Evening Medusa

How does Roskomnadzor manage to slow down Twitter. What happened to Tima Belorussky in recent months. And one good news about the coronavirus

Good evening,

This is Meduza's daily newsletter about the important news of the day. Be honest: when was the last time you were jealous of a dog? In general, we have found such a dog, which is VERY difficult not to envy. This is a West Highland White Terrier named Luna, and she lives the best life possible : walks in the Alps, visits ancient castles - and wallows. In the snow, in the grass, on ski slopes and in mountain streams. Let's face it, we wanted to!

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Pulse

The main thing for the day - point by point

• Alexei Navalny, who is on a hunger strike for the ninth day, said that the administration of the colony gives him sweets and allows prisoners from his unit to fry chicken and bread . Previously, chicken was under the strictest ban, now you are welcome.
• The situation with Ukraine is escalating. Russia is gathering troops on the border, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has gone to the front line , Putin’s deputy head of the administration is threatening that the fighting in Donbass will be “the beginning of the end of Ukraine . ”
• Putin spoke with Merkel : just about the Donbass and Navalny (about him - at the initiative of Merkel, the Kremlin specifically clarified).
• The Moscow City Court has canceled the house arrest of Lyubov Sobol, Konstantin Yankauskas, Lucy Stein and Oleg Navalny.
• The administrator of the largest telegram bot for database search came with a search .

Texts of the day

Tima Belorussky faces up to five years in prison for drugs. We tried to find out what's going on with him.

To do this, Meduza special correspondent Alexandra Sivtsova spoke with the musician's former producer and founder of the Kaufman label Alexander Roznichenko . Tim Belorussky himself and his current representatives refused to communicate. Roznichenko said that the musician announced his decision to leave the label last summer - and accused the producer of only "counting money." At the same time, as the producer assures, the singer still has contractual obligations, he cannot perform most of his hits and even be called Tima Belorussky.

It seems that Roskomnadzor does a better job of slowing down Twitter than blocking Telegram.

Researchers from the University of Michigan have published a study on exactly how social network slowdown works. It turned out that the RKN really cuts the speed of access to Twitter to 100-150 kilobits per second - and slows down access even to text content (and not just audio, video and images). In addition, the department is trying to fight various technologies to circumvent their efforts. But not everything turns out yet - and there is still room for circumventing censorship . Although American cyber intelligence was clearly alarmed by this report.

The coronavirus

Finally good news! It looks like the virus is almost never transmitted through surfaces.

This conclusion was reached by the employees of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The results of their study suggest that in real, not laboratory conditions, the risk of infection through surfaces is very low . The virus and so quickly dies on porous surfaces (in a few hours or even minutes). In addition, viral particles can be destroyed by ventilation and ultraviolet radiation. In general, wiping your desk, doorknobs, and railings with alcohol-based liquids several times a day is not necessary. But you still need to wash your hands and wear masks!

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has confirmed that blood clots are a rare side effect of the AstraZeneca vaccine. But he clarified: the benefits of the drug outweigh the risks

The European regulator has recognized blood clots as a very rare side effect of the AstraZeneca vaccine (now called Vaxzevria). The symptoms are thought to be caused by an immune response to the vaccine, but the exact cause is not yet known. At the same time, the EMA, as before, does not consider it necessary to refuse the vaccine . About 34 million people have already been vaccinated with AstraZeneca's drug in the European Union.

Slovakia may be left without Sputnik V

And one more piece of news: the Slovak publication Dennik, citing sources, reported that the Sputnik V vaccine sold to the country differs from the one whose test results were published in The Lancet magazine. Vaccine manufacturers called these reports fake. And later, the Russian Direct Investment Fund even demanded the return of the batch of Sputnik V delivered to Slovakia.

Podcast "What Happened"

Artdocfest is under pressure from all sides this year: officials, right-wing radicals and (it seems) even Kadyrov’s people

Artdocfest is the largest documentary film festival in Russia. It started on April 2 in Moscow and on the 3rd in St. Petersburg. All the days that the festival has been going on, the organizers have faced threats and provocations from activists, complaints from deputies, checks by the police and Rospotrebnadzor. Some screenings had to be postponed, and a number of films were completely abandoned. In today's issue, we are discussing what is happening with the president of Artdocfest, film director Vitaly Mansky.

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

Test of the day

Now let's find out how nude sculptures affect you

Here are the official bodies that file complaints with the Hermitage Museum, they are sure that the influence of the sculptures is exclusively negative. And children are the first to be affected. Do nude statues bother you? It's time to check !

We grab the door handles with both hands, your "Medusa"