Evening Medusa

How the "Russian doctor from Switzerland" became an instrument of Russian foreign policy - and who is he. The EU introduces COVID-19 passports. How the crisis will develop in Armenia

Good evening,

This is Meduza's daily newsletter about the most important news of the day. Well, here we are at the end of the week! Although it wasn't that hard. Here, Russian diplomats who were returning home from the DPRK had to cross the bridge over the Tumannaya River on a railcar . With luggage and with children!

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Pulse

The main thing for the day - as short as possible

The White House has said that the United States will never recognize the annexation of Crimea to Russia. In Nizhny Novgorod, an explosion occurred in a sushi bar, at least three people were injured. Aeroflot proposed to introduce a tariff at which it is possible to change the conditions of transportation without the consent of passengers. The founder of Faberlic (and the New People party ) Aleksey Nechaev bought Sports.ru . The police officers who did not come to the call about the murder of Vera Pekhteleva in Kemerovo will be charged more severely . The United States conducted the first military operation under Biden: they launched a series of airstrikes on Syrian territory. Oleg Tinkov revived the YouTube show "Business Secrets".

Texts of the day

Who is the "Russian doctor from Switzerland" Vitaly Kozak, who claims that Navalny "was poisoned with lithium" and not with military poison?

In January, a text by neurologist Vitaly Kozak appeared on the website of the little-known German-language website World Economy (run by pro-government Russian journalist Alexander Sosnovsky). He allegedly "found contradictions" in an article about Navalny from the scientific journal The Lancet. According to Kozak, the fact that Navalny was poisoned by Novichok has not been proven. But lithium was found in the politician’s blood, drugs with which people with mental disorders take. Quite unexpectedly, the Russian Foreign Ministry demanded that the West comment on Kozak's findings. We found out who he is .

The doctor promised the athlete that she would start walking again, although he knew that this was impossible. Now he's been arrested

Russian skier Maria Chaadaeva broke her spine in 2014. The doctors involved in her rehabilitation told her that she would no longer be able to walk. Then Chaadaeva turned to Dr. Evgeny Blum. He promised the athlete to return the opportunity to walk, knowing that it was impossible. As a result, Chaadaeva spent more than 51 million rubles on procedures and training at the Spanish Bloom clinic. After several years of unsuccessful trials, Blum was charged with fraud on an especially large scale, and on February 11 he was detained in Spain through Interpol .

The coronavirus

EU leaders agree on introduction of COVID-19 passports

According to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, this should happen within the next three months. With such passports, EU residents will be able to move within the community - and foreigners may be able to enter the EU .

At the beginning of the month, we published a text on the prospects for the introduction of covid-passports.

Other news about coronavirus:

• have died in the world during the pandemic More than two and a half million people .
• have been vaccinated in Russia About four million people , Nikolai Briko, chief freelance epidemiologist at the Russian Ministry of Health, said.
• "Sputnik V" was registered in Guatemala and Vietnam .

Podcast "What Happened"

The reason for the political crisis in Armenia is the recent defeat in Karabakh. Will there be a military coup?

The Armenian General Staff demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. And he called it an attempted coup. This is not very fair. Although power in the country, indeed, now can be taken by almost anyone. But no one is in a hurry to do this: after all, in this case, the new government will have to take unpopular measures related to the terms of the peace agreement on Karabakh. Journalist Kirill Krivosheev, a great expert on Armenia, tells what to expect from the crisis next.

Listen to What Happened on Meduza . And subscribe to Apple Podcasts , Google Podcasts , Castbox , Yandex.Music and other podcast services.

Soundtrack of the day

Zemfira's first album in eight years released

The new record is called Borderline. You can listen to it on Spotify , Apple Music , Yandex.Music and other streaming services . Zemfira's previous work - "Live in your head" - was released in February 2013.

We are preparing a trolley and covid-passports, your "Medusa"