Russian President Vladimir Putin personally approved the arrest of Evan Gershkovich, a correspondent for the American newspaper The Wall Street Journal, writes Bloomberg, citing sources familiar with the situation. According to the interlocutors of the agency, the initiative to arrest Gershkovich came from senior officials of the Russian special services. Journalists are sure that the final decision on the arrest was made by the president, since the special services report directly to him.

Warning: This story contains references to extreme violence that some readers may find disturbing. The recently emerged video footage with the beheading of a captive Ukrainian serviceman, apparently by Russian troops, is likely the work of Wagner Group.

The joint-stock company RS-Balt, which is the founder of the Rosbalt news agency, has decided to liquidate the organization, Lenizdat.ru reports, citing a corresponding entry on the federal register website. “The Extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders of JSC RS-Balt decided to liquidate and appoint Larisa Vladimirovna Afonina as the chairman of the liquidation commission,” the message said.

Italian investigators have identified 4-5 people who helped the son of Krasnoyarsk governor Artem Uss escape from house arrest in Milan, La Repubblica reports. According to the publication, a task force of at least ten people took part in Uss’s escape. Investigators believe that there were 6-7 participants in the operation. According to investigators, these people helped Uss get from Milan to the Italian city of Trieste in a few hours, changing several cars along the way.

The Royal City Court arrested the RusNews journalist and the author of the Honest Korolevskoye! telegram channel for two months. Roman Ivanov in the case of "fakes" about the Russian army, Mediazona reports. According to the publication, the defense offered the judge to release the journalist on 31 personal guarantees, on bail of one million rubles, on a written undertaking not to leave or an obligation to appear. Or put him under house arrest.

To the murder of the Ukrainian prisoner of war, the video of which spread on the network, involved in Wagner PMC , said the founder of Gulagu.net Vladimir Osechkin on the air of the Utuub-channel "Khodorkovsky Live". According to Osechkin, he contacted the former fighter of the PMC Wagner Andrei Medvedev, who had fled to Norway, who identified his colleagues on the video.

Who stands behind Russia’s new conscription system and the crackdown on draft dodgers? Olga Maltseva / AFP / Scanpix / LETA The State Duma’s hasty vote on a package of amendments to Russia’s conscription law has ushered in an entirely new system of military recruitment. An older draft of this legislation had been in the hopper since 2018.

Sergey Podoprigorov, a judge in the Moscow municipal court which is currently hearing a case against Vladimir Kara-Murza, asked the U.S. Treasury Department to remove him from the so-called “ Magnitsky list ,” reports independent news outlet Verstka. Verstka writes that Podoprigorov appealed to the U.S. Treasury Department in 2018. The elite British-Australian law firm Herbert Smith Freehills helped him prepare the appeal.

The Latvian Ministry of Defense confirmed that Latvian military personnel were sent to Ukraine to perform "auxiliary functions" such as guarding the embassy, ​​Delfi reports citing the department. The ministry emphasized that the Latvian military does not take part in hostilities. The Ministry of Defense did not specify how many soldiers are in Ukraine, and did not disclose the details of their service.

The US Treasury Department has imposed sanctions against dozens of Russian individuals and entities. Among others, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin, former head of the Ministry of Transport Yevgeny Dietrich, businessman Ivan Streshinsky and his wife Natalya, as well as the daughter and father of State Duma deputy Andrei Skoch Varvara and Vladimir fell under US restrictions.

Subscribe to our Utuub channel Battle for Bakhmut lasts more than six months. Wagner's PMC is storming the city, but the Ukrainian military does not surrender. There are only a few ways along which food, ammunition and reinforcements can be delivered to Bakhmut - and take the wounded from the city. What is happening on these "roads of life" - look at the "Medusa".

Chain (false) statements of the president and the Ministry of Defense Mikhail Klimentiev / AP / Scanpix / Leta March 5, 2022 ↓ Russian President Vladimir Putin states that only professional military - officers and contractors take part in “special operations” in Ukraine. He assures that the recruits in the war “there is not one”, and the command is not going to send them to the war zone.

Your Browser Does Not Support the Audio Element. How to hide from a call in Russia? What (more or less legal) methods still remain? On April 11, the State Duma of the Russian Federation immediately in the second and third reading adopted a package of amendments to the Federal Law “On Military Duty and Military Service”. April 12, the law was held by the Federation Council. Amendments made are made possible “electronic agendas”.

Writer Eduard Bagirov died at the age of 47. Bagirov’s death is reported, in particular, Varlamov News and Margarita Simonyan . Varlamov News, citing sources, writes that "the writer was in a coma for the last week, all the organs refused." Bagirov gained fame in 2007 after the release of the novel "Gastarbaiter". Among his other works, the novels “Lovers” (2008) and “idealist” (2010). He also wrote scripts for the film “Onegin” and the series “Pepel”.

Moscow City Court Judge Sergei Podoprigorov, who is currently hearing the case of treason and "fakes" about the Russian army against politician Vladimir Kara-Murza, has asked the US Department of Justice to remove himself from the " Magnitsky list ." Kara-Murza's lawyer Vadim Prokhorov told Verstka about this. According to the publication, Podoprigorov appealed to the US Treasury Department in 2018.