promised that any “attempts to interfere from the outside in the events in Ukraine” or “threats of a strategic nature” against Russia would be met with a “lightning-fast” response. Russia, he said, has “all of the tools necessary for this — the kinds of tools nobody else can boast of.”
Puppet leaders for Kherson: Russian forces have appointed puppet leaders for the occupied city of Kherson and the Kherson region. RIA Novosti reported Wednesday that city councilman Oleksander Kobets had been appointed “mayor” of Kherson and Volodymyr Saldo had been made “regional head.” (Ukrainian media reported these appointments on Tuesday.) Also on Wednesday, Russian forces violently dispersed an anti-occupation protest in Kherson, injuring at least four civilians.
Numbers that speak for themselves: Russia’s budget deficit will be at least 1.6 trillion rubles (currently worth about $21.6 billion) this year, according to Russian Finance Ministry head Anton Siluanov. Russian oil production may fall by up to 17 percent.
Russian cinemas go under: The Russian Movie Theater Owners’ Association predicts that half of all Russian movie theaters will close in the next two months, blaming, among other things, a “critical lack of content” to show. “The shutdown of theaters will automatically terminate the life of the entire film industry, as movie theaters ensure the creation of large-scale, high-quality, intellectual cinema. We must understand that the film industry today is 55,000 jobs.”
Cold water in Berlin: Berlin will keep its famous outdoor swimming pools two degrees (Celsius) cooler than usual this summer in order to help reduce Germany’s reliance on Russian gas. A spokesperson for Berliner Bäder-Betriebe, the company that operates the pools, acknowledged that the move is more of a “political statement” than a cost-cutting measure.
In hot water in Kazakhstan: Kazakhstan’s authorities vowed to ban Russian TV host Tigran Keosayan from entering the country in response to comments he made about the country. Keosayan, the husband of RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan, recently said that Kazakhstan might meet the same fate as Ukraine for failing to show more loyalty to Russia.
A new show of support: The EU is considering suspending tariffs on Ukrainian exports to help support the Ukrainian economy as it defends itself from Russia. The plan, proposed by the European Commission on Wednesday, will have to be approved by the European Parliament and European governments before it can come into effect.

29 апреля 2022 г. 06:06:36

Major recent events in Russia and Ukraine

Lend-lease 2.0: The U.S. Congress approved a bill that would allow the president to lend or lease weapons to Ukraine as its army defends the country from Russian invaders. The proposal, which will go into effect once signed by President Biden, would create the first “lend-lease” program since World War II, when the Lend-Lease Act of 1941 allowed President Franklin D. Roosevelt to quickly arm Great Britain as it fought Nazi Germany.
Volgograd’s preteen security threat: An 11-year-old in Russia’s Volgograd region has been put on a “preventative watch list” for “discrediting” the Russian army on social media. Local police made the decision after coming across posts made by the child during the course of a regional “operational and preventative” event called “Your Choice” that was held in Volgograd from April 14–22.
Meanwhile, in the tech world: Russian social media giant VKontakte has reached an agreement with Yandex to purchase its products Yandex Zen and Yandex News. Yandex experienced massive losses during the first quarter of 2022.
A possible evacuation from Mariupol: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine is prepared to negotiate with Russia on civilian evacuations from the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol. Around 1,000 civilians are currently hiding in the Azovstal facility as Russian troops continue to shell it; Azovstal is virtually the only place left in Mariupol under a semblance of Ukrainian control. Finding a way to evacuate the civilians there was one of the main topics Zelensky discussed with UN Secretary General António Guterres during his visit to Kyiv on Thursday. Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk announced on Thursday evening that preparations for the evacuation had begun.
Shelling in the capital: The Russian army launched two missiles at Kyiv on Thursday, hitting an apartment building in the city’s Shevchenkivsky district and starting a fire. At least 10 people were injured. Notably, the missile strikes took place during the UN Secretary General’s visit.
The show won’t go on: Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of Russia’s Belgorod region, announced that the annual May 9 “Immortal Regiment” parade will not be held in districts bordering Ukraine, but that officials may find another way to mark Victory Day. Local leaders recently raised Belgorod’s “terrorist threat” level to “yellow,” or medium.
Slow but not steady in the Donbas: Russia’s military is making “slow and uneven” progress in its fight to take complete control of southern Ukraine, though progress nonetheless, according to U.S. and NATO officials. One NATO representative expressed skepticism that Russia would manage to achieve its goals in the region after completely shifting priorities over the last few weeks, saying, “It's not a simple thing. You don't just move tanks and personnel and say, 'Now go back into the fight!’”
OSCE closing its Ukraine mission: The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe is closing its Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine. According to OSCE Chairman-in-Office and Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau, Russia obstructed the other member states’ efforts to reach a consensus on extending the mission’s mandate. “The crucial tasks the Mission has carried out, including facilitating localized ceasefires for the repair of critical infrastructure and being our eyes and ears on the ground cannot be overestimated,” said Chairman Rau.

29 апреля 2022 г. 17:06:12

30 апреля 2022 г. 04:02:44

Major recent events in Russia and Ukraine

Journalist killed in Kyiv: Ukrainian journalist and producer Vira Hyrych was killed by a Russian missile strike that hit an apartment block Kyiv on April 28, according to a statement from her employer, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL). Hyrych had been working for RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service since 2018. The organization’s editorial board said it would “remember her as a bright and kind person, a true professional.”
Ukraine fires across the border — again: Shelling was reported in Russia’s Kursk and Bryansk regions on the morning of April 29. According to Kursk Governor Roman Starovoit, a border crossing point in Krupets was hit by a mortar shell; in Bryansk, according to Governor Alexander Bogomaz, an FSB border control office in the village of Bila Berizka was hit, damaging water and electricity supply systems.
Dangerous literature: State Duma Culture Committee Chairman Yelena Yampolskaya made an online post criticizing bookstores that continue to sell works by authors who have spoken out against the war (such as Boris Akunin, Dmitry Bykov, Leonid Parfenov, and Dmitry Glukhovsky). The post was reprinted in the Russian parliament’s official newspaper and has sparked a conversation about the possibility of literary censorship in Russia.
Students are always listening: Another schoolteacher, this one in Krasnodar, was fired for criticizing the war in Ukraine after her students secretly recorded her words and their parents posted the recording on social media. “There’s a saying: ’To live is to serve the Motherland,’” said the teacher in the recording, “but what if the Motherland is wrong?”
A long layover in Kyrgyzstan: A Ural Airlines plane was detained in the Kyrgyz city of Osh after officials noticed it had two airworthiness certificates — one from Russia and one from Bermuda. After numerous Russian airliners were detained abroad because of EU sanctions, Russian authorities passed a law allowing Russian airlines to register the rights to foreign aircraft they had leased and receive domestic airworthiness certificates for them. After conducting an inspection, Kyrgyz officials reported that the plane would be allowed to return to Russia.
British volunteers kidnapped: Two British aid workers with the Presidium Network, a British NGO, have reportedly been captured in Ukraine by Russian troops and accused of spying. Dominik Byrne, one of the organization’s co-founders, said the organization lost touch with the volunteers on April 25, when they were preparing to help evacuate civilians from an area south of Zaporizhzhia.
EU preps Russian oil embargo: A phased embargo on Russian oil is expected to be approved by EU Ambassadors next week, reports The New York Times, citing EU officials and diplomats who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Another mass grave: In a comment to Ukrayinska Pravda, Zelensky’s spokesman Serhiy Nikiforov confirmed that another mass grave was discovered in the Kyiv region on April 29. Clarifying a comment Zelensky made in an interview earlier in the day, Nikiforov said that a total of 900 bodies had been found in the area around this particular mass grave.

2 мая 2022 г. 14:32:58

New podcast episode

2 мая 2022 г. 19:11:06

Russian troops reportedly using humanitarian aid trucks to remove civilian bodies from Mariupol

Petro Andryushchenko, an aide to the mayor of Mariupol, said that members of the Russian armed forces have been using the same trucks that bring humanitarian aid to the city to transport the bodies of dead civilians to mass grave sites.

In a Telegram post, Andryushchenko wrote that city officials first became suspicious after representatives of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic posted videos taken from a drone. A screenshot of the video posted by Andryushchenko shows several trucks parked next to the ruins of apartment buildings.

In order to find out what the trucks were being used for, Ukrainian officials reached out to their sources in Mariupol. “As of this morning, we can say with certainty that the occupiers have transported thousands of dead bodies out of Mariupol, however savage it may sound, in ‘humanitarian aid’ trucks,” said Andryushchenko.

3 мая 2022 г. 08:56:52

Major recent events in Russia and Ukraine

🚛 Undeclared cargo: An aide to the mayor of Mariupol says members of the Russian armed forces have been using the same trucks that bring humanitarian aid to the city to transport the bodies of dead civilians to mass grave sites.
🤰 Think of the children: Russia’s birth rate has fallen to its lowest point in 22 years, according to figures released by the Federal State Statistics Service, as reported by The Moscow Times. Russia’s natural population decline has also accelerated to 264,300 people per quarter of the year — faster than at any time throughout post-Soviet history. Falling real incomes appear to be discouraging mothers from having more than one child, reports the Times.
🔎 Identifying Bucha’s butchers: Investigative journalists at Agentstvo reviewed records from leaked databases and spoke to acquaintances of Sergey Kolotsei, the first man directly accused by Ukraine’s Attorney General of participating in the killings committed by the Russian military in Bucha. Officials in Kyiv say Kolotsei commands a Russian National Guard unit based in Ulyanovsk, though Agentstvo’s sources identify him as a resident of Mazyr in Belarus. Friends say he’s never served in the armed forces, and available records seem to corroborate that he’s never been a soldier. In an interview, Kolotsei also stated that he hasn’t left Belarus in more than two years. Ukrainian officials shared footage showing him at a courier service in Mazyr mailing a car-trunk lid to an address in Ulyanovsk (ostensibly sending home goods stolen while in Ukraine), but Kolotsei says he merely sold a part from his own car to someone in Russia.
🕹️ No politics on the minimap: During a DOTA 2 gaming competition over the weekend, Virtus.pro’s Ivan Moskalenko was caught drawing the “Z” symbol of support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine over the in-game minimap, leading the tournament’s organizers to disqualify Moskalenko’s entire team. Virtus.pro subsequently terminated its contract with the player “for his diminishing actions that led to disqualification from the tournament and caused a great deal of harm to our relationship with the worldwide esports society.”
🏖️ A patriot on holiday: A day after threatening on evening television to sink Great Britain with nuclear weapons, Russian state TV pundit Dmitry Kiselyov was spotted vacationing at a five-star beach resort in Dubai.
⚖️ Free to air in Latvia: A Latvian court overturned the state regulator’s decision to ban five Russian television networks. The agency says it will challenge the ruling, arguing that the Russian stations constitute a threat to Latvia’s “information space.”
☢️ Splitting from Rosatom: The Finnish energy company Fennovoima has terminated its contract with the Russian state firm Rosatom to build a nuclear power plant on Finland’s west coast, citing delays, Rosatom’s “inability to deliver the project,” and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
💸 Tinkov’s fire sale: After criticizing the war in Ukraine, billionaire Oleg Tinkov was pressured to sell his 35-percent stake in one of Russia’s biggest banks (which he founded) in what he describes as a “desperate sale, a fire sale,” he told The New York Times. He’s now hired bodyguards and moved to an undisclosed location, fearing for his life.
⚖️ Plans for POWs: Sources told the human rights project Gulagu.net that the Kremlin is allegedly considering adding 500 Ukrainian prisoners-of-war to Moscow’s Victory Day parade on May 9. The same source says the Putin administration is planning a grand war tribunal for prisoners captured in Ukraine, supposedly modeled on the Nuremberg Trials, in an attempt to stage a massive show trial designed to convince the Russian public that their military is fighting Nazis in Ukraine.
💸 Google’s deep pockets: Google’s lawyer said in Moscow court on Monday that the company has paid 9 billion rubles ($127.8 million) in legal penalties to the Russian state (just since December) for blocking the right-wing TV network Tsargrad on YouTube.
🚌 No solidarity on the bus: Last week, a bus driver in Ulan-Ud had a passenger arrested when she refused to exit the vehicle after calling his “Z” sign a “fascist” display. Retiree Natalia Filonova told Current Time that what shocked her most was how none of the other bus riders defended her.
🪖 A rumored war declaration: U.S. and European officials told journalists on Monday that they believe Vladimir Putin could formally declare war on Ukraine as soon as May 9, Victory Day, allowing Moscow to declare a full mobilization and draw on Russia’s reserve forces. U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price said on Monday that there is “good reason to believe that the Russians will do everything they can to use” May 9 for propaganda purposes.

