Evening Medusa

The bill on QR codes will be removed from consideration in the Duma. Why were negotiations between Russia, the US and NATO needed? Discussing with Viktor Shenderovich his departure from Russia

Good evening,

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this is Meduza's daily newsletter about the most important thing that happened today. For starters, the good news: Total Dictation again received a presidential grant . Last year, it was left without state funding, according to the authors, due to the fact that the writer Dmitry Glukhovsky, who criticizes the Russian authorities, was chosen as the author of the dictation.

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Pulse

The main thing for the day - point by point

• The State Duma will remove from consideration the draft law on QR codes.
• Moscow City Hall predicts between 30,000 and 90,000 cases of Covid infection per day, Meduza sources say.
• Navalny's associates Leonid Volkov and Ivan Zhdanov were added to the list of terrorists and extremists.
• Comedian Slava Komissarenko announced that he left Russia because of the persecution of the Belarusian KGB.
• HBO Max and CNN made a documentary about Alexei Navalny.
• Prince Andrew stripped of his military ranks and title of "His Royal Highness" due to allegations of sexual assault .
• The Australian authorities have again canceled the visa of tennis player Novak Djokovic.
• In Portugal, they began to investigate the granting of citizenship to Roman Abramovich in record time.
• Died actress Anastasia Voznesenskaya . She, in particular, played the role of market director Alla Kushakova in Eldar Ryazanov's Garage.

Texts of the day

Russia, the United States and NATO again did not agree on anything. And why were these negotiations on security guarantees needed at all?

On Thursday, January 13, negotiations between Russia and the United States, NATO and the OSCE on security guarantees ended, which began after numerous reports of a concentration of Russian troops near the border with Ukraine. Apparently, the parties failed to agree: each continues to insist on its own. Russia demands guarantees that Ukraine and Georgia will not join NATO, while the US insists on the "open door" principle. At the request of Meduza, political scientist Igor Zevelev explained why Russia and the United States needed negotiations, why they had no chance of success, and why they can be considered unprecedented .

Bonus: A retelling of a very disturbing Der Spiegel article . It says that NATO is already starting to work out scenarios for an armed conflict with Russia on several fronts.

The FSB announced the defeat of REvil, one of the most famous hacker groups that was associated with Russia. It came out after the appeal of the United States

The REvil group is known for attacking companies with programs that encrypt their data, and then demanding a ransom for the return of access to them. So, in June 2021, the US FBI accused REvil of attacking the largest meat producer in the world, the Brazilian company JBS, which paid extortionists $ 11 million. In July, the group was linked to a large-scale cyberattack that, according to some reports, affected more than a thousand companies. The FSB claims to have crushed the group completely . 14 participants at 25 addresses were searched. More than 426 million rubles were seized, including in cryptocurrency, 600 thousand US dollars, 500 thousand euros, 20 premium cars, as well as computer equipment and cryptocurrency wallets.

Podcast "What Happened"

We speak with the writer Viktor Shenderovich. He was recently declared a “foreign agent” in Russia and left the country to “wait out” what is happening

On January 11, 2022, the writer and publicist Viktor Shenderovich announced that he had left Russia due to the threat of criminal prosecution at the request of businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin. We speak with Shenderovich about his departure and the conditions under which he could return.

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

The coronavirus

During the two years of the pandemic, the labor market in Russia has fallen into a “perfect storm”. Explain what it means and what will happen next

The coronavirus has completely changed the labor market in Russia: it is not clear who to replace the departed migrants, young people do not want to work, and some applicants suddenly experienced an “existential crisis”. Natalia Danina, Director of Analytical Business Solutions at HeadHunter, spoke to Meduza about how Russia has experienced an acute shortage of workers and why this will have good consequences .

Türkiye has allowed foreign tourists to be vaccinated with the Pfizer vaccine. After vaccination, they give a certificate that allows you to freely travel to Europe.

The Turkish authorities have officially allowed to vaccinate tourists with the vaccines used in the country - Pfizer / BioNTech and Sinovac. For Russians, this can be a convenient option for obtaining a vaccination certificate, which is recognized by the EU countries. For each of the two injections, you will have to pay 400 Turkish liras (about 2.2 thousand rubles). With a covid certificate obtained in Turkey, with a visa, you can freely move around the EU countries and visit any public places there.

Kassym-Jomart of the day

Vladimir Putin mixed up the name of the President of Kazakhstan. Again

For the second time in a week, the Russian president made a mistake in the name of his Kazakh counterpart . At a meeting with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, where the withdrawal of the CSTO troops from Kazakhstan was discussed, Putin called Kassym-Jomart Tokayev "Kasam Zhemel Kemelich" (however, this is inaccurate). On Monday, at the CSTO online summit, Putin got “Kemel Zhomartovich”. The fragment with the second reservation was even cut out from the air of federal channels.

It's good that Putin doesn't have to remember the name of director Apichatpong Weerasethakun. Your Medusa