Photo: Municipal Educational Institution Secondary School No. 83 of the Central District of Volgograd / VKontakte An advertisement for contract service in the unmanned systems troops appeared on the pages of schools No. 57 and No. 83 on VKontakte. Readers of “Groza” drew attention to this. Both campaign posts were posted on February 13 without additional notes. It is unknown whether this advertisement was published on social networks of other schools.

Photo: Jerome Favre/EPA An outbreak of a new strain of foot-and-mouth disease entered China through the northwestern border - from Russia, Kazakhstan and Mongolia. Reuters writes about this with reference to a statement from the authorities. Border provinces have been ordered to increase patrols and prevent the disease from entering through smuggling or illegal transportation, the agency said.

Photo: Guillaume Horcajuelo/EPA Over the past 24 hours, 12 tankers sailed through the Strait of Hormuz, Novaya Gazeta Europe found out after analyzing data from the Strait of Hormuz web map and Vessel Finder ship tracker. The strait's capacity has increased significantly over the past five days. On March 25, four tankers passed through it, and on March 30, only three ships.

Following Andrei Rublev’s “Trinity,” the Russian Orthodox Church “snatched” the most ancient icons of the Mother of God from the Tretyakov Gallery Patriarch Kirill at the Don Icon of the Mother of God in the Donskoy Monastery in Moscow, September 1, 2025.

Photo: social networks The Tretyakov Gallery will give for free use the icons “Our Lady of Vladimir” from the first third of the 12th century and “Our Lady of the Don” from the end of the 14th century to the Russian Orthodox Church. This was reported by the press service of the museum. Tomorrow, April 4, both icons will be exhibited in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow.

Despite the mass exodus of prisoners to the front, there is an acute shortage of FSIN employees in prisons. This affects the rights of prisoners Photo: Andrey Pronin / ZUMA Wire / Shutterstock / Rex Features / Vida Press In mid-March, the director of the Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN), Arkady Gostev, said that his department was experiencing an acute staff shortage.

How the four layers of Russia’s propaganda machine have responded to the war in Iran Smoke rises over central Tehran following an airstrike on 3 March 2026. Photo: EPA / Abedin Taherkenareh As the US-Israeli war with Iran enters its second month with no obvious exit strategy, Russia has emerged as one of the conflict’s net winners.

Viewings have stabilized this week after falling in mid-March. Photo: Igor Ivanko / AFP / Scanpix / LETA Telegram blocking has intensified since mid-March. Last week we wrote that views in all categories of channels decreased: among pro-government, opposition and regional media. But pro-government channels suffered 2.5 times more than independent ones. On average, opposition media lost every sixth reader, or 16.5% of views, pro-government media - 41% of views, regional - 45%.

A LGBT activist attends a protest rally against the results of the presidential elections, Minsk, 6 September 2020. Photo: EPA/STRINGER Belarusian lawmakers passed a bill on Thursday criminalising so-called “LGBT propaganda”, as well as the promotion of child-free lifestyles, Belarusian news agency BELTA has reported , echoing similar laws on the books in neighbouring Russia since 2013.

Planting rates skyrocketed in 2025—and are not slowing down yet Photo: Evgeniy Razumny / Kommersant / Sipa USA / Vida Press In 2025, the number of criminal cases against high-ranking officials increased by almost 30% compared to 2024. Judging by the data for the first three months of 2026, the current year will be no less, and perhaps even more eventful, than the previous one.

Not far from the Bryandino station in the Ulyanovsk region, seven carriages of a passenger train traveling on the Chelyabinsk-Moscow route derailed, Russian Railways reported . According to preliminary data , seven people were injured. Governor of the Chelyabinsk region Alexey Texler writes that 22 people were injured, including one child. According to the head of the region, 157 people were traveling on the train, including 65 children.

Russian authorities promised that in the winter of 2026 utility tariffs would increase by only 1.7%. But in reality, in many regions, utilities have risen in price by 5–6%, and some services have already become 8–18% more expensive at the beginning of the year. “New Europe” tells where in Russia the increase in tariffs turned out to be the most sensitive and why they are growing. The Republic of Mari El is one of the poorest in Russia.