A drone attack on Gazpromneft's Moscow oil refinery in Kapotnya on September 1 damaged the Euro+ unit, which accounts for about half of the plant's capacity, three unnamed sources told Reuters. According to the agency's sources, the plant suspended operations at its oil refining unit after the fire. Repairs to the equipment could take five to six days, Reuters adds. Euro+ replaced five previous generation units at the refinery; its capacity is 6 million tons of oil per year.

The Buzuluk District Court of the Orenburg Region fined local resident Igor Shpil 10,000 rubles for his comments on VKontakte. The decision was published on the court's website, and the Sova Research Center drew attention to it. Shpil was found guilty on July 11 under the protocol on incitement of hatred and enmity (20.3.1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses).

The FSB reported the arrest of a 23-year-old resident of Kerch on charges of treason (Article 275 of the Criminal Code). According to the Russian special services, he contacted Ukrainian intelligence officers and gave them information about the location of the air defense system in Crimea. The FSB's press release was accompanied by a photograph from the search, in which a Kerch resident with bleached hair is sitting at home, covering his shoulder with a US flag.

Art: Maria Tolstova / Mediazona A decade ago, in September 2014, we launched Mediazona—a small outlet dedicated to reporting on the Russian state’s relationship with its people, ranging from indifferent and alienating to brutal and downright criminal. For ten years, we’ve chronicled our country’s descent into dictatorship and war. Throughout this journey, our Russian readers’ monthly donations have been our lifeline.By February 24, 2022, we had the support of 10,000 readers.

In Primorsky Krai, 21-year-old participant in the war in Ukraine Nikita Nosov recorded a video message at the end of August about "bandits" extorting military payments from him. After that, he attempted suicide in the forest. The video has spread in Primorsky publics. The Ministry of Internal Affairs reported today the arrest of one of the men mentioned by Nosov, who lost his arm in the war.

Illustration: Boris Hmel / Mediazone In July 2024, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia declared a famous teacher and ideologist of informal education from St. Petersburg Dima Zitser on the wanted list of military “fakes”, for which it is still unknown. Soon after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Zitser left Russia, and he continues not only to publish the pedagogical podcast “cannot be loved” in his YouTube channel, but also speaks out on political topics.

During an appeal, the Moscow City Court reduced the sentences of the authors of the Telegram channel “Tushite Svet,” associated with Ksenia Sobchak, by two years. As reported by the press service of the capital's courts, Kirill Sukhanov, commercial director of "Beware, Media", had his term reduced to 5 years and 6 months in a maximum security penal colony. Former editor-in-chief of Tatler Russia Arian Romanovsky and Tamerlan Bigaev were sentenced to five years in a penal colony.

At the Rosrezerv oil depot in Proletarsk, Rostov Region, an "open fire" was extinguished after sixteen days, TASS reports , citing emergency services. A source for 161.ru in the district administration confirms this information. "The fire has been extinguished. The crews are currently on site, they are still looking today, let's say, just in case, because there is a strong wind. But the open fire has been extinguished," the TASS source said.

The Investigative Committee announced the arrest of Major General Valery Mumindzhanov, deputy commander of the Leningrad Military District, responsible for the logistical support of the army (Part 6 of Article 290 of the Criminal Code), in a bribery case. According to the agency, Muminjanov, who previously held the post of head of the Defense Ministry's Resource Provision Department, received kickbacks from uniform suppliers totaling more than 20 million rubles.

The Nevsky District Court of St. Petersburg has arrested a man named Artur Kurshev, who is accused of murder (Part 1 of Article 105 of the Criminal Code). This was reported by the press service of the city courts. According to investigators, on the afternoon of August 28, a man stabbed a girl twice in the chest with a knife in the area behind the abandoned Nevsky Palace of Culture. The victim died on the spot from her wounds. Kurshev himself, as the court press service adds, admitted his guilt.

The Kirovsky District Court of Ufa placed 20-year-old Makar Nikolaev in pretrial detention in a case of terrorist propaganda. This was reported by Baza and Idel.Realii, citing unnamed sources. Court representatives confirmed the arrest to Ufa1.ru . According to the publications, FSB officers detained Nikolaev, a student studying in Germany, when he came to Ufa for the holidays.

Illustration: Maria Tolstova / Mediazone 10 years ago, in September 2014, we launched the Mediazon, then a very small publication about the attitude of the state towards a person in Russia. All these years, we described how the country is rolling to dictatorship and war. All these years of our main support have been your monthly donations.

Police in Seoul, the capital of South Korea, have launched a preliminary investigation into Telegram on suspicion of facilitating the distribution of deepfake porn, Yonhap news agency reported . According to the publication, law enforcement agencies are checking eight Telegram bots that are used to create porn deepfakes with the faces of South Korean women. In addition, the police are interested in group chats in which these materials could be distributed.

The Nyandomsky District Court of the Arkhangelsk Region sentenced former municipal deputy from Kargopol Radik Adnobaev for anti-war posts. This was reported by Sergei Tikhonov, a lawyer from the human rights project OVD-Info. Adnobaev was fined 140,000 rubles in a criminal case on repeated discrediting of the army (Part 1 of Article 280.3 of the Criminal Code).

In June, Russian research institutes received a letter from the Ministry of Health demanding that they report on their anti-aging developments, according to an investigation by journalists from Meduza and Sistema . In the letter, which was obtained by the publications, scientists were asked to provide proposals for combating sarcopenia, senile asthenia and osteoporosis.