Over the past two days, Russian users have begun to complain more often about YouTube slowing down. In particular, the number of requests received by the services “Sboy.rf” and Downdetector has increased. These data were confirmed by a source for Meduza and The Bell in one of the telecom operators. According to him, yesterday the number of user requests regarding YouTube speed increased significantly.

How the military and their relatives reacted to Putin’s “direct line” The Z-community is eager to continue the war, but does not want to pay at all for the restoration of “new territories” and provide holders of Ukrainian passports with a pension, and, in principle, see them in Russia. During Putin’s press conference, Novaya Gazeta Europe read military chats and comments under the posts of Z-bloggers.

We checked where Putin embellished reality on “Direct Line” Photo: Kremlin For 4.5 hours of “Direct Line”, Vladimir Putin talked about almost everything - from the war with Ukraine to food prices, from mortgages to the likelihood of Europe going under water. A brief retelling is available in our separate material. Throughout the entire Direct Line, the editors of Novaya Gazeta Europe closely followed how Putin builds his own reality around topics that are far from obvious at first glance.

The District Court of Warsaw agreed to release on bail the Russian Anatoly Blinov, who was arrested in the case of an attack on Navalny’s associate Leonid Volkov. This was reported by Mediazona with reference to Blinov’s lawyer Bogumil Zigmont. According to him, the meeting took place on December 10. Despite this, Blinov is still not at large, as the prosecutor's office has challenged the decision. Now it will be possible to pay bail only after the decision of the appeal court.

Photo: EPA-EFE/OLIVIER MATTHYS Volodymyr Zelensky holds a press conference in Brussels on Thursday. Photo: EPA-EFE/OLIVIER MATTHYS Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky questioned the sanity of Vladimir Putin at a press conference in Brussels on Thursday exactly as the Kremlin’s annual Direct Line phone-in , which lasted some four and a half hours, was coming to an end.

The reason was the discussion of the ban on mining in the unrecognized republic Photo: NTV In Sukhum, the capital of the breakaway republic of Abkhazia, a shooting occurred in the parliament building, as a result of which deputy Vakhtang Golandzia was killed. This was reported by Apsnypress with reference to the Ministry of Health; the information was later confirmed by the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky responded to Vladimir Putin’s proposal during the “direct line” to arrange a “high-tech duel” between Russia and Western countries in the form of shelling of Kyiv. His speech at a press conference in Brussels is quoted by Hromadske. “Do you think that this [Vladimir Putin] is an adequate person? Just scumbags,” Zelensky said.

Georgia’s drift towards a police state Fireworks explode from behind riot police line in Tbilisi, Georgia, on 30 November. Photo: Nicholas Pearce for Novaya Gazeta Europe Saba Kevkhishvili lies on a hospital bed with his eyes swollen shut, ringed by dark purple bruises that bear the imprint of the violence he endured at the hands of those paid to protect him.

Kirill Bledny, screenshot: interview with Yuri Dud The leader of the Ukrainian group “Vulgar Molly” Kirill Bledny (Tymoshenko) was banned from entering the European Union for 10 years due to obscene statements about the Polish language. The musician spoke about this in an interview with The Flow. In November 2023, Bledny published a video on Instagram in which he spoke about the Polish language and the Russian Empire. “You know what pisses me off about Poland? The Polish language pisses me off.

According to the economist, this will lead to an increase in housing prices Vladimir Putin said during the Direct Line that there should be no limits on the issuance of preferential mortgages in Russia. Photo: RBC “This is a disgrace,” he said. This is how he commented on the situation when banks refuse mortgages to Russians due to limits or change the terms of issuance. Putin promised that he would ask the government to “provide the volume of necessary subsidies” from the state.

The case of Giselle Pelicot shocked all of France: her husband secretly drugged her for almost 10 years and incited dozens of men to rape her. Today he was sentenced to 20 years in prison Giselle Pelicot, Dominique Pelicot and 50 other defendants in a drawing by a forensic artist. Photo: ZZIIGG / SIPA / Scanpix / LETA 72-year-old French woman Gisele Pelicot had no idea that her husband of 50 years was drugging her and inviting dozens of men to rape her. He filmed everything that happened.

20 years later, Serbia is once again rocked by student protests. How are President Vučić and the parliamentary opposition trying to turn the new wave of demonstrations in their favor? A participant in a rally in support of victims of the canopy collapse at the Novi Sad railway station in Belgrade, Serbia, November 3, 2024.

Economist's comment Putin started the “straight line” with the situation in the economy. He said that in terms of purchasing power parity, Russia is ranked first in Europe and fourth in the world after China, the USA and India. WHAT PUTIN SAID: He repeated that this year economic growth will be 3.9-4%. And this growth, according to him, is due to the strengthening of sovereignty, and sovereignty itself is the result of economic growth.

What exactly was the Russian army doing in Syria and what will happen to the military bases now? A Russian Su-24 bomber at Khmeimim airbase in Latakia province, Syria, May 4, 2016. Photo: Sergey Chirikov / EPA-EFE The Russian army is massing troops in Syria to the Khmeimim airbase and the naval base in Tartus. Major international publications and experts on the Middle East give diametrically opposed forecasts about the fate of the Russian military presence in the Syrian Arab Republic.

A digital image of Vladimir Putin seen on a business centre building in St. Petersburg, 18 December 2024. Photo: EPA-EFE/ANATOLY MALTSEV This year’s Direct Line call-in show with Vladimir Putin has begun in Moscow, with Putin due to answer questions from a carefully vetted audience of journalists and members of the public. For the second year in a row, the event has been combined with Putin’s annual press conference.