3 мая 2022 г. 19:32:28

4 мая 2022 г. 07:41:38

Major recent events in Russia and Ukraine

🪖 An honest exchange in South Ossetia: Journalists at Mediazona obtained the audio recording of a recent meeting between a group of soldiers in the breakaway state of South Ossetia and President Anatoly Bibilov. In late March, roughly 300 soldiers from South Ossetia refused to fight in Ukraine and returned home, citing a critical lack of weapons, communications, and command. In the new exchange, Bibilov chastised the men for abandoning the fight and complaining about shortages, but the soldiers described scenes of chaos at the battlefront, such as incompetent officers being beaten by their own men, and artillery fire missing by several kilometers without commanders even caring.
🔎 Murderous factcheckers: A pro-Kremlin Russian think tank called the Social Research Expert Institute has released a report, titled “How They’re Killing the Free Press: Factcheckers as an Instrument of Western Counter-Propaganda and Censorship.” The authors describe U.S. Democrats as a “single party that’s merged with the state apparatus and secret police” and cite the 1998 film “Enemy of the State” (starring Will Smith and Gene Hackman) as evidence of U.S. government surveillance. The authors’ beef with factchecking is that they say it’s too selective: it’s a post-hoc, partisan effort to defend political attacks and deny information that undermines those attacks. Tellingly, the first example they cite is a supposedly unfair proof of Russian troops’ involvement in the Bucha massacre.
✝️ The Pope weighs in, sorta: Pope Francis told an Italian newspaper he has offered to visit Moscow to meet with Putin and suggested Russia’s invasion of Ukraine might have been provoked by NATO’s eastward expansion (“this barking of NATO at Russia’s door,” as he put it). The Catholic leader also criticized the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, after a 40-minute videoconference, saying Kirill “cannot turn into Putin’s altar boy.”
💥 More Russian missile strikes: The head of Ukrainian Railways says the Russian military bombed six train stations in central and western Ukraine on Tuesday. The full scale of the damage to the nation’s rail infrastructure is still unknown. Russian missiles also struck power plants in Lviv on Tuesday night, knocking out electricity in much of the western Ukrainian city.
🤐 So much for public oversight: The Russian government has drafted regulations that would allow any companies connected to sanctioned individuals or legal entities to conceal their information in Russia’s commercial registry. The new policy would seriously complicate oversight and third-party audits.
🪖 Calling all vets: Retired Russian soldiers between the ages of 40 and 60 have reportedly been summoned to draft boards and offered contract jobs to “administer” different areas of Ukraine now under Russian occupation. The new policy indicates the Russian military’s manpower shortages and plans to remain in Ukraine for years to come.
🤐 He identifies as a Russian Federation: Kremlin propagandist Vladimir Solovyov (who visited Mariupol on Tuesday) has hidden three of his Moscow luxury homes from public records, reregistering them as the property of “Russian Federation” (a notorious bookkeeping trick). He also has a cottage outside the capital that’s still listed under his own name.
💰 Live to default another day: Russia made overdue payments on two of its sovereign Eurobonds, apparently avoiding a debt default yet again by dipping into its scarce U.S. dollar reserves. But other payments are coming due soon, and U.S. permission for American bondholders to accept payment on Russian bonds is set to expire May 25, “so even if Russia tries to pay, investors would not legally be able to take the money,” explains The Associated Press.
💥 Last days in Mariupol: The Russian military resumed its strikes against the Azovstal iron and steel works in Mariupol, claiming that Ukrainian troops took up firing positions at the factory, supposedly exploiting the state of ceasefire. Meanwhile, 156 civilians escaped the factory and Russian capture, reaching the city of Zaporizhzhia (about 140 miles northwest of Mariupol), reported Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

5 мая 2022 г. 09:36:56

Major recent events in Russia and Ukraine

👁️ Uncle Sam’s helping eye: The United States has provided intelligence about Russian units that has allowed Ukrainians to target and kill roughly a dozen Russian generals, senior American officials told The New York Times. The targeting help is part of a classified effort by the Biden administration to provide real-time battlefield intelligence to Ukraine. According to National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson, however, the intelligence is not provided to the Ukrainians “with the intent to kill Russian generals.”
🕯️ Even deadlier than they said: A new investigation by The Associated Press found that the Russian bombing of the Donetsk Academic Regional Drama Theater in Mariupol on March 16 killed nearly 600 people inside and outside the building — almost double the official death toll. The AP recreated what happened inside the theater on that day from the accounts of 23 survivors, rescuers, and people familiar with the theater’s role as a bomb shelter.
👵 Saluting Ole Granny Anya: Putin’s domestic policy czar Sergey Kiriyenko joined United Russia General Council Secretary Andrey Turchak and “DNR” head Denis Pushilin at a ceremony in Mariupol on Wednesday to unveil a monument to “Granny Anya,” the elderly woman who greeted Ukrainian troops with a Soviet flag, mistaking the soldiers for Russians. (The woman, whose true identity remains unknown, has become a national icon in Russia, personifying how the Ukrainian people have supposedly welcomed “de-Nazification.”) In a brief speech, Kiriyenko described the woman as a “symbol of the Russian world” and “the right to speak Russian,” among other things.
🥔 Hot potato: After deals with BMW, Kia, and Hyundai collapsed due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Kaliningrad-based automobile manufacturer Avtotor announced a program to award 11,000-square-foot garden plots to factory workers. The company also says it’s arranged to sell “high-quality seed potatoes” to its workers “to ensure the future harvest.”
🧑‍⚕️ You’d have to be crazy to oppose this war: Police in Yekaterinburg reportedly plan to force activist Nadezhda Sayfutdinova into psychiatric care after she protested with a sign that read, “We can’t remain silent!” She also sewed her own mouth shut.
📺 The clumsy Kremlin: Investigative journalists at Proekt published a report about catastrophically under-equipped Russian soldiers in Ukraine, state propagandists’ scramble to sustain public support for the war, and the Kremlin’s own bumbling internally. For example, Vladimir Putin allegedly really didn’t realize or accept initially that conscripts were being sent into battle in Ukraine. (Proekt suggests that the military ultimately did manage to remove these men from combat, with the Navy achieving this last, hence the draftees among the sailors killed aboard the Moskva.) Additionally, the Russian president has demonstrated little commitment to the negotiations with Kyiv, often refusing for long stretches to speak directly to his chief negotiator, Vladimir Medinsky, who’s been left in the dark and dragged through the mud for saying what he’s told to say. The state media has apparently handled squabbling among senior state officials by delaying coverage until the Kremlin’s marching orders are clear. Supposedly, quoting outspoken Chechen ruler Ramzan Kadyrov now requires a formal okay from executives.

5 мая 2022 г. 18:23:21

6 мая 2022 г. 09:28:23

Major recent events in Russia and Ukraine

🛢️ Orbán says no ban: Hungary has accused Brussels of threatening EU unity with its plans to impose an embargo on Russian oil imports, reports The Financial Times. Hungary Prime Minister Viktor Orbán says Budapest will not support any proposals that would undermine the nation’s energy security. “If the commission insists on the adoption of its proposal, it will have to bear full responsibility for a historical failure in the course of European integration,” he warned.
⚓ Gone missing in nobody’s waters: Dmitry Shkrebets (whose son “went missing” aboard the Moskva guided missile cruiser when it sank on April 14, 2022) revealed on social media that Russian military prosecutors claimed in a letter that the warship never entered Ukraine’s territorial waters and wasn’t part of Russia’s “special operation.” His son is still unaccounted for. “What kind of scum do you have to be to send us something like this?” Shkrebets wrote on Vkontakte. Meanwhile, the Pentagon says it provided targeting assistance that helped Ukrainian forces locate and strike the Moskva. Two senior American officials told The New York Times that Ukraine already had obtained the Moskva’s targeting data on its own, and that Washington provided only confirmation.
✡️ Putin says sorry: During a phone conversation between Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on Thursday, the Russian president apologized for remarks made by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who recently dismissed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s Jewish heritage by claiming that “Hitler also had Jewish blood.”
👵 Granny Anya’s saga: Ukraine’s Center for Strategic Communications released footage on Thursday purportedly showing Anna Ivanova, the elderly woman who became a pro-invasion icon in Russia after she greeted a group of Ukrainian soldiers with a Soviet flag. According to the new video, Ivanova and her husband are now sheltering at a hospital in Kharkiv after Russian artillery strikes damaged their home. In heavily edited comments, she says she greeted the soldiers with a Soviet flag because she thought they were Russian, and she hoped to stop them from “trashing” her village. In the original video that made her famous in Russia, however, a visibly confused “Granny Anya” watches a Ukrainian soldier trample her Soviet flag before explaining that her parents died defending it.
👮 Investigating the factchecker: Just a few days after the Social Research Expert Institute (a pro-Kremlin think tank) released a report titled “How They’re Killing the Free Press: Factcheckers as an Instrument of Western Counterpropaganda and Censorship,” police opened an investigation into Ilya Ber, a fact-checker demonized in the report for his work debunking a Kremlin-media misreading of an article published in The Guardian about Russian troops killing civilians in Bucha.
🔎 Chechnya’s peculiar part in Ukraine: A new investigative report by iStories about Chechnya’s involvement in the Ukraine war argues that Ramzan Kadyrov has been reluctant to risk his men in combat but eager to claim credit for battlefield feats. Kadyrov is apparently relying on State Duma deputy Adam Delimkhanov to resolve rivalries and tensions among his top military commanders. The report by iStories also alleges simmering tensions between Chechen units in Ukraine and soldiers fielded by the Donbas separatists and main Russian military.
🔎 Bucha’s breadcrumbs: In a special report for Reuters, journalist Mari Saito pieces together eyewitness testimony, discarded documents, and social media posts to tie Russian soldiers and Moscow’s chain of command to the bloody occupation of Bucha. Saito and her colleagues spent three weeks in the Kyiv suburb interviewing more than 90 residents, reviewing photographic and video evidence these locals shared, and examining documents left behind by the Russian soldiers.

6 мая 2022 г. 21:02:59

7 мая 2022 г. 07:28:23

Major recent events in Russia and Ukraine

☦️ Holy bystanders: Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, declared on Friday that “the church can never take the side of any political force when a confrontation between them arises.” Referring to the church as “a peacekeeping force,” the Patriarch said clergy members should respectfully refuse to take orders from state authorities. Despite the ongoing invasion of Ukraine, Kirill recently claimed that Russia “has never attacked anyone.”
📡 Communication breakdown: The collaborationist government in the Kherson region says local telecommunications have been restored. Ukrainian officials, meanwhile, reported that the quality of communications available in Kherson has declined significantly as a result of damage to fiber-optic cables.
💸 Kadyrov’s disappearing rubles: In 2021, Chechen ruler Ramzan Kadyrov reported 14.3 times less income than a year earlier: 26.5 million rubles ($398,480) versus 381.2 million rubles ($5.7 million).
⛑️ Evacuations continue in Mariupol: Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk confirmed that another 50 people (“women, children, and the elderly”) successfully left the Azovstal iron and steel works in Mariupol, where the city’s last defenders and a group of civilians have been sheltering for weeks. Further evacuations are planned. Russian officials said the refugees were transferred to the custody of the UN and International Committee of the Red Cross “for delivery to selected places of temporary accommodation.”
🤫 Shhhhhhhh: “Chinese tech companies are quietly pulling back from doing business in Russia under pressure from U.S. sanctions and suppliers, despite calls by Beijing for companies to resist overseas coercion,” reports The Wall Street Journal. The businesses include PC giant Lenovo Group Ltd. and smartphone and gadget maker Xiaomi Corp., though these companies have refrained from making public statements about the war or their gradual withdrawal from Russia.
🪖 Very nearly beyond the pale: Former State Duma deputy and post-annexation Crimean Attorney General Natalia Poklonskaya (now an official at Rossotrudnichestvo, which works primarily with “compatriots living abroad”) met on Friday with the mothers of conscripts sent into battle in Ukraine contrary to orders by President Putin. Poklonskaya, who has come close to criticizing the invasion of Ukraine, said in a post on Telegram that many of the soldiers never returned from the frontlines. Those who did come back fear they could be redeployed to fight, several mothers told Poklonskaya.
🛫 A wartime exodus: More than 3.8 million Russians left the country in the first three months of 2022, according to data published this week by Russia’s Federal Security Service, as reported by The Moscow Times. It’s unclear how many of these people have since returned home, but these numbers are significantly higher than during the time period in 2021.

9 мая 2022 г. 10:08:26

Anti-war message appears in channel descriptions on Russian Smart TVs

Early in the morning on May 9, Russian Smart TV owners saw an anti-war message appear in the channel descriptions on their devices. Media celebrity and public figure Ksenia Sobchak called attention to the protest on her Telegram channel.

