The Kremlin’s security forces are increasingly arriving at people’s homes — not with search warrants, but with what they call an “inspection of the premises.” It was after such an “inspection” by FSB officers in May that lawyer Maria Bonzler was sent to a pretrial detention center, where she remains to this day. Often, an “inspection” does not end in an arrest but is used as a tool of intimidation — involving masks, guns, threats, and the seizure of personal property.

In the first half of 2025, Taiwan became the world leader in purchases of Russian naphtha, a petroleum distillation product used to produce gasoline and solvents. Products from the processing of Russian naphtha are then sold, including to Western European countries that support sanctions against the Russian mining industry.

For the first time in three years of war in Ukraine, the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant has been left without external power supply for more than a week and operates only on emergency diesel generators. IAEA chief Rafael Grossi warned of the risk of a nuclear accident. “The largest nuclear power plant in Europe has been without external power for more than a week - this is unprecedented in the entire three and a half years of the war.

Z-blogger Roman Alekhin, declared a “foreign agent,” said that he was “forced to interrupt writing posts on Telegram and other social networks.” He explained his decision by saying that he wanted to focus on writing two books “for those who like to think.” In addition, Alyohin admitted that it is “very difficult for him psychologically to write posts with this [foreign agent] sign when you have not betrayed your Motherland, nor the people, nor even today’s government.” The Z-blogger added that

Deputy Chairman of the Yabloko party Maxim Kruglov was detained in the case of “dissemination of deliberately false information” about the Russian Armed Forces, “Caution News” reports . A criminal case was opened under paragraph “d” of part 2 of article 207.3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The reason is a publication in his personal Telegram channel made in April 2022, where Kruglov wrote about the events in the Ukrainian Bucha.

The official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, criticized the statements about Georgia by the presidents of Moldova and Ukraine, