Pavel Krisevich’s personal archive Former Pussy Riot member and activist Rita Flores (real name Margarita Konovalova) said on August 24 that FSB officers recruited her in early 2023. According to Flores, security officials threatened to kill her family, and under that pressure she agreed to cooperate and gather information on contemporary artists and political activists, including Pussy Riot members.

St. Petersburg store and clothing brand OldBaby Shop (“Self”) announced its closure. Information about this appeared on the brand’s social networks. “The store is closed forever. Toma finally quit (August 23). I received the money and have no complaints. We have returned all our debts to you. We are finishing the last orders... and that’s it. Hugs,” reads OldBaby Shop’s latest Instagram post.

In Moscow, at the intersection of New Arbat and Novinsky Boulevard, a motorcycle collided with a car, reports Msk1. The car involved in the accident is an Aurus Senat, which is registered to the leader of the LDPR party Leonid Slutsky, reported the “Bloody Lady” telegram channel, part of Ksenia Sobchak’s media holding “Caution Media”. Initially, it was not known who caused the accident and whether Slutsky himself was in the car at that moment.

Ukraine’s leadership has no overall vision for how to win the war against Russia, former Ukrainian Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov told Reuters. Corruption and the slow adoption of new technology are also holding the country back, he said. “I think that there’s now a turning point which will determine our future trajectory [in the war], but it looks as though we’re gradually, slowly losing,” Fedorov said.

Reuters / Scanpix / LETA Fire at an oil refinery in Kapotnya after a Ukrainian drone attack. June 18, 2026, Moscow Starting August 24, Russian authorities can place critical infrastructure facilities under temporary state management if their owners have failed to take adequate security measures. Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the decree. The decree’s key provisions are open to very broad interpretation.

Alen Simonyan, secretary of Armenia’s Security Council, told TV Rain , the independent Russian broadcaster, that Armenia will not block Russians from entering the country if Moscow announces a new mobilization. TV Rain journalist Yekaterina Kotrikadze asked Simonyan whether Armenia was prepared to accept a new wave of Russians seeking to avoid being sent to the front. Here’s what he said: No one at the border is going to ask anyone why they came here.

Arnold Jerocki / Getty Images August 17 ↓ The concert promoter, Say Agency, announced that the rapper Ye, also known as Kanye West, would perform on October 10 and 11 at Gazprom Arena in St. Petersburg, a venue that seats about 80,000 people. Ticket sales opened on the website yerussia2026.ru, where seats ranged from 9,000 to 160,000 rubles. The cheapest sold out within hours.

American country singer Dolly Parton has died at the age of 80. Her death was announced by her nephew Brian Seaver, writes The New York Times. Paul Natkin/Getty Images Over the course of a career spanning more than 50 years, Dolly Parton has released 49 albums, won 11 Grammy Awards, and become one of the country music scene's most commercially successful singers. In 1999, she was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Parton was not only a performer, but also a songwriter.

The Ukrainian authorities do not have a common vision of how to win the war with Russia. Ukraine is also held back by slow innovation and corruption, former Ukrainian Defense Minister Mikhail Fedorov told Reuters. “I think we are now approaching a turning point that will determine our future trajectory [in the war], but it seems that we are gradually, slowly losing,” Fedorov said.

Kevin Dietsch / Getty Images CIA Director John Ratcliffe made an unannounced visit to Moscow. He flew in from Riga aboard a U.S. Air Force Boeing C-17 military transport plane that landed at Vnukovo Airport on the morning of Aug. 25. Around 7 p.m., it emerged that the American plane that had brought Ratcliffe had departed Moscow. Ratcliffe is the first CIA director to visit Moscow since 2021.

The Pskov Regional Court struck Yabloko’s party list from the ballot for the region’s legislative elections. The court found that the seal on the authorization form the party first submitted to the election commission was missing required information. The Rodina party demanded Yabloko’s removal. Acting on a lawsuit from Rodina, Russia’s Supreme Court struck Yabloko’s federal list from elections to the State Duma — Russia’s lower house of parliament — on August 10.

Vladimir Smirnov / TASS / Profimedia The hacker group Black Mirror has published screenshots of a purported Sberbank analytical memo that lists eight scenarios for ending the full-scale war between Russia and Ukraine. The document is dated April 2026, meaning it was prepared before Ukrainian forces stepped up strikes on oil refineries and logistics sites. According to the hackers, the memo came from correspondence between Sberbank board chairman German Gref and an unnamed correspondent.

The Armenian authorities will not interfere with Russians who try to leave for Armenia in the event of a new mobilization in Russia. Secretary of the Security Council of Armenia Alen Simonyan told Dozhd about this. TV channel journalist Ekaterina Kotrikadze asked the official whether Armenia is ready to accept a new wave of Russians who want to avoid being sent to the front. Here's what Simonyan replied: At the border, no one is going to ask anyone why he came here.

Why he came, no one knows. According to one version, he brought a “warning” to Vladimir Putin Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images CIA Director John Ratcliffe visited Moscow on an unannounced visit. He flew from Riga on a US Air Force Boeing C-17 military transport aircraft, which landed in Vnukovo on the morning of August 25. At about 19:00 it became known that the American plane on which Ratcliffe arrived had taken off back from Moscow.

Yevgeny Grigoryev, the general director of TulaDron, a research and production center for unmanned aircraft systems, has been detained in Tula, the local news outlet Myslo reported , citing sources. According to Myslo, a court ordered Grigoryev held in pretrial detention for two months, effective August 14, on charges of large-scale fraud (Part 4, Article 159 of Russia’s Criminal Code). The Telegram channel Mash, which has close ties to Russia’s security services, also reported the arrest.