Evening Medusa

Why Putin allows himself to be laughed at. The Ministry of Health and Rospotrebnadzor argued about the third wave of the pandemic. A book by a Russian author has been nominated for Booker for the third time in history

Good evening,

This is Meduza's daily newsletter about the important news of the day. Let's start today's letter with a riddle. The US Strategic Command (the agency responsible for nuclear weapons) posted this tweet: ";l;gmlxzssaw". What was it? WiFi password? Rocket launch codes? Judging by the fact that we are still alive, it is clearly not the second option. In general, here is the correct answer (and at the same time the version from the QAnon conspiracy theorists).

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Pulse

The main thing for the day - point by point

• In a cottage village in the Moscow region, a man opened fire on policemen. His house was besieged by the Russian Guard and the FSB.
• The police began checking the words of Vladimir Solovyov, who compared Alexei Navalny to Hitler.
• The book "In Memory of Memory" by Maria Stepanova was nominated for the International Booker Prize.
• Apple allowed service centers in Russia to officially repair their equipment.
• Nike has demanded the destruction of all sneakers with drops of human blood in the sole, which were made by rapper Lil Nas X and the MSCHF company .
• died . The leader of the group "Old Friend" Alexander Zaretsky

Texts of the day

Why is authoritarianism not afraid of jokes and memes?

Recently, everyone laughed at the footage from the vacation of Vladimir Putin and Sergei Shoigu in the taiga. And before that, about how the president rode shirtless on horseback, dived for amphorae and flew with Siberian Cranes. The cult of personality of authoritarian leaders is joked by the media, hosts of evening shows and just people on the Internet. Do not PR people for Putin or, for example, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov understand that such propaganda looks ridiculous? Even as they understand, says Maxim Trudolyubov, editor of the “Ideas” column. And he explains how political humor works in a democracy and how it works under authoritarianism.

Janitor from Tomsk, who became famous for quoting The Beatles, found a son whom he had not seen for 40 years

In February, the Tomsk television channel TV2 made a story for Valentine's Day. Then, to the question of whether love needs material evidence, the janitor Vitaly Nikiforov answered: “Can't buy me love, everybody tells me so.” The Beatles sang. You can't buy love." The video became popular, and Vitaly was called for a full interview. He mentioned that he does not communicate with the older of the two sons. Later, a man named Dmitry Nikiforov contacted the channel and said that he lost contact with his father 40 years ago. Dmitry and Vitaly phoned and talked . True, not for long yet: Vitaly is being treated for alcohol addiction in a rehabilitation center.

The coronavirus

Today - only short news:

• The Ministry of Health has warned of a third wave in Russia. And Rospotrebnadzor said that it would not be.
• The Swedish-British company AstraZeneca has renamed its vaccine Vaxzevria.
• The Prime Minister of Slovakia resigned amid the crisis over the purchase of Sputnik V.

Podcast "What Happened"

The Myanmar military has killed more than 400 protesters in the past two months. At the same time, Russia supports the junta. Why?

Protesters in Myanmar oppose the coup carried out by the military. Many countries refused to contact them, but not Russia. On the day when more than a hundred people died at the hands of the military, the Deputy Minister of Defense of Russia met with the leader of the junta and attended a parade in honor of the armed forces of Myanmar. Other countries either withdrew or sent less representative delegates. In the new episode of the podcast, Alexei Maslov, professor at the HSE School of Oriental Studies, explains how politics in Myanmar actually works, why a military coup took place in the country, and what interests Russia has there.

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

Failure of the day

The Italian mafia successfully hid for seven years. He was let down by his love for delicious food.

Mark Byart, 53, a member of the Calabrian 'Ndrangheta group, has been searched by Interpol since 2014. He settled in the Dominican Republic in the small town of Boca Chica and began to lead a quiet family life. Bjart started posting cooking videos on YouTube - and even prudently did not show his face. But they figured him out by the tattoos on his arms, after which they detained him .

We hope that Rospotrebnadzor is right, not the Ministry of Health. Your Medusa