“The blood of thousands of Ukrainians and hundreds of their murdered children is on your hands. The TV and the authorities are lying. No to war,” read the message, which appeared in the descriptions of a number of different channels. Viewers reported seeing the message on a variety of digital and satellite-based TV services.

Viewers also saw the message in channel descriptions on Yandex.Teleprogramma, an online TV service. At the time of this report, the message was no longer being shown on the site.

Additionally, on the morning of May 9, hackers attacked the video service Rutube, causing the site to crash. At around 8:00 a.m., Rutube representatives of the service reported that they had “localized the incident,” but the site was still inaccessible.

9 мая 2022 г. 10:21:41

Airborne part of Victory Parade canceled

The airborne part of Monday’s Victory Parade in Moscow has been canceled due to adverse weather conditions, Russian Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov told RIA Novosti.

The parade, which marks the 77th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory in World War II, began at 10 a.m. on Moscow’s Red Square. Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to address the nation at the parade.

15 helicopters and 62 military planes, including the Ilyushin Il-80 “doomsday plane,” were slated to take part in the airborne part of the parade.

10 мая 2022 г. 09:31:21

Major recent events in Russia and Ukraine

🥸 Sabotage at Lenta.ru: On the morning of May 9, anti-war articles filled the homepage of the Russian pro-government outlet Lenta.ru. Egor Polyakov, head of the outlet’s Economy and Environment sections, confirmed to Meduza that he and fellow editor Alexandra Miroshnikova were responsible for replacing articles that had already been published on Lenta.ru with the anti-war materials. “We’re searching for work, lawyers, and, most likely, political asylum! Don’t be afraid! Don’t be silent! Fight back! You’re not alone — there are many of us! The future is ours! Fuck war. Peace to Ukraine!” the journalists wrote.
🕯️ A deadly school attack: The Luhansk regional authorities reported that about 60 people had likely been killed by an airstrike on a school in the village of Bilohorivka on May 7. According to Regional Governor Serhiy Haidai, of the 90 people hiding in the school, about 30 were saved from under the ruins, but “the remaining 60 people left under the rubble most likely died.”
📺 Too-smart-for-its-own-good TV: Early in the morning on May 9, Russian Smart TV owners saw an anti-war message appear in the channel descriptions on their devices. “The blood of thousands of Ukrainians and hundreds of their murdered children is on your hands. The TV and the authorities are lying. No to war,” read the message, which appeared in the descriptions of a number of different channels. Additionally, on the morning of May 9, hackers attacked the video service Rutube, causing the site to crash.
👋 Kherson the ghost town: According to Hennadiy Lahuta, Zelensky’s appointed governor of the Kherson region, nearly half the residents have fled the city since Russia’s occupation began. (He is one of them.)
👮 A busy day for the police: Across Russia on Victory Day, police arrested 82 antiwar demonstrators, plus another 43 individuals for past opposition activity and “for preventative purposes.”
🧙‍♂️ The shaman’s hangover treatment: Moscow police are investigating the sudden death of former Lukoil senior executive Alexander Subbotin, who apparently suffered a heart attack after agreeing to a shaman’s treatment that allegedly involved frog poison.
🪖 A secret mobilization? The wife of a Moscow subway worker claims that her husband and his colleagues were summoned to a staff meeting and told to undergo health exams for potential “volunteer” deployment to Ukraine. Managers allegedly threatened anyone who refused with termination or even prosecution for violating “the laws of war,” the man’s wife told Verstka.media.
🚨 An attack on Elena Osipova: Two young men attacked Elena Osipova on Monday, stole her antiwar banners, and ran off. The 76-year-old activist is a fixture of St. Petersburg’s antiwar movement. Meduza interviewed her in April 2022.
📉 The economic collapse is still coming: Russia is facing the deepest economic contraction in nearly three decades as pressure from sanctions imposed by the U.S. and its allies mounts, according to an internal forecast by the Finance Ministry, as reported by Bloomberg, whose sources say GDP is likely to shrink as much as 12 percent this year (deeper than the 8-percent decline expected by the Economic Ministry).

10 мая 2022 г. 18:31:29

10 мая 2022 г. 20:39:33

Ukraine’s Azov regiment shares photos of wounded soldiers in plea for evacuation from besieged Mariupol steel plant

On Tuesday, May 10, Ukraine’s Azov regiment published photos of their wounded soldiers and urged “the entire civilized world” to help with their evacuation. “The world should see the conditions in which the wounded, mutilated defenders of Mariupol are [living] and act,” the accompanying statement said. Meduza has republished these photos here.

11 мая 2022 г. 10:50:31

Major recent events in Russia and Ukraine

🟡 Borderland problems: Russia’s Kursk and Belgorod regions (bordering Ukraine) extended their “yellow terrorist threat” level until May 25.
💰 Uncle Sam empties his pockets: On Tuesday, the U.S. House approved nearly $40 billion in military, economic, and humanitarian support for Ukraine. (The package is $7 billion more than the $33 billion President Biden requested.)
🚨 The FSB claims another one: Federal Security Service officials in Kaliningrad say they’ve thwarted a terrorist attack allegedly planned by a supporter of the Ukrainian extremist group Right Sector.
🪖 Thirsty for another annexation: Georgiy Muradov, the deputy chairman of Crimea’s Council of Ministers, said on Wednesday, “I have no doubt that the liberated territories in the south of former Ukraine will become yet another region of Russia.” The region’s institutions are already merging with Russia’s, he added, celebrating the arrival of Russian television networks, Russian textbooks, and the Russian ruble in the newly occupied territories.
🕯️ The “sly fox” dies: Ukraine’s first president, Leonid Kravchuk, died at the age of eighty-eight on Tuesday after suffering from a “prolonged illness.”
⛽ Cutting off the gas: Ukraine announced on Tuesday that it is halting Russian gas shipments to Europe through the Luhansk region, beginning on Wednesday, citing the force majeure of Russian occupation. For now, there’s another supply that can be diverted temporarily “to fulfill transit obligations to European partners.”

12 мая 2022 г. 09:59:18

Major recent events in Russia and Ukraine

The Pentagon attempts some damage control: “U.S. officials have limited control on how their Ukrainian beneficiaries use the military equipment and intelligence,” The Washington Post reported on Wednesday, explaining that the Biden administration “has drawn up guidance around intelligence-sharing that is calibrated to avoid heightening tensions between Washington and Moscow.” Additionally, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin assured members of Congress at a budget hearing on Wednesday that the Pentagon is working closely with the Zelensky administration to ensure Kyiv’s “accountability” regarding American weaponry sent to Ukraine.
Further evidence of war crimes mounts: Reporting from Ukraine, Isabelle Khurshudyan describes the work of police investigators compiling evidence of potential war crimes committed by Russian soldiers against civilians. On May 11, CNN released footage from March showing Russian soldiers shooting two unarmed civilians in the back after an encounter in the outskirts of Kyiv. Also on Wednesday, Ukrainian officials announced the first prosecution for war crimes: a case against a 21-year-old Russian soldier who is in custody. The country’s attorney general says her office has opened more than 5,000 cases linked to war crimes and crimes of aggression since the invasion began.
A big fish is leaving Russia’s pond: Siemens (a German multinational conglomerate and the largest industrial manufacturing company in Europe) says it will exit the Russian market “as a result of the Ukraine war.” “The company has started proceedings to wind down its industrial operations and all industrial business activities,” Siemens said in a press release.
In Russia’s borderlands: The governor of Russia’s Belgorod region says artillery fire “from Ukraine” killed one resident and injured seven more.
Threats allegedly from Azov relatives against Zelensky’s adviser: Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to President Zelensky, says he, his wife, and their children have been targeted in death threats for two days straight from people claiming to be the wives and relatives of Azov Battalion combatants still trapped in Mariupol. Arestovych says the people conveying the threats accuse the Zelensky administration of abandoning their loved ones. In the same broadcast, Arestovych confirmed that Ukrainian troops have crossed the border into Russian territory in some places around Kharkiv. He said these movements have been for “symbolic, not military, significance.”
Rise of the ‘neofascists’: While explaining to a constituent why state officials denied a permit for a local concert, the governor of Russia’s Komi Republic said that the event’s organizers planned to incite anti-Putin slogans. Governor Vladimir Uyba also accused State Duma deputy Oleg Mikhailov (who was not involved in the concert planning) of being a “neofascist.” Uyba added that all the “neofascists” deserve a “wooden stake on their graves.”
A revealing court reading: The judge who rejected Holod Media editor-in-chief Taisia Bekbulatova’s lawsuit challenging her “foreign agent” status read aloud in court on Wednesday a document from Russia’s Federal Financial Monitoring Service that explained Bekbulatova’s designation as the state’s response to Holod Media’s work “to discredit Russia’s political system.” The document is noteworthy because Rosfinmonitoring doesn’t typically use such language and instead pretends that it’s focused solely on foreign financial flows. The woman presiding at Wednesday’s hearing wasn’t the court’s usual judge, raising the odds that this disclosure was an accident.

13 мая 2022 г. 10:50:49

Major recent events in Russia and Ukraine

Moscow refreshes its geopolitical messaging: Russia’s First Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN, Dmitry Polyanskiy, announced that Moscow now opposes Ukrainian membership in the European Union. Polyanskiy said the policy shift is a response to EU Foreign Policy chief Josep Borrell Fontelles declaring in early April that the war with Russia “will be won on the battlefield.” EU membership can no longer be part of a peace agreement with Ukraine, Polyanskiy said on Thursday. He also warned that Finland and Sweden would become “potential military targets for Russia” the moment that NATO subdivisions arrive in those nations.
Halt, in the name of the law: Russia’s Justice Ministry has proposed legislation that would disbar defense attorneys who are licensed to practice the law in “unfriendly” countries. The bill would also bar all lawyers from those countries from working in Russia. The government’s current list of “unfriendly” countries includes all EU members, the United States, Great Britain, Canada, South Korea, Japan, Ukraine, Taiwan, Norway, Australia, and several more nations.
Idle hands: AvtoVAZ, Russia's largest car manufacturer, will idle all operations for all of next week, due to a parts shortage.
Not the right time for TV awards: Russia’s equivalent of the Emmys (the TEFI) has been canceled for the third straight year. In 2020 and 2021, organizers cited the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. This year, the Kremlin’s culture adviser told journalists that it would be “inappropriate” to stage the ceremony during Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine.

16 мая 2022 г. 10:55:09

Major recent events in Russia and Ukraine

Finnish, Sweden NATO bids official: Both Finland and Sweden, prompted by Russia’s aggression in Ukraine, officially announced their intentions to join NATO after decades of neutrality. Turkey, which was initially expected to cause delays to the accession processes due to concerns that the countries are home to groups it considers “terrorist organizations,” laid out concrete demands on Sunday that NATO leaders expect can be met.
Border shelling in Russia continues: Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov claimed on Telegram that the village of Sereda was hit by shells launched from Ukrainian territory. One civilian was reportedly injured by shrapnel. Russian villages on the Ukrainian-Russian border have come under fire multiple times since the war began; Ukraine has never confirmed nor denied responsibility.
Possible chemical weapons attack in Mariupol: Mariupol mayoral advisor Petro Andryushchenko claimed that the Russian military used white phosphorus munitions in an attack against the fighters still in Mariupol’s Azovstal steel plant. According to a post on Andryushchenko’s Telegram channel, an unguided MZ-21 missile, designed to be launched from a BM-21 "Grad" rocket launcher, was used against Azovstal’s defender. The post included a video that appears to show white munitions raining down onto the plant. The Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office has begun a pre-trial investigation of the attack.
Return of the Moskvich: The Russian government has taken control of an auto manufacturing plant that previously belonged to the French company Renault and will use it to bring back the Moskvich, an iconic Soviet-era (and later Russian) car that was last produced in 2001. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin announced the nationalization on Monday.
Air travel in Russia may get worse: Russian air passengers may soon face massive lines as they go through security. That’s because the foreign technology used to inspect luggage will begin to expire, leaving officials with no choice but to conduct manual inspections, according to Kommersant. Because international sanctions will prevent the machines’ manufacturers from supplying Russian airports with replacements, Russia’s Airport Association has requested that the Transportation Ministry extend the current machines’ certification periods.
Child casualties continue to rise: 229 children have been killed and 421 have been injured in Ukraine since the war began, according to the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office.

