Evening Medusa

How the British monarchy deals with PR crises. Should those who have already had coronavirus be vaccinated? Mexico has fully legalized marijuana

Good evening,

This is Meduza's daily newsletter about the most important news of the day. Today, first of all, I would like to be happy for nine-year-old Savva from St. Petersburg. He drew a brave mermaid dog who helps “everyone who is in trouble” - and now IKEA will release a soft toy based on this drawing. We respect you!

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Pulse

The main thing for the day is as short as possible

Roskomnadzor said that the slowdown of Twitter was “normal.” Twitter called the slowdown of the social network “attempts to block public communication on the Internet.” The Eurovision organizers did not allow a song from Belarus into the competition due to political overtones. The Investigative Committee opened a criminal case against the father of the Khachaturian sisters. The girls are accused of his murder. For Russian release, three minutes were cut from the film about a gay couple “Supernova”. Three cases were opened against a schoolgirl from Yakutsk for extorting money for deleting posts in the “Overheard” public page. Prince William commented for the first time on an interview with his brother Harry and Meghan Markle. Mexico has completely legalized marijuana. The Commissioner for Human Rights in Moscow supported the introduction of a four-day working week for women. Audio cassette inventor Lou Ottens has died .

Texts of the day

How does the British crown manage to overcome seemingly irreparable PR disasters?

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle accused the royal family of racism in an interview with Oprah Winfrey. Despite the next crisis, the queen's ratings did not suffer, and the sympathy of society as a whole remained on the side of the monarchy. It's all about the work of the royal press service, which has been collaborating with British tabloids for decades . In short, Buckingham Palace buys the loyalty of the press by providing journalists with accreditations and favorable positions for photographers at events. Newspapers respond by trying to present the royal family in the best possible way.

Danish writer Karsten Graff corresponded with the “Skopinsky maniac” while he was in the colony - and told us about this experience

Graff wrote the documentary book “Undefeated” - with the participation of Ekaterina Martynova, one of the captives of the “Skopinsky maniac” Viktor Mokhov. Graff and Mokhov corresponded for four months . During all this time, the criminal never repented of what he had done, blaming his victims for “not telling the whole truth,” and the press for making him “a monster, a sadistic pervert.”

A French teacher was beheaded after a student accused him of Islamophobia. A month after the murder, she admitted to lying

A 13-year-old Muslim girl told her father that Pati showed a caricature of the Prophet Muhammad in class. The girl allegedly began to argue with the teacher, for which he suspended her from classes for two days. The father spoke about this on social networks and called for the teacher to be fired. As a result, the posts were seen by the Islamist Abdullah Anzorov, who killed Pati in October 2020. It soon became clear that the girl was not at Pati's lesson that day : she was suspended from classes for truancy. The schoolgirl admitted that she invented the argument with the teacher because she did not dare to tell her father the truth about truancy.

We talked to actor Yuri Stoyanov

Meduza editor Natalya Gredina discussed with him his role in the series “Vampires of the Middle Zone” (originally the character of Stoyanov was to be played by Mikhail Efremov), the recently released music album, which contains a song dedicated to Ilya Oleinikov, “the Russian folk program “Gorodok” ", Comedy Club and "Inside Lapenko". Here is a quote from this great interview :

— All my friends, to whom I told that I would talk to you, one of them said: “We grew up in Gorodok.”

- They're bastards. They grew up on it, and I grew old.

— Do you find this phrase that “we grew up on you” rather unpleasant?

- Why? When they tell me “thank you for a happy childhood,” I immediately feel like Lenin, Stalin, and Brezhnev at the same time.

Coronavirus

Should those who have already had the disease be vaccinated?

From the recommendations of the Russian Ministry of Health it follows that if before vaccination you yourself do not tell about the fact that you were ill and passed a positive test, then you will be vaccinated. And if you tell, they won’t vaccinate you. Which of these decisions is optimal for the patient's well-being is unknown. Therefore, we looked at the recommendations of medical agencies in other countries. Everyone agrees that it is necessary to get vaccinated - but they recommend waiting . For example, the WHO advises delaying vaccination for six months, and the British NHS - only 28 days after the first positive test or the onset of symptoms of the disease.

What would Meduza readers write to their past selves, on the day the pandemic began?

Approximately every fourth letter contained advice to buy Bitcoin and shares of companies that had risen in price over the year. And also tips to play sports, spend less money on alcohol (and avoid beer on sale) and spend more time with loved ones :

"Advice. Spend time with your elders and try to impress upon them that the pandemic is no joke, before your grandfather dies of Covid and your grandmother, who lived with him all her life, begins to look completely lost. After all, you no longer have anyone closer than them,” reader Denis writes to himself.

Other news about coronavirus:

• According to Politico, 2020 was the deadliest year in US history .
• The European Union has approved a fourth vaccine, produced by Johnson & Johnson.
• Pfizerhas announced the effectiveness of its vaccine against the UK strain.
• The US Congress has approved $1,400 payments to most Americans due to the pandemic.

Podcast “What Happened”

“Nekhta” spoke about Lukashenko’s secret wealth. We talked about this investigation with the creator of “Nekhta” Stepan Putilo

On March 8 , the film “Bonanza” was released on Nekhta’s YouTube channel. As its creators admit, they were inspired by Alexei Navalny’s investigation into “Putin’s palace.” And, like the video about the palace in Gelendzhik, “Bonanza” is also breaking viewing records. In the new episode of the podcast, Vladislav Gorin discusses with Stepan Putilo what new we have learned about Lukashenko from the Nekhta investigation - and whether the film could become a trigger for a new wave of protests.

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

Video of the day

The Crimean Minister of Culture accidentally turned on his microphone during a meeting. I had to apologize

The head of Crimea, Sergei Aksenov, was speaking during a video call, when suddenly the Minister of Culture, Arina Novoselskaya , began swearing , thinking that no one could hear her. “Well, motherfucker, they treated me like a monkey,” Novoselskaya complained. “Arina Vadimovna, calm down, what are you doing there? What, in general, or what?” - Aksenov was indignant. Novoselskaya apologized - and as many as five times in a row. But Aksenov still ordered an internal investigation.

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