Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev held his last meeting of the Ministry of Defense as president. I suspect that Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov also participated in one of his last military department boards as its head. Both senior leaders stated that the military reform (they finally called what was happening in the right words) was “practically” implemented. And this, I write without any irony, is their great service to the country, to all of us.

In the story of the Investigative Committee initiating a criminal case based on a blog entry by Arkady Babchenko, there are at least two important points. The first concerns the identity of the author of the post. Arkady Babchenko, whom I have personally known since working at Novaya Gazeta, is a journalist and writer, and his second incarnation is more important in this case, since the reason for the criminal case was not an article in the media, but a post on his personal blog.