17 мая 2022 г. 06:47:51

Major recent events in Russia and Ukraine

🪖 The battle ends in Mariupol: The General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces confirmed on Monday that a “rescue operation” was carried out at the Azovstal iron and steel works in Mariupol where Ukrainian soldiers finally surrendered to invading Russian and Russia-backed separatist troops. According to Kyiv, 53 wounded Ukrainian servicemen were hospitalized in Novoazovsk and the remaining 211 prisoners were moved to Olenivka (both these settlements are located in territory controlled by the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic). Ukrainian officials say there is an agreement in place to exchange these men for other prisoners and return them to Ukrainian-controlled soil. In a statement released beforehand, members of the Azov Regiment said Ukraine’s high military command ordered their surrender.
🍿 Russia’s Silver Screen: A movie theater in Vladivostok is demonstrating the virtues of Russia’s new approach to copyright law. The cinema obtained copies of “The Batman,” “Sonic 2,” and “Turning Red” but sold tickets to “The Bat,” “Blue Hedgehog 2,” and “Red Panda.” Distribution rights for these films were not sold to movie theaters in Russia due to studios’ boycott of Russia in response to the invasion of Ukraine. Meanwhile, Russia’s cinema industry got some rough news from the Finance Ministry on Monday: the government wants additional justifications for granting movie theaters a requested 6.5 billion rubles ($100.6 million) in federal bailouts. The ministry also rejected the idea of major tax breaks.
🛡️ With NATO friends like these: On Monday, Turkish President Recep Erdoğan repeated his objections to NATO membership for Sweden and Finland, simultaneously criticizing these nations for supposedly failing to take a clear stance against terrorist organizations (namely, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party and its Syrian wing, the People’s Defense Units). Turkey’s consent is necessary to expand NATO to the two Nordic states.
⚖️ Russian war crimes: Ukrainian Attorney General Iryna Venediktova announced on Monday that her office has identified 45 people from Russia suspected of war crimes on Ukrainian soil. She singled out two Russian soldiers now in custody who allegedly targeted civilian infrastructure in airstrikes in and around Kharkiv.
💸 So long, McDonald’s and Renault: After more than 30 years in the Russian market, the McDonald’s Corporation is calling it quits and looking for a local buyer. The Golden Arches and all the familiar branding will disappear, but the company says it hopes to keep its 62,000 Russian employees paid at least until it sells off its franchisees. In similar news, Renault sold its AvtoVaz stake to a Russian state-backed entity for a single ruble. The French company retains the right to buy back its assets, but the price of any buyback will consider investments made in AvtoVaz while it is under the stewardship of the Russian state-backed entity. AvtoVaz and Renault’s Moscow factory were valued at $2.29 billion in late 2021.
🔎 Please place all items inside a bin: Russia’s Airport Association, which represents dozens of the country’s biggest airports, has petitioned the Transport Ministry to allow airports to continue using screening equipment beyond its legal decommission date. The group warns that these deadlines are fast approaching with equipment at many airports across the country, but replacements are unavailable due to Western sanctions. Without permission to keep using the old machines, security personnel will need to switch to the time-consuming and less accurate practice of “manual and visual inspection.”
⚖️ Damn the ECHR: Russian lawmakers have submitted legislation that would void the government’s obligations to execute rulings issued by the European Court of Human Rights after March 16, 2022, when the Council of Europe expelled Russia. The bill’s explanatory note states that the Russian Attorney General’s Office could still pay monetary compensation through to January 1, 2023, that was awarded by the ECHR before March 16. The draft law would also remove language from existing statutes that recognizes ECHR rulings as a “basis” for reviewing court orders.
🛂 Yandex confusion: The Russian tech giant Yandex denies reports in the Israeli media that the company plans to relocate completely to Tel Aviv. The company blamed the confusion on a supposed mistranslation of a letter from CEO Arkady Volozh to the Israeli authorities inquiring about immigration for foreign-based staff.

17 мая 2022 г. 19:05:10

18 мая 2022 г. 08:13:03

Major recent events in Russia and Ukraine

🪖 The Azovstal POWs: Kira Rudik, a member of Ukraine’s Parliament who was involved in negotiations about the Azovstal steel plant, told The New York Times on Tuesday afternoon that no mechanism for a prisoner exchange had been hammered out yet. “It is not known how many Russian prisoners of war are currently in Ukrainian custody. Ms. Rudik said she was unsure if Ukraine had enough prisoners to exchange with Russia.” She added that Kyiv received guarantees from the Red Cross and the United Nations that Ukraine’s soldiers sent to Russian territory would be “all right.” Meanwhile, a witness told Reuters on Tuesday that “at least seven buses carrying surrendered Ukrainian fighters left the Azovstal steel works escorted by pro-Russian armed forces.”
🪖 Russia’s Azov POWs: As Ukraine wonders about the fate of its soldiers who surrendered in Mariupol, rhetoric from senior Russian lawmakers indicates that Moscow is unlikely to turn over any prisoners identified as Azov Battalion combatants. State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin and International Affairs Committee Chairman Leonid Slutsky dismissed the idea (Slutsky even advocated waiving Russia’s moratorium on capital punishment in the prosecution of Azov prisoners). A third deputy, Anatoly Wasserman, says any captured soldiers with “fascist tattoos” shouldn’t be returned to Kyiv in any prisoner exchange. Additionally, at the Justice Ministry’s request, Russia’s Supreme Court will consider designating (and banning) the Azov Battalion as a terrorist organization on May 26.
🗳️ One big family: During a visit to occupied Kherson, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin said the region has “great prospects” and “will take its rightful place in the Russian family.” (On March 16, Vladimir Putin assured the world that Russia had no intention of occupying Ukraine.)
🤝 What Turkey really wants: Three senior Turkish officials told Bloomberg that their government plans to block NATO membership for Sweden and Finland unless several conditions are met: recognition for concerns about Kurdish militias, an end to arms-export restrictions on Turkey, re-inclusion in the F-35 advanced aircraft program, and several broader concessions, through the officials also said that “Turkey isn’t looking to bargain over subjects beyond Finland and Sweden’s stances on the Kurdish conflict.”
⚖️ No to rubles: Finland’s state-owned energy provider Gasum said on Tuesday that it will take its dispute over ruble payments with Russia’s Gazprom Export to arbitration proceedings.
💱 Default doomsday: Washington will block Russia’s ability to pay U.S. bondholders by letting a temporary exemption lapse when it expires on May 25, narrowing Moscow’s capacity to avert default on its government debt, sources told Bloomberg. The Biden administration has reportedly decided against extending the waiver as a way “to maintain financial pressure on Moscow.”
☎️ They got Dubya: Russian pranksters “Vovan and Lexus” (Vladimir Kuznetsov and Alexey Stolyarov), known for their pro-Kremlin antics, released a trailer on social media revealing that their most recent victim is former U.S. President George W. Bush. The full video is due out on Thursday, May 19. The duo says it will present the recording at a multicity lecture series that features speeches by senior Kremlin officials.
⚖️ No mercy for the antiwar-sticker renegade: A judge in St. Petersburg rejected Sasha Skochilenko’s attempt to challenge her pretrial detention as she’s prosecuted for the felony offense of spreading “disinformation” about Russia’s military (by posting antiwar stickers over price tags at a grocery store). She will remain behind bars until at least May 31. Skochilenko faces 10 years in prison if convicted. A large crowd of people turned out at the courthouse to support her.
⚖️ Police corruption: A Russian court added 16 years to the prison sentence of former Police Colonel Dmitry Zakharchenko, who was already serving a 12.5-year sentence for bribery. (The new conviction is for bribery, too.) He’s been behind bars since September 2016.

19 мая 2022 г. 07:41:11

Major recent events in Russia and Ukraine

🍿 Russia’s Silver Screen: Struggling under the weight of Western sanctions, many Moscow movie theaters located inside shopping malls are now closing down, reports the newspaper Izvestia. The shutdowns could constitute lease violations and trigger litigation, but a more immediate concern is that the loss of cinemas could reduce consumer traffic to the shopping centers that host them, causing cascading economic damage.
🛫 Commercial absence: Google has moved the bulk of its employees out of Russia, people familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal, ending the company’s commercial presence in the country “for the near future.”
⚖️ The fate of Azovstal’s surrendered: Eighty-nine of the Ukrainian soldiers who surrendered at the Azovstal factory in Mariupol have reportedly been transferred to a Russian detainment facility in Taganrog where they will face extremism charges in military court for fighting in the Azov Regiment.
💉 RIP, CoviVac: Nanolek, which manufactures CoviVac (Russia’s COVID-19 vaccine that never proved its efficacy in a phase III clinical trial), says the Russian Health Ministry has not ordered additional supplies of the vaccine, leading the company to suspend production.
☢️ An arrest at Chernobyl: The Ukrainian authorities have arrested the deputy director of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant on suspicion of deserting his post and collaborating with Russian invaders to facilitate their (temporary) capture of the plant in late February.
👮 WikiCensorship: Russia’s federal censor has reportedly ordered Wikipedia’s English-language edition to revise or remove two articles (“2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine” and “Rashism”), arguing that they contain false information about Russian military losses in the conflict and Russian attacks against civilian targets.”
👮 Discrediting felony charges: For the first time ever, Russian police officers have charged an individual with the new felony offense of repeatedly “discrediting” the armed forces. If convicted, a man named Vladislav Nikitenko in the city of Blagoveshchensk could face up to three years in prison for posting antiwar content on social media.

19 мая 2022 г. 17:42:20

20 мая 2022 г. 09:11:03

Major recent events in Russia and Ukraine

⚖️ Prosecuting war criminals in Ukraine: The first court hearing in the trial against two Russian prisoners of war began on Thursday in Ukraine’s Poltava region. Soldiers Alexander Bobykin and Alexander Ivanov are accused of participating in Russian artillery strikes that destroyed residential buildings and a veterinary school in the Kharkiv region. Both men have confessed to the charges, though they say they did not know where they were aiming at the time. The trial (Ukraine’s second war-crimes prosecution against Russian soldiers) resumes on May 26.
💰 Washington opens the floodgates: The U.S. Senate approved a $40-billion package of military, economic, and food aid for Ukraine and U.S. allies on Thursday, “putting a bipartisan stamp on America’s biggest commitment yet to turning Russia’s invasion into a painful quagmire for Moscow,” reports The Associated Press. Additionally, three U.S. officials and two congressional sources told Reuters that Washington is considering sending Ukraine directly or through “a European ally” two types of powerful anti-ship missiles: the Harpoon made by Boeing and the Naval Strike Missile made by Kongsberg and Raytheon Technologies.
🎬 Sticking up for Abramovich: At a Cannes press conference, Russian theater director Kirill Serebrennikov urged Western governments to drop sanctions against the billionaire Roman Abramovich, whose film fund Kinoprime finances Russian art house films, including Serebrennikov’s own Cannes Film Festival entry, “Tchaikovsky’s Wife.” “These are not propaganda films, quite the contrary,” said Serebrennikov. In April, he criticized calls to boycott all Russian films, arguing, “Boycotting Russian culture strike me as unbearable because Russian culture has always prompted human values.”
⛑️ Footage smuggled from Mariupol: Before being captured by Russian soldiers, a Ukrainian medic named Yuliia Paievska recorded her time in Mariupol on a data card that journalists with The Associated Press later smuggled out of occupied territory by hiding it inside a tampon. The Ukrainian government says it’s lobbied to add Paievska’s name to a prisoner-exchange deal, but Moscow denies holding her (despite her appearance on Russian TV, handcuffed and bruised). The video footage she recorded captures the devastation of Russia’s seizure of Mariupol, particularly the death and injuries inflicted on civilians.
👨‍🎤 Still breakin’ the law: Police in Ufa charged Yuri Shevchuk, the leader of the rock band DDT, with the misdemeanor offense of “discrediting” the Russian military for telling a crowd during a concert on May 18, “Friends, the homeland isn’t the president’s ass that you have to slobber over and kiss all the time. The homeland is the old lady begging at the train station and selling potatoes. That’s what the homeland is.”
🧑‍🏫 Patriotic trivia games: History teachers at schools in multiple regions across Russia have reportedly received instructions to stage trivia games designed to cultivate “the patriotic education of the younger generation and the preservation of Russian history.” A teacher in the Arkhangelsk region shared some of these internal documents with journalists at Agentstvo, showing that students are being quizzed on information about past military triumphs and “foreign threats” like “the aggressive NATO alliance.” The initiative, named “Those Who Come at Us with the Sword… [Shall Die by the Sword],” apparently originated with a project managed by State Duma deputy Alexander Khinshtein.
🙏 Do not discriminate against persons with this badge: The organizers of Friday’s Russian Antiwar Conference in Vilnius are reportedly drafting a declaration that will provide signatories with “Good Russian” certificates, marking them as opponents of the invasion of Ukraine, in the hopes of helping these people gain access to banking and other services suspended for Russian nationals after the start of the February invasion.
🍔 So long, Ronald: McDonald’s will sell its Russian businesses to Alexander Govor, who already manages 25 franchises across the country. The deal requires him to keep employing staff for at least another two years at restaurants that have remained open. The chain will get a new name, as McDonald’s retains its branding copyrights. Regulators are expected to approve the sale.
🏭 Meet the new boss: Kamaz will reportedly use the Moscow factory it recently “acquired” from Renault to manufacture cars called “Moskviches” that are, in fact, Chinese vehicles designed by JAC Motors.
🛂 Yearning to breathe free: A Communist Party city councilman from Vladivostok was reportedly arrested at the U.S.-Mexican border while trying to enter the United States illegally. Viktor Kamenshchikov stopped coming to work in late February, after announcing his opposition to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

