The Russian Ministry of Justice included the international association "Memorial" and the German non-profit organization Zukunft Memorial ("Future. Memorial") in the register of so-called undesirable organizations. The list also included the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the Georgian organization Civic Initiative for Democratic and Euro-Atlantic Choice, the British think tank the Henry Jackson Society and the Arctida project.

Former editor-in-chief of YA62.RU Alexander Moiseyuk was detained in Ryazan. The journalist’s wife told the publication that at about 10:00 on February 17, her husband left the house and stopped communicating. The department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Ryazan region later announced the detention of a 39-year-old local resident, against whom a criminal case was opened for financing extremist activities.

Collage: Putin and messenger Max Will Putin completely block Telegram for Max? Vladimir Putin's cousin Mikhail Shelomov, through the Sogaz insurance company, owns a stake in the VK holding, which owns the Max messenger. Shelomov is the son of the cousin of the Russian President. He is a shareholder not only of Sogaz, but also of Rossiya Bank, which is controlled by the president’s friend Yuri Kovalchuk.

Vladimir Zelensky President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky announced the introduction of a package of sanctions against Alexander Lukashenko. According to him, in the second half of 2025, Russia deployed a system of repeaters on Belarusian territory to control attack drones, which increased the Russian army’s ability to strike the northern regions of Ukraine.

"VNIIR-Progress" On the morning of February 18, Ukrainian drones attacked the capital of Chuvashia, Cheboksary, said the head of the republic, Oleg Nikolaev. According to him, two attacks occurred in a row - in the area of ​​the village of Yaushi and in the Novoyuzhny district of the city, where the VNIIR-Progress plant is located. Nikolaev stated that there were no injuries or damage, but several cars were damaged.

The Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics will be remembered not only for sporting victories, but for political scandals - like the disqualification of Ukrainian athlete Vladislav Geraskevich, who pasted portraits of athletes killed in the war on his helmet. Can sport be outside of politics? What is the future of the Olympics?

A protest demanding that Russian and Belarusian athletes not be allowed to participate in the 2024 Olympics in Paris because of the war against Ukraine. Lausanne, Switzerland, March 25, 2023 Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sibiga called for a boycott of the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games in Italy. Earlier, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) said that six Russian and four Belarusian athletes were allowed to compete under their national flags.

Artist and musician Sasha Skochilenko was accused in 2022 of placing five price tags with anti-war texts in a St. Petersburg supermarket. Over the course of two years, in 17 volumes of the case, a team of investigators, experts and prosecutors proved that five pieces of paper were a serious threat to national security and a manifestation of hostility towards the Russian army.

A group of deputies and senators introduced a bill to the Russian State Duma on the prevention of “evasion of the duty to defend the Fatherland” and “distortion of historical truth.” The publication “We Can Explain” drew attention to this, indicating that the bill had already been adopted in the first reading.

Pavel Gubarev An administrative protocol on “discrediting” the Russian army was drawn up against one of the leaders of the “Donbass militia” in 2014 and the self-proclaimed “governor” of the Russian-occupied part of the Donetsk region, Pavel Gubarev (Part 1 of Article 20.3.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses), RBC writes with reference to data from the Tagansky Court of Moscow.

A training launch of aircraft from the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln, the first of those currently deployed by Donald Trump to the shores of Iran. February 6, 2026 Donald Trump, together with Israel, may start a war with Iran in the coming weeks if Tehran does not agree to all the demands put forward to it by Washington. Axios and other Western media write about this, citing their own sources of information in the White House. "The boss is getting impatient.

Radio Liberty news: accuracy, efficiency, impartiality

The Ukrainian Armed Forces are advancing in the Zaporozhye region. Russian troops in Donetsk. Although the pace of the Russians has slowed down. The DeepState Project reported that the Ukrainian army has liberated almost as much territory in the past week as Russian troops captured in all of December.

Vladimir Medinsky, Geneva, February 18, 2026 Trilateral negotiations between the United States, Ukraine and Russia ended in Geneva. The head of the Russian delegation, assistant to Russian President Vladimir Putin, Vladimir Medinsky, said that the negotiations on February 17 went on for a very long time in different formats. “And today it’s about two o’clock. They were heavy, but businesslike. The next meeting will take place soon. That’s all we wanted to say,” he said.