The Electoral Commission of the Moscow Region approved almost 600 seats for voting in the elections to the State Duma in remote settlements, Novaya Gazeta reports, citing decisions of territorial commissions.

The American sportswear and footwear brand Under Armor is going to open new stores in Russia in the fall of 2022, Vedomosti and Kommersant reported , citing anonymous sources. Representatives of Under Armor approached the owners of several shopping centers in Moscow about the lease of space for shops, said two top managers of development companies and two consultants working with the shopping center.

Team Navalny looks into Sergey Lavrov’s ‘female companion’ identified by investigative journalists Christian Hartmann / Reuters / Scanpix / LETA On September 14, investigative journalists from iStories identified an alleged Russian Foreign Ministry employee by the name of Svetlana Polyakova as the longtime “female companion” of Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

Voting in the State Duma elections has begun in Kamchatka Krai and the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug. Polling stations in these regions opened at 8 a.m. local time on September 17 (11 p.m. Moscow time on September 16). Voting in the elections will take place over three days - September 17, 18 and 19.

The “Smart Vote” website and Telegram bot are being subjected to DDoS attacks, Alexey Navalny’s team reported late in the evening on Thursday, September 16. In a message on Telegram, Team Navalny wrote that the “Smart Vote” website and Telegram bot are currently facing the “most powerful” DDoS attacks. “Requests may not work temporarily. We’re trying to deal with it,” Team Navalny said.

On the evening of September 16, the Telegram bot and the Smart Voting website were subjected to a DDoS attack, Alexei Navalny's team reported on their Telegram channel. "The Telegram bot and the Smart Voting website are currently under heavy DDoS. Requests may not work temporarily. We are trying to deal with this," the politician's allies said in a statement.

Rolls-Royce has conducted the first tests of its Spirit of Innovation electric aircraft, the manufacturer said in a statement. On September 15, the plane took to the skies over the UK, taking off from the test airfield of the British Ministry of Defense "Boscombe Down". The flight lasted about 15 minutes.

The Russian Investigative Committee launched a criminal case over an alleged attempt to orchestrate “mass riots” during voting in this weekend’s State Duma elections, the agency announced on Thursday, September 16. In a press release, state investigators named “Dmitry Chebanov and other individuals” as the suspects in the case, adding that they are seeking to have these persons jailed pending trial.

Microsoft Corporation has allowed users of its online services to do away with passwords for their accounts. "Nobody likes passwords. They're inconvenient. They're a prime target for attack. Yet for years, they've been the most important layer of security for everything in our digital lives," Microsoft said in a statement on its website. As of September 15, Microsoft has given users the option to disable the password on their account.

The Danish government has introduced a bill to parliament that would prevent life-sentenced prisoners from entering into new romantic relationships. According to BBC News, the bill suggests that in the first 10 years of a life sentence, prisoners will only be able to communicate with people close to them. Authorities are counting on the proposed restriction to prevent criminals from gaining fans.

The World Bank has decided to stop publishing the annual Doing Business ranking, which assessed the conditions for doing business in different countries of the world. This decision was explained by the organization as errors and violations that were discovered during the preparation of previous reports. The bank said that in the future they will develop a "new approach to assessing the business and investment climate" in the countries of the world.

What happens if you vote for a Smart Vote candidate? The head of the Doctors' Alliance announced a break with FBK. Discussing the case against Yuri Khovansky with Dmitry Larin Good evening, THIS MESSAGE (MATERIAL) WAS CREATED AND (OR) DISTRIBUTED BY A FOREIGN MEDIA PERFORMING THE FUNCTIONS OF A FOREIGN AGENT AND (OR) BY A RUSSIAN LEGAL ENTITY PERFORMING THE FUNCTIONS OF A FOREIGN AGENT This is Meduza's daily newsletter about the most important things that happened that day.

Meduza addresses the questions and concerns haunting Russian opposition voters this weekend Several Meduza readers who registered with the Navalny movement’s Smart Vote initiative have recently received identical emails from some unknown party warning that voting in this weekend’s parliamentary elections could expose them to criminal liability.

In mid-August, Russian film director Andrey Zvyagintsev was transferred to Germany for treatment due to a severe case of COVID-19. Doctors are now preparing to bring him out of a medically-induced coma, reports The Bell, citing sources familiar with the situation. Zvyagintsev was in extremely serious condition, according to The Bell’s sources. He sustained damage to 92 percent of his lungs and was put on extracorporeal life support (ECLS).

And her daughter called Villa Deripaska on Sardinia the "second home" Christian Hartmann / Reuters / Scanpix / Leta On September 14, “important stories” wrote about Svetlana Polyakova - a woman who was represented as an employee of the Russian Foreign Ministry and who, according to the publication, has a long -standing and close relationship with the head of the department, Sergei Lavrov.