23 мая 2022 г. 07:04:31

Major recent events in Russia and Ukraine

Gearing up for the summer: The Verkhovna Rada approved Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s request to extend Ukraine’s martial law and mobilization until at least August 23.
A brave 11th grader in Dagestan: A high-schooler in Dagestan shouted an anti-war message at her school’s traditional end-of-year ceremony. A video that circulated on Russian social media shows the girl saying, “No to war! Freedom to Ukraine! Putin is a devil!” The school filed offense reports against the girl’s mother for “failing to fulfill her parental duties while raising a minor” and against the student herself for “discrediting” the Russian army. A video showing the girl and her mother apologizing for the incident later appeared on Telegram.
A targeted attack in occupied Ukraine: An explosion in Enerhodar, Ukraine, on Sunday left Russian-appointed town mayor Andrey Shevchuk and his bodyguards injured, reported Dmytro Orlov, the town’s duly-elected mayor. The explosion happened in the entrance to the apartment building where Shevchuk is living; according to Orlov, none of the building’s other residents were injured, suggesting that the incident was targeted.
Censoring people like it’s going out of style: Since the start of March, Russian courts have reviewed 2,029 cases of people “discrediting” the Russian army, 352 of which took place in Moscow, according to Pavel Chikov, head of the human rights group Agora. “The new article [in the Russian Criminal Code] came into force on March 4 (the courts review an average of 40 cases each working day). The fine for violating the article can range from 30,000 rubles [$500] to 50,000 rubles [$830],” said Chikov.
Another day, another rattling saber: Russia will put around 50 new Sarmat ballistic missiles on alert, according to Dmitry Rogozin, head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos. A video posted on Rogozin’s Telegram showed him walking around in a crater left behind by one of the missiles at a training site. “With a nuclear charge, a crater like this on enemy ground will be, well, very large, very deep, and radioactive. All we can advise is for our aggressors to talk to Russia a bit more politely,” said Rogozin.
Taking advantage of runner’s high: A half marathon event called Zabeg.RF was held in major cities throughout Russia on Sunday. In Novosibirsk, there were pop-up military enlistment offices throughout the race route for runners who felt like signing a contract to go to war, according to Taiga.Info.
Poland blasts Norway for profiting from the war: Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki called on Norway to share the excess profit it’s earning due to high oil prices with other countries. “Should we be paying Norway huge amounts of money for gas — four or five times what we were paying a year ago?” he said, calling Norway’s failure to share “indirect profiteering from the war started by Putin.”
YouTube takes out the trash: YouTube deleted over 70,000 videos and 9,000 channels related to the war in Ukraine for violating the platform’s rules, according to The Guardian. The deleted content included videos that referred to Russia’s invasion as a “liberation mission.” “We have a major violent events policy and that applies to things like denial of major violent events: everything from the Holocaust to Sandy Hook,” said YouTube CPO Neal Mohan. “And of course, what’s happening in Ukraine is a major violent event.”
Russia’s endgame: Prominent Russian propagandist Vladimir Solovyov shared a message on Telegram that explicitly describes the goal of Russia’s invasion as the removal of Ukrainian statehood. “It’s not Ukraine we’re fighting against. Because Ukraine is a Nazi growth fostered by Polish, German, and American imperialists. This growth, like a brain tumor, eats away at people’s ability to remember and to think. [...] Today, we’re restoring a historic justice; we’re liberating part of Russia, Kyivan Rus, from the German, Anglo-Saxon, and European colonizers who captured it and whose arms are elbow-deep in the blood of the various peoples whom they don’t consider human.”
The hard truth: French European Affairs Minister Clement Beaune said that Ukraine’s entry into the EU would take “probably 15-20 years.” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky recently said at a news conference that Ukraine must become a full member of the EU, rather than a member of an “associated” political community; anything less, he said, rather than being a compromise between Ukraine and Europe, would “be another compromise between Europe and Russia.”

23 мая 2022 г. 13:43:23

Russian soldier Vadim Shishimarin sentenced to life in prison for killing a Ukrainian civilian

A court in Kyiv has sentenced Russian soldier Vadim Shishimarin to life imprisonment for killing 62-year-old civilian Oleksandr Shelipov in Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region.

Shishimarin was charged with violating the laws and customs of war and with premeditated murder.

Shishimarin pleaded guilty in court and asked Shelipov’s widow to forgive him. He claimed he didn’t want to kill Shelipov and that he was just following his officer’s orders. His lawyer asked for his acquittal.

According to the evidence presented in court, the convoy Shishimarin was traveling with came under fire on February 28. Trying to hide, he and several other soldiers fired on and commandeered a private vehicle, puncturing its tire in the process. As they drove away, they saw a man on the side of the road talking on the phone. Convinced he might tell the Ukrainian military about them, Shishimarin’s fellow soldiers ordered him to kill the man. Shishimarin shot him from the car window using his assault rifle.

Vadim Shishimarin was later captured by Ukrainian troops.

23 мая 2022 г. 19:22:39

Russian Attorney General accuses Dozhd of threatening “the stability of the constitutional structure and Russia’s security”

A representative of Russia’s Attorney General explained the agency’s decision to block independent television channel Dozhd (TV Rain), saying its work presented a threat to the “stability of the constitutional structure and Russia’s security.” The statement, according to RIA Novosti, was made during a review of Dozhd’s appeal to challenge the blockage in Moscow’s Tverskoy District Court.

After Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, according to the Attorney General’s representative, Dozhd began “broadcasting the position of Western countries, in a certain sense.”

"Taking into account its foreign financing, the publications we indicated are regarded by us as a means of intentionally drawing in a wide range of users with the goal of forming, among other things, protest sentiments in society, and attempting to ultimately influence the stability of the constitutional order and the security of Russia."

The Tverskoy District Court did not grant Dozhd's appeal.

24 мая 2022 г. 07:41:28

Major recent events in Russia and Ukraine

⚖️ First war-crime conviction: A court in Kyiv has sentenced Russian soldier Vadim Shishimarin to life imprisonment for killing 62-year-old civilian Oleksandr Shelipov in Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region. Shishimarin was charged with violating the laws and customs of war and with premeditated murder. Shishimarin pleaded guilty in court and asked Shelipov’s widow to forgive him. He claimed he didn’t want to kill Shelipov and that he was just following his officer’s orders.
📺 Too hot for TV: A representative of Russia’s Attorney General explained the agency’s decision to block independent television channel Dozhd (TV Rain), saying its work presented a threat to the “stability of the constitutional structure and Russia’s security.” The statement, according to RIA Novosti, was made during a review of Dozhd’s appeal to challenge the blockage in Moscow’s Tverskoy District Court.
✋ Ukraine’s backup plan: In remarks on Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reminded the public that Ukraine has a presidential line of succession in the event of his inability to remain in office (such as his death). In early April, Zelensky said that there had been more than a dozen attempts on his life since the start of Russia’s invasion in February.
🔱 The Moskva’s missing men: Two mothers of Russian sailors who went missing after the Moskva guided missile cruiser sank in April 2022 told the newspaper Novaya Gazeta Europe that the Navy has encouraged them to sign documents designating their sons’ bodies as irretrievable “due to an accident.” Other parents say they were promised veteran’s benefits if they signed the documents drafted for them by the Navy. (Russia says the Moskva sank after a fire and stormy seas damaged the ship, while Kyiv says it hit the Moskva with two missiles.)
💰 A new line-item for Russia’s capital: The Moscow Mayor’s Office has reportedly been tasked with overseeing the reconstruction of the local infrastructure in occupied Donetsk and Luhansk, a source close to the city’s authorities told the news outlet RBC. The capital is apparently expected to fund this work itself, though the amount of money needed is still unknown.
⚖️ Tribunal plans in Mariupol: A source reportedly with insider knowledge told the Russian state news agency Interfax that occupying forces in Mariupol plan to hold an “intermediate tribunal” for the Ukrainian soldiers captured at the Azovstal factory. Earlier on Monday, the head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic said the prisoners who haven’t already been transferred to Russia would face trial in the DNR.
👋 Another high-profile defection: Boris Bondarev, a counsellor at the Russian permanent mission to the UN in Geneva, resigned from his job on Monday in protest against the invasion of Ukraine, calling it his “duty as a citizen.” “I should have done it at the start [of the war] but not everyone is a hero,” he told The Telegraph. “A great number of Russian diplomats, even those who make hawkish statements in the media, are privately appalled by the brutal war in Ukraine and the ministry’s role in making up excuses for apparent war crimes,” claimed Bondarev.
👋 No longer on every corner (or any corner at all): Starbucks has decided to exit and “no longer have a brand presence” in Russia, following the suspension of all its operations in Russia on March 8 due to the Ukraine invasion. Roughly 2,000 employees will receive six months’ pay “and assistance for partners to transition to new opportunities outside of Starbucks,” the company said in a statement.

25 мая 2022 г. 09:07:12

Major recent events in Russia and Ukraine

💱 The default draws nearer: The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control announced on Tuesday that it isn’t renewing the provisions of “GL-9C issued pursuant to the Russian Harmful Foreign Activities Sanctions Regulations.” In other words, the United States government is no longer permitting American bondholders to receive debt payments from the Kremlin — a major step toward pushing Russia into a government default. The waiver had allowed Moscow to keep paying interest and principal and avert default on its government debt. Russia has $40 billion of international bonds outstanding.
🎓 New education standards: Russia’s Science and Higher Education Ministry says it plans to abandon the European higher-education standards adopted almost 20 years ago, pulling Russia out of the so-called Bologna education system. “The future belongs to our own unique education system,” Minister Valery Falkov told the newspaper Kommersant, insisting that Russia’s higher education priorities should reflect “the interests of the national economy.”
🚨 It’s an emergency: Hungary’s government will assume emergency powers in response to the war in neighboring Ukraine, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said in a Facebook video on Tuesday. “The world is on the brink of an economic crisis,” Orban said in the video, as reported by Reuters. He stressed that Hungary must stay out of the war in Ukraine and “protect families’ financial security.”
⚖️ An apology for Navalny: In a speech before a Moscow court upheld his nine-year prison sentence, anti-Kremlin opposition leader Alexey Navalny revealed that Natalya Repnikova, the judge who presided over the trial that replaced his probation sentence with imprisonment, allegedly passed him a note through several lawyers where she apologized for her ruling. Repnikova reportedly died from COVID-19 last September, though Navalny suggested in his speech on Tuesday that foul play might be the cause. In his remarks, Navalny also criticized Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
⚖️ Prosecuting war crimes in Ukraine: Ukrainian prosecutors have accused five Russian soldiers and three mercenaries from the “Wagner” PMC of kidnapping, torturing, and murdering the village elder of Motyzhyn together with her family. In total, the suspects are accused of involvement in 14 separate war crimes against civilians in the Bucha district outside Kyiv.
👟 Just done it: Nike is officially leaving Russia. The company has reportedly decided not to renew a franchising agreement with Inventive Retail Group, which operated 37 Nike-branded retail stores in Russia. Nike suspended deliveries to Russia in March. IRG’s spokeswoman told the newspaper Vedomosti that supplies are now too low to keep its Nike stores open.
💥 An elderly pilot’s luck runs out: A retired Russian major general reportedly died in Ukraine when his Sukhoi Su-25 jet was shot down over the Luhansk region. Journalists at BBC Russia identified him as 63-year-old Kanamat Botashev, who left the military after he stole and crashed a Sukhoi Su-27 fighter jet in 2012, ejecting to safety. Russia’s Defense Ministry hasn’t commented on the reports about Botashev’s death, but analysts cite open-source data showing that at least nine retired Russian soldiers over the age of 50 have died in combat in Ukraine.
🤰 Two draft laws to deal with those shifty foreigners: Lawmakers in the State Duma adopted the first reading of federal legislation that would ban the services of surrogate mothers for foreign citizens. The bill would restrict surrogacy to married Russian citizens and unmarried infertile Russian women. The ban would not apply to married couples where one of the spouses is a Russian citizen. Deputies also approved the first reading of a draft law that will allow “external management” of Russian businesses, at least 25 percent of which belongs to companies from “unfriendly” countries. Courts would be empowered to order domestic takeovers in the event that one of these entities ceases operations in Russia “without obvious economic grounds.” The bill also stipulates qualifying criteria for external management, such as the production of “socially significant or essential goods.” An interdepartmental commission at the Economic Development Ministry would also be able to flag companies for takeovers. Researchers at Yale University’s School of Management say nearly 1,000 companies have officially announced they are voluntarily curtailing operations in Russia.

