The Supreme Court of Dagestan sentenced former State Duma deputy Ilya Ponomarev in absentia to 19 years in prison in the case of an anti-Semitic pogrom at Makhachkala airport in October 2023.

US President Donald Trump said the federal government should pay more attention to defense funding and less to health care and child care, since this should be handled by state governments, CNN reported on April 2. Trump announced this during a private Easter dinner on April 1. The video briefly appeared on the White House YouTube channel, after which it was deleted, but the video was saved by a Business Insider journalist.

Apple announced that as of April 1, payment processing for purchases made on the App Store or other Apple services in Russia will no longer be available. “This may affect your current subscriptions. “If there are no funds in your Apple account balance, it will no longer be possible to make new purchases, including in-app purchases and subscription renewals, in Russia,” Apple said in a statement published on April 2.

“Despotism like Russia cannot be overthrown by peaceful protest. Ukraine showed how it is possible" The commander of the Russian Volunteer Corps ( RDK ) Denis Kapustin gave a long interview to journalist Yuri Dudu. In Russia, Kapustin was sentenced in absentia to two life sentences on charges of treason and terrorism. In particular, he was tried in the case of the invasion of a sabotage group into the Bryansk region in 2023.

President Donald Trump fired Pam Bondi as attorney general, CNN, Fox News, The New York Times and other media reported on April 2, citing sources. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche has taken over the acting position, sources said. Trump met with Bondi on the evening of April 1. According to Fox News, their meeting took place in the Oval Office before Trump addressed the nation about the war in Iran. At the meeting, Bondi learned of her resignation.

Deputy Head of the Ministry of Digital Development of the Russian Federation Andrei Zarenin, who oversees the radio electronics department at the ministry, decided to volunteer for the Russian-Ukrainian war, Kommersant reported on April 2. According to the publication, the head of the department, Maksut Shadayev, informed employees about this in an internal channel in Yandex Messenger.

In northwestern China, an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease was recorded in two herds of cattle in Gansu province and the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Reuters reports, citing the country's Ministry of Agriculture. A total of 219 animals fell ill in the herds, which total 6,229 animals. Serotype SAT1 of the foot-and-mouth disease virus was detected in the sick animals. Chinese-made vaccines do not work against this strain, the agency notes.

The Russian Foreign Ministry in its YouTube channel deliberately distorted fragments of an interview with the head of the department, Sergei Lavrov, which he gave to French public television. French journalists themselves drew attention to this. Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia Interview with S.

The Latvian Military Intelligence and Security Service has published ( .pdf ) the names of six Russian GRU officers and one Belarusian GRU officer who, according to the agency, are engaged in intelligence activities against Latvia. These included Russian GRU officers Alexey Pyzhikov, Alexey Lesnikov, Nikolai Chetverikov, Alexander Yushin, Alexander Gladkov and Grigory Ivanov, as well as GRU officer of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Belarus Sergei Baranov.

The Ministry of Digital Development of the Russian Federation asked the largest Russian platforms in terms of audience to limit access to their platforms to users with VPN enabled by April 15, sources told RBC. The head of the department, Maksut Shadayev, informed representatives of more than 20 companies at a meeting on March 30, according to the publication’s interlocutors close to these companies.

You swear a lot! And they often wrote about emigration On March 30, Russian media reported that the Ministry of Digital Development, on behalf of either the FSB or Vladimir Putin personally, is preparing a number of new prohibitive measures against VPN services - from complicating their purchase through the App Store to increasing fees for international traffic and, possibly, introducing administrative liability for the use of VPNs (the use of such services is not currently prohibited).

1499th day. The first batch of drones for the Ukrainian Armed Forces was released in Germany as part of the Build with Ukraine program. It provides for the production of Ukrainian weapons in Europe Nikoletta Stoyanova / Getty Images A Ukrainian soldier launches a drone. Kharkov region, March 31, 2026 Since February 24, 2022, Meduza has been broadcasting live about the Russian-Ukrainian war. We publish your letters every day because we are sure that we need to continue talking about the war.

One of the dead passengers on the An-26 plane that crashed in Crimea could have been the commander of the mixed aviation corps of the Northern Fleet, Lieutenant General Alexander Otroshchenko. The BBC Russian Service writes about this. One of the Northern Fleet servicemen told reporters about Otroshchenko’s death. This information was confirmed by a resident of the city of Severomorsk, who lost a relative in a plane crash.

A new version of the play “Riot Days” will be shown in European cities, its creative producer Alexander Cheparukhin told Meduza. The first leg of the tour will begin on April 2 in Paris. A total of three shows are planned in France and Switzerland, as well as two more in the Netherlands. The new version of the production is based on two books by Pussy Riot member, artist and activist Maria Alekhina - “Riot Days” and “Political. How to survive in Russia" .

The Parliament of Moldova voted to denounce key agreements with the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), which will allow the country to leave the organization. 60 out of 101 deputies voted for the adoption of the relevant laws, Interfax writes. Deputies from the Party of Communists and the Party of Socialists opposed it. They believe that Moldova’s exit from the CIS “will have catastrophic consequences” for the country’s economy.