The US Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced on February 24 that it included four individuals and three companies on Russia sanctions lists . The St. Petersburg company Operation Zero (Matrix LLC) and its director Sergei Zelenyuk were sanctioned.

The Supreme Court of Kazakhstan has suspended the extradition procedure for Chechen activist Mansur Movlaev to Russia, his lawyer Rena Kerimova said. The court ruled that Movlaev cannot be extradited to the Russian Federation before the Kazakh authorities make a decision on the issue of granting him asylum. Until this moment, Movlaev will remain in custody.

Iranian authorities are close to concluding an agreement with China on the purchase of supersonic anti-ship cruise missiles, Reuters reported on February 24, citing six sources familiar with the negotiations. There is no independent confirmation of this information. We are talking about supersonic missiles CM-302 (export version of YJ-12), whose flight range is about 290 kilometers. The missiles can bypass ship's air defense systems by flying at low altitude at high speed.

The director of the Louvre, Laurence De Car, submitted her resignation, the press service of the Elysee Palace reported on February 24. French President Emmanuel Macron accepted her resignation and called it "an act of responsibility." It has not been announced who will become the new director.

We study Russian propaganda on the fourth anniversary of the start of the great war Anton Vaganov / Reuters / Scanpix / LETA Funeral of a Russian military man in the Leningrad region, February 18, 2026 What is this text A paraphrase is not a collection of exact quotes. We may reformulate speakers' statements, shorten them, or rearrange them to make the text coherent, but we retain the meaning of these statements. Authorities The goals of the SVO have not yet been achieved, so the SVO continues.

The worst snowstorm in a decade led to widespread power outages and traffic disruption in the northeastern United States. According to meteorologists, more than 60 centimeters of snow fell in local states within 24 hours. The highest snowdrifts—37.9 inches (96 centimeters)—were recorded in Rhode Island. The depth of snow cover in different parts of New York varies from 50 to 80 centimeters.

“The state protects citizens from a digital monster that has gotten out of control” Dave Bedrosian / Future Image / Cover Images / Scanpix / LETA Telegram founder Pavel Durov reported that in Russia a criminal case was opened against him under the article of “promotion of terrorist activities” (Russian investigative authorities did not officially announce this). “A sad spectacle of a state afraid of its own people,” Durov wrote .

The Higher School of Economics (NRU HSE) hosted a drone festival on the fourth anniversary of the Russian-Ukrainian war, reports Novaya Gazeta Europe and Beware, News . University students said that the festival was organized in the central atrium of the HSE building on Pokrovsky Boulevard. There, students were invited to take part in a “drone race” and also control drones in simulators. Models of military aircraft and drones were also displayed in the atrium.

Update. According to Meduza, the Latvian authorities decided to send Lankov to Estonia. The Latvian Foreign Ministry declared the scientist persona non grata, the decision was made on February 20, it is not subject to appeal, Andrei Pivovarov, consular coordinator of the Anti-War Committee, told the BBC Russian Service. A lecture by Andrei Lankov, a leading expert on North Korea, was canceled in Riga, reports a correspondent for Novaya Gazeta Europe.

Listen to the episode of the First Quarter podcast about the band Shortparis - and the song “Scary” The leader of the Shortparis group Nikolai Komyagin died on February 20. It was reported that he went into cardiac arrest after boxing training. The farewell to the artist took place on February 24 in St. Petersburg.

Former deputy head of the anti-corruption department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Northwestern Federal District, retired police colonel Mikhail Smirnov died in the war with Ukraine as a result of a kamikaze drone attack, Fontanka reports without indicating the source of information. According to the publication, Smirnov died about a week ago on the border of the Belgorod and Kharkov regions during the offensive of Russian troops.

The Chelyabinsk City Court sentenced transgender woman Yulia (her name has been changed) to four years in prison for publishing intimate photographs and “depressing” poems, 7×7 and Beware News reported, citing her lawyer Elvira (her last name is not given). Yulia will serve her sentence in a men's colony. The investigation and the court saw pornography in the photographs, and calls for suicide in the poems.

Hundreds of people brought apples to the funeral (this is a reference to the album “Apple Orchard”). They walked to the grave calmly, in complete silence. Photos On February 24, in St. Petersburg, we said goodbye to Nikolai Komyagin, the leader of the Shortparis group. He died on February 20: after boxing training, his heart stopped. The funeral service took place in the Feodorovsky Cathedral of St.

Telegram founder Pavel Durov commented on reports from Russian pro-government publications that “his actions are being investigated” as part of a criminal case for facilitating terrorist activities (Part 1.1 of Article 205.1 of the Criminal Code). “Russia has opened a criminal case against me for ‘promoting terrorism’. Every day, authorities come up with new excuses to restrict Russians' access to Telegram, seeking to suppress the rights to privacy and freedom of speech.

Putin said the bomber was recruited on the Internet Alexey Mayshev / RIA Novosti / Sputnik / IMAGO / SNA / Scanpix / LETA At the site of the explosion of a police car near the Savyolovsky station, February 24, 2026 On the night of February 24, an explosion occurred near the Savelovsky railway station in Moscow, as a result of which one policeman was killed and two more were injured.