25 мая 2022 г. 14:03:17

25 мая 2022 г. 14:51:31

Zaporizhzhia and Kherson residents to be given Russian citizenship through a simplified procedure

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed an executive order facilitating a simplified process by which residents of Ukraine’s Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions will be given Russian citizenship. The document was published on the Russian government’s official legal information portal.

The order makes additions to the text of the document by which the Russian authorities simplified the citizenship process for residents of the Donetsk and Luhansk “People’s Republics” in 2019. Specifically, it stipulates that citizenship applications of residents of these territories should be reviewed in less than three months.

26 мая 2022 г. 07:35:19

Major recent events in Russia and Ukraine

🛂 All in the family: Russian President Vladimir Putin signed an executive order facilitating a simplified process by which residents of Ukraine’s Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions will be given Russian citizenship. The document was published on the Russian government’s official legal information portal. The Russian authorities have promised that the two Ukrainian regions will take their “rightful place in our Russian family.”
🪖 Trouble ahead: Speaking to former Russian lawyer Mark Feygin in a YouTube broadcast, Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych warned that Ukraine will face a difficult next six weeks, until expanded Western aid under the U.S. Lend-Lease program starts to arrive. Arestovych said, “We have now lost to the Russian army in terms of pace. The Russian side managed to accumulate its reserves before we did.” He also cited “a very strong split in Ukrainian society caused by war weariness.”
⚖️ A treason conviction: Russia’s Southern District Military Court sentenced Senior Lieutenant Ruslan Artykov to 13 years in prison for treason. Arrested in 2019, Artykov confessed to leaking defense secrets to Ukraine.
🪦 Explaining away the bodies: Konstantin Ivashchenko, Russia’s collaborationist mayor in Mariupol, spoke to reporters near a mass grave on Wednesday, claiming that the site contained dozens of bodies buried by “Ukrainian soldiers” and “terrorist and nationalist battalions.” The Associated Press reported in early March that city workers in Mariupol were “hastily and unceremoniously burying scores of dead Ukrainian civilians and soldiers in a mass grave.” “With morgues overflowing and more corpses uncollected in homes, city officials decided they could not wait to hold individual burials,” the outlet wrote.
🕵️ Zeroing in on public enemies: Russian lawmakers drafted legislation that would equate “defection to the side of the enemy during active hostilities” with high treason, punishable by up to 20 years in prison. The same would be true for “confidential cooperation” with foreign intelligence agencies. State Duma deputies also want to classify advocacy for the “the implementation of activities directed against Russia’s national security” as felony extremism, punishable by up to seven years in prison.

27 мая 2022 г. 10:43:45

Major recent events in Russia and Ukraine

🎁 Washington readies the big guns: The Biden administration plans to send more advanced, longer-range rocket systems to Ukraine, multiple state officials told CNN. The White House has reportedly delayed this decision due to concerns raised within the National Security Council that Ukraine “could use the systems to carry out offensive attacks inside Russia.”
🗳️ Renewed UNSC stalemate: On Thursday, China and Russia vetoed a U.S.-led push in the U.N. Security Council to impose more sanctions on North Korea over its renewed ballistic missile launches. This was the first time in 16 years that the Security Council declined to escalate sanctions against Pyongyang for its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs.
💰 Money makes the world go ‘round: “Government officials familiar with the matter” told The Associated Press that “Western allies are considering whether to allow Russian oligarchs to buy their way out of sanctions” and “use the money to rebuild Ukraine.” Canadian Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland proposed the idea at a G-7 finance ministers’ meeting in Germany last week.
⚖️ Prison for another Ukrainian deserter: A court in Kyiv sentenced soldier Mikhail Kazarenko to 14 years in prison for treason and desertion. Stationed in Crimea with Ukraine’s Navy when Russia annexed the peninsula, Kazarenko then joined the Russian Coast Guard. On March 3, 2022, he was captured in Ukraine’s Mykolaiv region together with fellow soldiers Dmitry Shishkanov and Igor Rudenko, who were recently sentenced to 14 and 15 years in prison, respectively, also for treason and desertion.
🚫 A government censor and proud of it: On Thursday, Andrey Lipov, the head of Russia’s federal censor, announced that his agency has overseen the deletion of 38,000 messages advocating antiwar protests since the start of Russia’s February invasion of Ukraine. Lipov also claimed to have removed “more than 117,000 fakes about the essence of the conflict, about military actions, and troop losses” and blocked “1,177 resources with Ukrainian nationalist propaganda with a total audience of 202 million users.” Roskomnadzor’s director also accused Western nations of spending “billions of rubles” to flood the Internet with “Ukrainian nationalist propaganda” at the start of the war.
💐 Oopsie doopsie: State Duma deputy Defense Committee Chairman Vladimir Shamanov said in an interview released on May 22 that one of the biggest early mistakes of Russia’s “special military operation” was the expectation that Ukrainians would welcome Russian invaders “with flowers.” The retired colonel general then added, “Today, it seems we’ve already overcome this factor, but there’s still a lot to be done.”

27 мая 2022 г. 23:26:09

30 мая 2022 г. 18:50:59

1 июня 2022 г. 00:42:47

1 июня 2022 г. 07:16:05

Major recent events in Russia and Ukraine

🕊️ POTUS speaks: In an op-ed published in The New York Times, U.S. President Joe Biden writes, “We do not seek a war between NATO and Russia. As much as I disagree with Mr. Putin, and find his actions an outrage, the United States will not try to bring about his ouster in Moscow. So long as the United States or our allies are not attacked, we will not be directly engaged in this conflict, either by sending American troops to fight in Ukraine or by attacking Russian forces. We are not encouraging or enabling Ukraine to strike beyond its borders. We do not want to prolong the war just to inflict pain on Russia.”
🪖 Another major city nearly lost: Serhiy Haidai, the governor of Ukraine’s Luhansk region, reported on Tuesday that Russian troops now occupy most of Sievierodonetsk. He added that roughly 90 percent of the city’s critical infrastructure is in ruins. At the moment, both the delivery humanitarian supplies and evacuation routes for civilians remain impossible, Haidai warned. Also on Tuesday, Chechen ruler Ramzan Kadyrov claimed that “the cleansing of Sievierodonetsk” is complete. On many occasions during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Kadyrov has prematurely reported the capture of cities.
🚨 Criminal sympathies: Ukrainian security forces arrested the head engineer of the Antonov State Enterprise aircraft manufacturing plant for the felony offense of justifying Russian aggression in posts on social media, including one message that read, “There’s no such country as Ukraine; there’s just Russia’s edge.” If convicted, the man would face up to five years in prison. On May 23, Ukrainian President Zelensky signed a law that also allows the state to seize the property of individuals and legal entities convicted of publicly justifying Russia’s invasion.
🚫 More demands for Google: Citing a ruling by a court in Saratov, Russia’s federal censor has demanded that Google remove the Tor Browser from the Google Play app store. The court also ordered a ban of Tor itself, arguing that “the software application allows access to prohibited content and facilitates the commission of criminal offenses.” In mid-May, the Russian state media reported that Google’s legal entity in Russia has filed for bankruptcy, following a series of large fines imposed by regulators for noncompliance with censorship demands. Google has promised to continue providing access to users in Russia, though the company has reportedly started disconnecting some ISPs in Russia from its Google Global Cache system.
⚖️ Navalny says added charges are coming: Speaking on social media through his representatives on Tuesday, Alexey Navalny reported that he’s being charged with felony extremism — an offense that could add another 15 years to his current 12.5-year prison sentence. Based on Navalny’s brief remarks, the added charges appear to be related to his advocacy for protests against his imprisonment in January 2021.
🧠 A conspiracy theory that says more about the theorist: Russian National Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev said in a speech in Kazan on Tuesday that Poland has begun to “seize western Ukrainian territories” as part of a plot by the West to “take advantage of the current situation for its own selfish interests.” As evidence to support this outlandish claim, Patrushev cited remarks by the Polish president during a recent visit to Kyiv about vanishing boundaries between Ukraine and Poland. Patrushev did not say if Moscow is participating in this “partition” of Ukraine, though Russia has annexed the Crimean Peninsula and occupied large regions of eastern Ukraine, including areas outside the Donbas, where two separatist “republics” claim independence.
⚖️ Another verdict against war criminals: After confessing to war crimes in artillery strikes against residences and a veterinary school in the Kharkiv region, two captured Russian soldiers, Alexander Bobykin and Alexander Ivanov, were each sentenced to 11.5 years in prison on Tuesday. Prosecutors asked for 12 years.
🏴‍☠️ Yo ho mateys: The head of the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic, Denis Pushilin, announced on Tuesday that his forces have seized several foreign ships docked at Mariupol’s port. The vessels, which reportedly come from at least six different countries, will form the basis of the DNR’s “merchant fleet.” Pushilin says he expects Mariupol’s port to be operating again at full capacity by late June, adding that it will be an important hub for receiving materials and equipment needed to rebuild cities across the region.

2 июня 2022 г. 07:45:01

Major recent events in Russia and Ukraine

🪖 Sievierodonetsk falls further into Russian hands: Russian forces have taken control of about 80 percent of Sievierodonetsk, including its eastern districts, according to Luhansk regional head Serhiy Haidai. Earlier on Wednesday, Alexander Stryuk, the city’s mayor, reported that 60 percent of the city was under Russian control.
🎁 New weapons for Ukraine: U.S. President Joe Biden approved a new military aid package to be sent to Ukraine. The package includes, among other things, four High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), which have an operational range of several hundred kilometers. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement that Kyiv guaranteed the U.S. that it won’t use the weapons included in the package to strike targets on Russian territory.
🚫 One embargo with some big exceptions: EU leaders have reached an agreement to ban most oil imports from Russia. After weeks of member states failing to resolve objections from Hungary, they finally exempted oil that arrives in Europe through pipelines, which accounts for most of Hungary’s oil imports and about a third of the EU’s Russian oil consumption, from the embargo. Despite importing Russian oil from the same pipeline as Hungary, Poland and Germany have vowed to stop buying Russian oil completely by the end of 2022.
🛢️ Another embargo with an enforcement problem: Despite America’s Russian oil ban, Russian oil is still getting into the U.S. According to the Wall Street Journal, oil traders are finding ways to circumvent the ban by hiding Russian oil in refined products such as gasoline and diesel fuel. Shipments of products containing Russian oil arrived in New York and New Jersey from Indian refineries in May.
🚆 An attack on Ukraine’s train system: A missile strike in the Lviv region hit a transport infrastructure facility, regional head Maksym Kozytskyy reported on Wednesday. Deputy Interior Minister Anton Herashchenko confirmed that the strike had hit a railroad tunnel. “The goal is to try to disrupt railway service and stop fuel and weapons shipments from our allies,” he said. There were reportedly no casualties.
⚖️ Crimes against children: Ukraine’s Prosecutor General is investigating 1,042 cases of alleged crimes committed by Russian soldiers against children on Ukrainian territory. 491 of the cases are associated with armed attacks against childcare facilities, while 551 concern war crimes against children. According to the agency, 11 individual Russian soldiers are suspected of committing crimes against children, including sexual abuse of a minor.
💸 Starting to feel the sanctions: In April 2022, against the backdrop of “unprecedented sanctions,” Russia’s GDP fell by 3 percent compared to the same month last year after increasing by 1.3 percent in March, according to the country’s Economic Development Ministry.
🚰 Forced to work for water: Russian troops occupying Mariupol have been forcing local residents to work for water, according to the city’s mayor, Vadym Boychenko. “They brought in the ‘DNR Emergency Situations Ministry’ to deliver water. But yesterday, Mariupol residents informed us that they’re still being mistreated: rather than giving water out for free, [the Russian occupiers] want residents to go sort out the rubble, collect [bodies], and help them bury the dead — to hide the war crimes. Mariupol residents are working for water,” he said, according to Ukrainska Pravda.

