A MiG-29 aircraft crashed in the Astrakhan region. It is reported by RIA Novosti with reference to the Ministry of Defense. The department noted that the plane was making a planned flight without ammunition. He fell in a deserted place on the territory of the Ashuluk training ground. The pilot of the plane was killed. The causes of the incident are still unclear. A commission of the High Command of the Aerospace Forces was sent to the place.

The United States is demanding that Taliban militants allow all Afghan citizens who want to leave the country to freely reach Kabul airport, State Department spokeswoman Wendy Sherman said. Sherman said U.S. officials are now in direct dialogue with the Taliban in Kabul and Doha about this.

Rammstein frontman Till Lindemann will headline the Spasskaya Tower military music festival in Moscow. This was reported on the official website of the festival. As the organizers explained, as part of the festival, Lindemann will perform on Red Square on September 4 and 5. What exactly Lindemann will do - sing or conduct an orchestra, is not specified. The Spasskaya Tower festival has been held since 2009.

Russia is expelling Afghan nationals who arrived before the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan Women in burqas sitting in the trunk of a taxi in Kabul. July 31, 2021. Officials in Russia are expelling Afghan nationals who arrived in the country before the Taliban took power in Afghanistan, says a new report from the Russian BBC.

The Russian Justice Ministry has designated the independent election monitoring movement “Golos” as a “foreign agent,” Interfax reported on Wednesday, August 18. This makes Golos the first informal organization to be added to the Justice Ministry’s new registry of “foreign agents” that don’t have corresponding legal entities in Russia.

The Russian Ministry of Justice has added the voter rights movement Golos to a new register of “foreign agents” that includes organizations that do not have a legal entity in Russia. It is reported by Interfax. Golos was the first organization to be included in this register.

In late-night visits, officials in Moscow show up at the homes of dozens of Navalny supporters identified in data leaks and ask them to file police reports Evgeny Feldman Late on August 17, police officers across Moscow visited dozens of Alexey Navalny’s former supporters whose personal information has leaked online in recent months. According to the human rights project OVD-Info , at least 170 people have heard from the authorities in the past 24 hours.

The United Russia State Duma candidates who will meet with President Vladimir Putin on August 22 have been quarantined, RBC and Znak.com reported, citing sources. According to RBC, a total of 30-35 people from the party's active members are in quarantine. In particular, the head of the Talent and Success Foundation, Elena Shmeleva, who is in the top five of the United Russia federal list, is undergoing quarantine.

The Ministry of Sports of Belarus has banned athletes from traveling abroad to compete. This was stated in an interview with RBC by the Belarusian runner Kristina Timanovskaya. Today we literally learned the news that the Minister of Sports forbade all athletes to travel outside the Republic of Belarus - be it competitions, training camps, even vacations.

Aeroflot has canceled all flights from Moscow to Bangkok due to the restriction of flights over Afghanistan, over which the flight route passes. It is reported by TASS with reference to a source. The Russian Consulate in Phuket said that flights would be tentatively suspended until the end of October. At the same time, the airline itself has not officially confirmed the cancellation of flights.

The police came to Navalny's supporters, whose addresses were leaked to the Internet. What awaits the women of Afghanistan under the rule of the Taliban.

The police come to people who were registered on sites in support of Navalny. And asks to write a statement "On the leak of personal data" Evgeny Feldman In the evening of August 17, the Moscow police began to come massively to the supporters of the politician Alexei Navalny, whose addresses fell into a merged database related to the opposition projects.

In Germany, two American officials sought medical help due to symptoms typical of "Havana syndrome," The Wall Street Journal reports. As the publication emphasizes, these are the first cases of "Havana syndrome" recorded in a NATO country. The WSJ does not report in which structures the Americans who sought medical help work. Similar cases have occurred in other European countries in recent times, but their names have not been specified.

The Communist Party of the Russian Federation (KPRF) is demanding that election officials bar Maria Butina from running in the upcoming State Duma elections on the grounds that she’s the recipient of foreign funding. Butina, a former U.S. convict who is now a member of Russia’s Civic Chamber and a correspondent for the state-controlled television network RT, is running for parliament on United Russia’s party list in the Kirov region.

We retell the next dispute about contemporary art in modern Russia Sergey Kiselev / Agency "Moscow" The sculpture "Big Clay" 12 meters high appeared in the center of Moscow On August 15, a 12-meter sculpture of the contemporary artist Urs Fisher “Big clay No. 4” was installed in the center of Moscow on Bolotnaya embankment. It is located in front of the facade of the GEC-2-a former power plant, which was acquired and reconstructed by the V-A-C fund of the Russian billionaire Leonid Michelson .