Meduza breaks down the evidence, or lack thereof, presented by federal investigators against Russia’s top oppositionist Oleg Nikishin / Epsilon / Getty Images In the late evening hours of Tuesday, December 29, Russia’s Federal Investigative Committee announced felony fraud charges against Anti-Corruption Foundation founder Alexey Navalny and “other individuals.” The opposition figure and his colleagues are suspected of embezzling hundreds of millions of rubles in donations to their organizations

Your browser does not support the audio element. How Russia is ruled: Debt and vertical control across towns and industries Thanks to Russia’s recent constitutional amendments, local self-government has effectively lost its independence. State officials at all levels are now accountable, one way or another, to the president.

Imperfect picture on Russian fairy tales, which will surely like the audience Walt Disney The “last hero: the root of evil” - the continuation of the Russian blockbuster, based on Russian fairy tales, was released. This time, the main character Ivan, the son of Ilya Muromets, will have to protect Belogorye from evil witches (not without the help of Koshchei Immortal and Kolobok). The film critic of Medusa Anton Dolin tells why this far from the perfect picture may appeal to the audience.

25 years ago, “Old Songs of the Main” came out. Yuri Saprykin explains how this project helps us understand the history of Russia Exactly 25 years ago, on the night of January 1, 1996, public Russian television (current Channel One) showed “Old Songs of the Main” - a film that became the beginning of the famous music cycle.

Tell us, and we will publish the best stories Bruna Prado / AP / Scanpix / Leta There is such superstition: how you celebrate the New Year, so you will spend it. Here we collect the most cool stories about how our readers met the 2021st. Tell us, and at the same time show - throw links to your photos on Instagram. We will read and recently publish the best stories. And here are stories .

Wow, well, a year turned out! Well, at least the memes did not fail - there are many of them, and they are directly very funny. Without them, it would be really sad to hatch self -isolation and openly unbearable to read disturbing news about coronavirus. In general, we tell you what memes 2020 will be remembered.