2 июня 2022 г. 12:54:15

2 июня 2022 г. 19:21:27

Major recent events in Russia and Ukraine

🇪🇺 EU sanctions, part six: The EU has agreed on a final version of its sixth sanctions package against Russia. In addition to a ban on sea-shipped oil, sanctions will remove Sberbank from the SWIFT banking platform. At Hungary’s request, the list of newly sanctioned individuals will not include Russian Orthodox Church head Patriarch Kirill. The sanctions are set to come into effect tomorrow (June 3).
🌾 Not theirs to take: Volodymyr Saldo, the head of Russia’s occupation government in Ukraine’s Kherson region, said that the majority of this year’s harvest from Kherson’s farmers will be sent to Russia. Meanwhile, the head of Russia’s occupation government in the Zaporizhzhia region issued a decree on the nationalization of Ukrainian property, RIA Novosti reported.
💰 Turkey and Lithuania pitch in: Turkey announced it will donate a Bayraktar TB2 drone to the Ukrainian military, allowing the over five million euros gathered by Lithuanian citizens for the weapon to be used for humanitarian aid. The Lithuanian Defense Ministry tweeted that it would “ensure that this combat drone is fully armed prior to its transfer to Ukraine.”
🌐 Don’t tell them they can edit it themselves: Russia’s censorship agency Roskomnadzor demanded that Wikipedia delete two articles about events in the war in Ukraine: “Battle of Kharkiv (2022)” and “The use of phosphorous bombs during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.” According to Roskomnadzor, the articles contain “inaccurate information about civilian casualties and attacks on civilian targets,” as well as false information about the death of Russian soldiers. The agency gave Wikipedia one day to delete the articles.
🇩🇪 Merkel speaks out: Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel commented on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine for the first time. Merkel called the events a “barbaric war” that must be brought to an end as soon as possible. She said she stands in solidarity with Ukraine and supports Ukrainians’ right to defend their country.
🚨 A fifth of Ukraine occupied: Addressing Luxembourg’s Parliament, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Russia has occupied about 20 percent of Ukraine’s territory. “Almost 125,000 square kilometers [ 48,000 square miles]. That’s significantly more than the territory of all of the Benelux countries put together,” said Zelensky.
🖥️ Blocking the workaround: Roskomnadzor confirmed that it’s working on blocking VPN services in Russia, including Proton VPN. The agency revealed the move in an interview with Interfax in response to a question about users having difficulty connecting to Proton.

3 июня 2022 г. 09:59:02

3 июня 2022 г. 16:58:21

Major recent events in Russia and Ukraine

🏴‍☠️ Mariupol cargo arrives in Russia: The first cargo ship from Mariupol has arrived in Rostov-on-Don, where ports have been reopened, according to Interfax. The ship, which reportedly brought 2,700 metric tons of metal from the Ukrainian port city, is the first to depart from Mariupol since Russia invaded the city.
🎁 A longtime Russian journalist gets a new home: Russian-born journalist Alexander Nevzorov and his wife, Lidia, have become Ukrainian citizens. According to Anton Herashchenko, advisor to the head of the Ukrainian Interior Ministry, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed an order granting them citizenship “for their outstanding service to the country.” In March, a criminal case was opened against Nevzorov in Russia after he shared photos of civilian victims of Russian shelling in Mariupol.
🆘 Between a rock and a hard place: Chinese President Xi Jinping has instructed his advisors to find ways to help Russia without violating Western sanctions, according to the Washington Post. Russia has reportedly asked China for financial and technological help multiple times since the war began, and China, trying to manage contradictory goals, has responded by showing diplomatic support and conducting joint military exercises with Russia (but officially remaining neutral).
🪖 Closing in on Luhansk: The British Defense Ministry predicts that Russia will take complete control of the Luhansk region in the next two weeks. Russian troops have already captured over 90 percent of the region’s territory.
🌾 Strange bedfellows: Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and UN General Secretary António Guterres spoke on the phone about the “issue of grain exports from Ukrainian territory.” According to the Telegram channel Pul Pervogo, Lukashenko said Belarus is prepared to transport Ukrainian grain to Baltic ports over its own territory. In return, Lukashenko would require access to Baltic ports for Belarusian products.
📺 Trouble in Krasnoyarsk: Vadim Vostrov, the executive producer for the TV network TVK Krasnoyarsk, has been fined 40,000 rubles ($431) for quoting an article from Meduza on his Telegram channel. The article, which was written by journalist Shura Burtin, was an investigation of why Russians support the war in Ukraine. Vostrov was charged with “discrediting” the Russian army.
🖥️ Yandex founder resigns: Yandex announced that founder Arkady Volozh will resign as the Internet giant’s general director after he was sanctioned by the EU as part of its sixth package of restrictions against Russia. He will also resign from his leadership positions at all of Yandex’s subsidiaries. Yandex’s share price fell over 10 percent in the wake of the news.
🇪🇺 Europe's blacklist grows: In addition to Arkady Volozh, the EU’s latest sanctions list included over 60 individuals, including Russian censorship agency head Andrey Lipov, National Media Group chairwoman (and Putin’s alleged mistress) Alina Kabaeva, and Russian Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov’s daughter, Elizaveta Peskova, as well as his wife, Tatyana Navka. The list also included 18 companies.

4 июня 2022 г. 16:33:50

New podcast episode: How sanctions against Russia reshape the world

6 июня 2022 г. 16:50:54

Major recent events in Russia and Ukraine

✈️ No-Lavrov zone: Bulgaria, North Macedonia, and Montenegro have all closed their airspace to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, forcing him to cancel a visit to Serbia that had been planned for June 6-7. Lavrov himself called the move “outrageous” and “unthinkable.”
🕯️ A solemn Journalist's Day: Ukraine’s Culture and Information Policy Ministry announced that 32 journalists have been killed in Ukraine since the war began. According to Current Time, the list of victims includes journalists from Ukraine, Russia, France, the U.S, and Lithuania.
📃 Officially done with the ECHR: Russian State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin announced that a law officially ending Russia’s observance of decisions made by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) will be adopted this week. “The ECHR has become a tool in the political fight against our country in the hands of Western politicians. Several of its decisions have directly violated the Russian Constitution, our values, and our traditions,” said Volodin.
📺 No more Russian TV in Latvia: Latvia’s National Electronic Mass Media Council banned the broadcasting of about 80 Russian channels that were still accessible on Latvian territory. The ban was imposed in accordance with a new law Latvia’s parliament passed in late May that allows the restriction of foreign programs that "threaten the country’s sovereignty." On the other hand, one Russian channel was given a license to begin broadcasting: Dozhd (TV Rain), an independent network that was blocked in Russia on March 1 and suspended operations days later.
🪖 Zelensky makes the rounds: The active fighting nearby notwithstanding, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky paid visits to troops in Ukraine’s Donetsk and Luhansk regions, both of which are partially occupied by Russian troops. “I visited [the cities of] Lysychansk and Soledar. I’m proud of everyone I met, shook hands with, and spoke to,” Zelensky said in a video posted later. He also visited displaced civilians from Mariupol in the Zaporizhzhia region.
💣 Keeping Ukraine armed: The UK announced it will send American-produced M270 multiple launch rocket systems to Ukraine. The first shipment will include three weapons, according to the BBC; it’s unclear whether more will be sent later on. Britain was apparently not deterred by threats made by Putin last week to bomb new targets in Ukraine if the U.S. follows through on a promise made last week to supply other advanced missile systems to the Ukranian military.
🚢 Training with future allies: NATO, Finland, and Sweden have begun the BALTOPS joint military exercises in the Baltic sea. The yearly event, which will last two weeks, has involved the two non-NATO member countries since the 1990s, though this year’s training comes in the wake of Finland and Sweden’s announcements that they intend to join the alliance.
🚗 Return of the Moskvich: Moscow’s former Renault car factory, which was “acquired” by Kamas after Renault left the Russian market, has officially been renamed for its new product: the Moskvich, an iconic Soviet-era (and later Russian) car that was last produced in 2001, though the new models will be Chinese vehicles designed by JAC Motors. Journalists from RBK spotted the change on Russia’s Unified State Register of Legal Entities.

7 июня 2022 г. 01:09:47

Major recent events in Russia and Ukraine

🚨 Wanted in Russia: Journalist Andrey Soldatov, an expert on Russia’s secret services, said on June 6 that he found his name on the Russian Interior Ministry’s wanted list. Soldatov also learned that all of his bank accounts in Russia had been frozen. The charges against Soldatov remain unclear, as the Interior Ministry’s wanted persons registry says only that he “is wanted for violating an article of the Criminal Code.”
🪞More sanctions from Moscow: Russia’s Foreign Ministry has imposed retaliatory sanctions on 61 American government officials and business leaders. Among those included on the latest sanctions list are Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, and White House Communications Director Kate Bedingfield, as well as Netflix co-CEO Reed Hastings, New York Stock Exchange Chairman Jeffrey Sprecher, and Delta Airlines CEO Edward Bastian.
🕯️Bodies recovered from Azovstal: Russia has turned over the bodies of 160 Ukrainian fighters killed during the siege of Mariupol’s Azovstal steel works, AP reported on June 6. According to President Zelensky, Kyiv is still working to secure the release of more than 2,500 fighters from the plant who are being held prisoner by Russia.
✈️ Going after Abramovich’s jets: A U.S. court has authorized the seizure of two jets owned by Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich valued at more than $400 million. The U.S. has accused Abramovich of violating export controls and recent sanctions by re-exporting the two airplanes — a $60 million Gulfstream and a $350 million Boeing — to Russia.

Aris Messinis / AFP / Scanpix / LETA Raihorodok, Donetsk region. A destroyed bridge leading to the city of Lyman, which is now under Russian control. June 6, 2022.

7 июня 2022 г. 17:32:08

Major recent events in Russia and Ukraine

☭ Return of the Young Pioneers: On Tuesday, Russia’s State Duma will consider a bill creating a new children and youth program called “Recess.” The bill was introduced on the 100th anniversary of the creation of the Soviet Young Pioneers. President Vladimir Putin himself will be in charge of the new program.
🪖 Russian gains: Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu announced that Russian troops have taken complete control of Sievierodonetsk’s residential areas, as well as a significant portion of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions on the left bank of the Siverskyi Donets River. “As of today, 97 percent of the territory of the Luhansk People’s Republic has been liberated,” he said.
🙅 Conscripts in the war: About 600 military conscripts were involved in the “special military operation,” and that they were all brought home as quickly as possible, according to Artur Yegiev, the military prosecutor of Russia’s Western Military District. He said that “disciplinary measures” were taken against the officers responsible. Back in March, Russian President Vladimir Putin denied that any conscripts were fighting in Ukraine, but the Russian Defense Ministry acknowledged soon after that this wasn’t true.
🪖 Sloviansk may soon fall: According to Ukrainian presidential advisor Oleksiy Arestovych, the Russian army may lay siege to the city of Sloviansk as soon as a week from now. According to Arestovych, Russia currently has the advantage due to a delay in Western arms supplies to Ukraine. Donetsk regional administration head Pavlo Kyrylenko reported that 75 percent of Sloviansk’s population has fled, leaving only 24,000 people there. The city has been experiencing power outages and water shortages.
💥 Someone doesn’t feel liberated: An explosion in a Kherson cafe this morning was the result of a terrorist attack, according to the head of the region’s “new administration” installed by Russian occupying forces. Russian officials in Kherson are investigating the incident.

