The current mayor of Khimki, Vladimir Strelchenko, won the elections for the head of the city district on March 1, Gazeta.Ru reports. Moreover, he won, barely crossing the threshold required for victory in the first round - 50.48% of voters voted for him. His deputy Igor Belousov came second with 22.81%, third was the leader of the movement “In Defense of the Khimki Forest” Evgenia Chirikova (15.3%).

At first it looked like a joke. When the country's Chief Firefighter proposed trial for denying the role of the USSR in the victory in the Great Patriotic War, it looked like black humor. When the next day Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika supported Shoigu’s idea, it still looked gloomy, but no longer funny.

The world -famous entrepreneur, public figure, philanthropist and human rights activist Arkady Gaidamak filed a motion to provide him with Russian citizenship. It can be safely argued that for the Kremlin and personally the President Dmitry Medvedev came the moment of truth. There is no question of a more significant issue for today than Russian citizenship of Mr. Gaidamak.

One of my close friends who lives in Zamoskvorechye, right next to the Tretyakovskaya metro station, has long been complaining about the disgusting, suffocating smell that has been spreading throughout the area for several months now. “We did everything we could,” he laments, “we contacted the local government, wrote to the sanitary and epidemiological service—nothing helps. Like the wind from Pyatnitskaya, even wear a gas mask.

Lustration is a thankless topic to think about. Anyone who advocates for it can give the impression of a man with trembling hands, who spends days and nights thinking about photographs of Putin and his team and coming up with various ways of public revenge. And yet lustration is needed. It must be inevitable. And kind. Chapter one: “Do we need it?” Life currently works like this. An ordinary police officer receives an order to seize some student who has come out to demonstrate, and grabs him.

We are now preparing a lawsuit and are going to protest these results. There were monstrous violations; many of our observers were removed when they tried to stop some lawlessness. There were even attacks on our observers. People were brought in by bus, and there was intimidation. We have already contacted the prosecutor's office. A woman, one of our observers, was literally attacked by an observer from Strelchenko for filming violations. She contacted the police.

The Kremlin is dealing with the crisis in different ways. There are clear measures. For example, when the authorities introduced prohibitive duties on foreign cars, which are used throughout Primorye, this beneficial measure was understandable: Mr. Chemezov must be protected, and let the Primorye residents die. And there are measures that are incomprehensible.