Photo: Russian Ministry of Defense At least 29 people died as a result of the crash of a Russian An-26 military transport aircraft in Crimea. TASS reports this with reference to the Russian Ministry of Defense. According to the department, the dead included six crew members and 23 passengers. A commission from the Ministry of Defense is working on site. The An-26 military transport aircraft was making a scheduled flight over the annexed Crimea, the department said .

Photo: The Insider The substances used in the synthesis of epibatidine, the poison used to kill Alexei Navalny, could have been supplied by a subsidiary of the German chemical company abcr Chemie GmbH, The Insider writes . Employees of the Signal scientific center Igor Babkin and Sergey Galan may have been involved in the development and synthesis of epibatidine. They published scientific papers related to substances of the azanorbornane class, which included epibatidine.

Photo: EPA/FABIAN STRAUCH In Rostov-on-Don, one of the local providers began introducing “white lists” on the home Internet, the Durov Code project reported , citing users. “When using the home Internet, Telegram and any other sites that are not included in these white lists do not work for me. I tried to turn on the VPN, but it doesn’t help, the sites simply won’t open, while our Russian services work,” said one of the interlocutors.

A woman stands in front of digital ruble logos in Moscow, 15 August 2023. Photo: EPA / SERGEI ILNITSKY Russia’s national debt rose by a staggering 21% in 2025, jumping by over €65 billion to reach almost €375 billion, according to an interim report prepared by the Accounts Chamber of Russia that was seen by Russian business daily Vedomosti.

How users and defenders of a free Internet will answer: let’s look at the main questions Photo: Ramil Sitdikov / Reuters / Scanpix / LETA From April 1, the Ministry of Digital Development announces a ban on paying for Apple services from the accounts of mobile operators.

This is the first known case Photo: Pavel Malkov / Telegram The region's governor, Pavel Malkov, signed a decree that requires enterprises to fulfill “tasks” to attract candidates for military service under a contract. The document was published on the official portal on March 24, the day before the Conflict Intelligence Team drew attention to it. The resolution states that all enterprises, regardless of their form of ownership, must attract contract workers.

Why is the dictatorship burying Runet in the fifth year of the war? Photo: Dmitry Lovetsky / AP / Scanpix / LETA The final assault on RuNet, launched by the authorities this year, is a consequence of the good work of independent media. In 2022, Russia saw the largest exodus of journalists in world history.

The ruble exchange rate is jumping again - it is influenced by the war in Iran and contradictory statements by the Ministry of Finance.

A customer pays in cash for a new iPhone in Moscow. Photo: EPA / SERGEI ILNITSKY Users registered with Telegram under a Russian number received a message from the app on Tuesday offering them the chance to purchase a two-year Telegram Premium subscription “while the opportunity is still available”, as the Russian authorities continue their progressive crackdown on the use of foreign tech platforms.

We analyzed videos from recent events with the participation of Kadyrov and his “successor”. It seems like it's already been Adam Kadyrov. Screenshot from video: RKadyrov_95 / Telegram On March 26, Ramzan Kadyrov published a video of a meeting with republican security forces, at which Adam Kadyrov made a report as Secretary of the Security Council of Chechnya.

The now-closed Apple Store in Moscow’s GUM shopping centre, 7 March 2022. Photo: EPA / YURI KOCHETKOV Apple removed 190 apps from its Russian App Store at the request of Russian media regulator Roskomnadzor between 2022 and 2024, the company’s own annual transparency reports for those three years show.

Foreign Ministers of Russia and Hungary Sergei Lavrov and Peter Szijjarto. Photo: Lajos Soos/EPA Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjártó, during telephone conversations with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, promised to lobby for the interests of the Kremlin, in particular, increasing pressure on Ukraine and lifting sanctions on Russian companies, oligarchs and their relatives.

For the first time since 1972, humans will travel beyond Earth orbit. Why is the US returning to the moon? And how will China and Russia respond? The launch vehicle carrying the Orion spacecraft for the Artemis 2 mission on the launch pad at Kennedy Space Center, Florida, March 24, 2026. Photo: John Raoux / AP / Scanpix / LETA April 1, 2026 is expected to go down in astronautics history: for the first time since 1972, a spacecraft with people on board will go to the Moon.

Krzysztof Galos. Photo: Galos family archive A Polish citizen who was detained by Russian forces while travelling through eastern Ukraine in 2023 died in a pretrial detention centre in the southern Russian city of Taganrog later the same year after being tortured by prison guards, Polish daily newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza has reported .

Russian Telegram users received a notification from the messenger with an offer to buy Premium for two years at once - “while they can.” “In the near future, it may become technically impossible to obtain Telegram Premium in your region. Today [March 31] is the last opportunity to pay for Telegram Premium,” the message says. Photo: Novaya Gazeta Europe Earlier, the owner of the messenger Pavel Durov criticized Apple for blocking VPN applications in the Russian App Store.