9 июня 2022 г. 09:00:45

Major recent events in Russia and Ukraine

💱 Here today, yuan tomorrow: On June 7, Russia’s dominant lender Sberbank suspended transactions by entrepreneurs under foreign trade agreements in Chinese yuan. Spokespeople told the state news agency RIA Novosti that the bank is working to restore payments in yuan, but they advised customers to work through “partners and other authorized banks” in the meantime. Following the invasion of Ukraine, the United States, the European Union, and numerous countries targeted Sberbank in economic sanctions against Russia. In late May, the EU even removed the bank from the SWIFT international banking system, effectively cutting it off from global financial networks.
🕵️ Lobbying for a stronger SORM: Russia’s Digital Development, Communications, and Mass Media Ministry has proposed reforms that would fine telecoms operators a percentage of their gross income for failing to install the hardware required to operate the System for Operative Investigative Activities (SORM) — wiretapping equipment that allows law enforcement officials to monitor telephone conversations, text messages, and Internet traffic. The ministry also wants to require the Federal Protective Service’s approval before issuing new telecoms operating licenses (making SORM installation necessary to receive a licenses). Additionally, the fee for obtaining one of these licenses would jump 133 times to 1 million rubles (almost $17,000), ostensibly to lock out “dubious services.”
📉 Huawei’s disappearance: Russian retailers that specialize in selling products from Huawei are shutting down across the country, sources told the news agencies RBC and RIA Novosti. Four of 19 vendors have already closed. The closures are reportedly the result of supply shortages and declining demand for smartphones in Russia. The manufacturer of 40 percent of all smartphones imported into Russia in 2020, Huawei has since lost its market share in the country, slipping to just 3 percent of imported smartphones by 2021.
⚖️ He’s got hurt feelings: Dmitry Kachan, the head of a law firm based in Russia’s Primorsky Krai, is suing the Swedish clothing company H&M for allegedly discriminating against Russian customers on nationality grounds. He seeks 700,000 rubles (almost $12,000) in emotional damages because H&M’s website currently will not ship products listed as “in stock” to locations inside Russia. In early March, in response to the invasion of Ukraine, H&M suspended operations in Russia and closed its 155 stores nationwide, joining roughly 1,000 other foreign companies in a boycott of Russia.
👮 Moscow’s patriot police: Sergey Mironov, the head of the nominal opposition party Just Russia — For Truth, complained in a Telegram post on Wednesday that Moscow city inspectors ordered him to remove a pro-invasion banner displayed in his office, citing “numerous appeals from citizens.” Mironov questioned the existence of these appeals, accusing city officials of preventing “patriotic” displays in the capital that mention “the war in which the country’s fate is being decided.”
🤝 The Russians are coming (to the “DNR”): Denis Pushilin, the head of the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic, fired his government on Wednesday and replaced the cabinet with multiple ex-Russian state officials, including Prime Minister Vitaly Khotsenko (formerly a senior official in Russia’s Industry and Trade Ministry), Alexander Kostomarov (formerly the first lieutenant governor of Russia’s Ulyanovsk region), and Evgeny Solntsev (a former aide to the head of Russia’s Construction and Housing and Public Utilities Ministry). Pushilin said the personnel changes are needed “to strengthen integration processes.” For months, rumors have circulated that the Kremlin plans to stage “referendums” in occupied regions of Ukraine as a prelude to annexation.
🛑 Gerhard-come-lately: Gerhard Schröder has withdrawn his consent to be nominated to Gazprom’s board of directors. The former German Chancellor was nominated in February before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. At the time, he was serving as chairman of Rosneft’s board of directors — a position he didn’t abandon until late May.

10 июня 2022 г. 02:53:03

11 июня 2022 г. 07:17:44

Major recent events in Russia and Ukraine

📉 Not dying so much anymore: Mortality rates in Russia have fallen below their pre-pandemic levels, Health Minister Mikhail Murashko reported on Friday, noting that COVID-19 cases nevertheless remain high. The minister offered no concrete figures, however. The Federal State Statistics Service said Russia’s natural population decline in 2021 was more than 1 million people — an all-time record in Russia’s post-Soviet history. In early 2022, officials reported that the Russian population shrank by 692,900 people (the biggest annual decline in 19 years).
👑 Peter the Not-So-Great: Estonia’s Foreign Ministry summoned Russia’s ambassador, Vladimir Lipaev, on Friday to condemn Vladimir Putin’s recent remarks about the Great Northern War in the early 18th century, when Peter I of Russia led a coalition against the Swedish Empire, “returning” Moscow’s control over lands in the Baltic region and expanding Imperial Russia into Europe. “The same is true to the west, relating to [the Estonian city of] Narva. He returned it [to Russian control] and reinforced it,” Putin told a group of young people on June 9.
🙊 Precious bodily fluids: State Duma lawmakers have drafted legislation that would expand existing mass media limits on foreign ownership to online classifieds portals, limiting foreign stakes to 20 percent. The bill’s sponsors warn that these websites accumulate vast amounts of Russian nationals’ personal data. Lawmakers singled out the Dutch-owned website Avito, Russians’ favorite place to find jobs. (For another look at fears about foreigners’ access to Russians’ personal secrets, read Farida Rustamova on how Vladimir Putin poops.)
🪖 The death toll among Ukraine’s soldiers: Ukrainian presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak told the BBC that between 100 and 200 Ukrainian soldiers are being killed every day — the highest death toll any Ukrainian official has yet acknowledged publicly during the war with Russia. The main reason for the significant losses, he explained, is Russian superiority in artillery. To reach parity with Moscow, Podolyak said, Kyiv needs “hundreds of advanced artillery systems” and as many as 300 missile systems.
🚫 Banned books: The Russian bookstore Litre.ru has stopped selling a book about the “Primorsky Partisans” (six young men who went to war in 2010 against the local police, accusing them of corruption and brutality), apparently because the author, journalist Oleg Kashin, is a designated “foreign agent.” (Meanwhile, books by the satirist Viktor Shenderovich, another “foreign agent,” are still available on Litre.ru.)

13 июня 2022 г. 09:18:26

14 июня 2022 г. 00:40:19

14 июня 2022 г. 07:40:04

Major recent events in Russia and Ukraine

🎨 Chilling street art: Yekaterinburg’s eerie new artwork: Street artist Timofey Radya has published a video and photos of his newest installation: the words “Live in the past!” in large block letters on top of the roofs of two apartment buildings on Kosmonavtov Prospekt in Yekaterinburg.
🕯️ Another mass grave outside Bucha: Officials outside Kyiv near Bucha reported the discovery of a new mass grave containing the bodies of seven civilians. Many had their hands bound and had suffered gunshots through their knees. Officers said there were signs that the victims had been tortured before they were shot in the head. Ihor Klymenko, the chief of Ukraine’s National Police, says his agency in investigating the deaths of more than 12,000 civilians killed during Russia’s invasion. In the area surrounding Kyiv, which Russian troops occupied in March, at least 1,500 civilians were killed.
👾 A newspaper ‘hack’ raises political questions: On Monday, the pro-government newspaper Izvestia briefly published a story about an article allegedly written by Sergey Kiriyenko, President Putin’s domestic policy czar, declaring that the Donbas would be rebuilt even at the expense of Russians’ living standards. Izvestia later said the report was the work of hackers (the newspaper also denied that Kiriyenko ever made the remarks in question). Analysts like Dmitry Kolezev and Tatiana Stanovaya speculated that Kiriyenko’s rivals within Russia could be trying to turn the president’s paranoia against his first deputy chief of staff.
🪖 Calling in reinforcements: Amid a rising number of reports in the Russian state media about the Ukrainian military shelling the city of Donetsk (including claims on Monday that artillery fire hit a maternity ward), the head of the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic, Denis Pushilin, declared the need for “additional allied forces” from Russia to defend the territory.
🤝 The mayor who changed sides: After accusing the Ukrainian military of setting fire to one of the buildings at the Sviatohirsk Cave Monastery, the Ukrainian mayor of Sviatohirsk, Vladimir Bandura, officially crossed over to the side of the “Donetsk People’s Republic” on Monday. After meeting personally with DNR head Denis Pushilin, he was formally reinstated as Sviatohirsk’s DNR “city administrator.” Kyiv promptly charged Bandura with treason.
👮 A law-and-order shuffle: Officers in Russia’s Rostov region are reportedly being sent “on assignment” to police the streets of cities in the self-declared Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republicans (where the local militia are all gone to fight on the frontlines against Ukrainian troops), according to 161.ru.
🚢 America’s push for more Russian goods: The U.S. government is “quietly encouraging agricultural and shipping companies to buy and carry more Russian fertilizer,” people familiar with the efforts told Bloomberg, citing fears about spiraling global food costs. According to Bloomberg, overcautious shippers, banks, and insurers have avoided Russian fertilizers, fearing sanctions violations, even though Washington has built food-related exemptions into its sanction. “U.S. officials, surprised by the extent of the caution, are in the seemingly paradoxical position of looking for ways to boost them.”
🛢️ Russia’s new friends in the oil biz: Russia became India’s second biggest supplier of oil in May, outpacing Saudi Arabia (but not Iraq), reported Reuters. Supplies from Russia accounted for about 16.5 percent of India’s overall oil imports in May, helping to reduce India’s imports from the Middle East to about 59.5 percent.
🚰 Meet Borjomi’s new boss: The Georgian government has obtained a 7.73-percent stake in Borjomi, one of the nation’s largest mineral water producers, “free of charge.” Operations at the company’s plants have been suspended since late April due to Western sanctions against Mikhail Fridman, the cofounder of Alfa Bank, which owned a majority stake in Borjomi International. Last week, hundreds of workers went on strike to protest recent layoffs.

15 июня 2022 г. 08:05:38

Major recent events in Russia and Ukraine

🛡️ It’s not enough help: Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar told journalists on Tuesday that Kyiv has received only 10 percent of the foreign military assistance it’s requested. “Without the help of Western partners, we will not be able to win this war,” she warned, urging faster deliveries of advanced weapons. On June 13, presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak stated that Ukraine needed a thousand 155mm howitzers, 300 multiple-launch rocket systems, 500 tanks, 2,000 armored vehicles, and 1,000 drones to end the war.
🧑‍🚀 The liberal vs. the starchild: While meeting with Putin on Tuesday, Audit Chamber head Alexey Kudrin described the development of Russia’s space program as “flawed,” provoking criticism from the outspoken director of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin. “First and foremost, the head of the Audit Chamber should be a highly qualified and objective specialist, not a professional liberal in a senior government position,” Rogozin wrote on his Telegram channel. (Kudrin had nice things to say about Russia’s agriculture, transport system, and nuclear engineering.)
⛓️ Navalny’s new home: Alexey Navalny has been transferred to a maximum-security prison in the town of Melekhovo outside Vladimir. In late March, a judge added nine years to his imprisonment after convicting him of fraud and contempt of court. In early May, Navalny said inmates in Melekhovo witnessed preparations for a “prison within the prison” built specially for him.
🚫 Russia bars entry for more journalists and specialists: Russia’s Foreign Ministry added another 49 British nationals to its ever-growing list of foreigners banned from entering Russia. The latest sanctions target journalists supposedly “involved in the deliberate dissemination of false and one-sided information” about Russia and the invasion of Ukraine, and “representatives of the British defense sector” who are allegedly involved in facilitating the supply of weapons to Ukraine.

15 июня 2022 г. 13:49:40

Alexey Navalny reportedly transferred to a "prison with a prison" in Melekhovo

Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny has been transferred to a maximum security prison in the village of Melekhovo in the Vladimir region. Regional Public Monitoring Commission Chairman Sergey Yazhan reported the news to RIA Novosti on Tuesday.

“He [Navalny] has arrived at IK-6 [the prison in Melekhovo]. He’s arrived and is there now,” said Yazhan.

Earlier on June 14, associates of Navalny reported that he had been transferred out of Correctional Colony No. 2 in Pokrov but that his new location was unknown.

15 июня 2022 г. 14:37:06

Chechnya residents being forcibly sent to fight in Ukraine

Chechen anti-war bloggers and representatives of human rights organizations told investigative outlet The Insider that because ethnic Chechens have largely been reluctant to enlist in the army and join the war in Ukraine, the authorities are coercing them with threats of torture, criminal charges, and familial shame.

According to a representative from [Chechen human rights organization] VAYFOND, it’s impossible for Chechens to refuse to go to war. People are obeying because they believe it’s better to die from a bullet wound [in Ukraine] than from torture [at home]. Security officials are using more exotic methods of coercion as well:

“It’s scary when they violate the honor of a man or of his wife, sister, or daughter. Security officials come to people’s houses, start harassing the women, undressing them. For our mentality, that’s the worst that can happen. It’s better to die than to be humiliated in that way. After that, you’ll no longer be considered a man.”

16 июня 2022 г. 09:01:42

Major recent events in Russia and Ukraine

📉 Meta’s dwindling userbase in Russia: New data from Mediascope show that the ban on Meta has reduced Instagram’s daily user base in Russia from 39 million to 11.7 million. Meanwhile, Facebook’s audience has dropped from 6.7 million users to 1.9 million. Daily use of Telegram, however, has doubled to 40 million people since February 24 (when Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine).
🎯 Gunning for Russia’s bridge to Crimea: Ukrainian General Dmytro Marchenko says destroying the Kerch bridge is one of Kyiv’s top priorities, as it would complicate Moscow’s ability to send reserve troops through Crimea. The bridge will be “Target Number One” for the military once Ukraine gets the necessary weapons, he told journalists on Wednesday.
🎖️ Honor à la Putin: The Russian president awarded valor medals to soldiers in the same tank regiment that a Meduza investigation implicated in war crimes committed against civilians outside Kyiv in Bohdanivka.
💰 Take one for the team, guys: Russia’s central bank has urged credit organizations to withhold dividend payments and bonuses from senior executives in order to ensure financial stability during the Russian economy’s “structural transformation.”
🚧 Mighty-mighty, just lettin’ it all hang out: A new study found that the production of half of Russia’s construction materials (including bricks, tiles, porcelain, and more) is almost entirely dependent on equipment imported largely from the West.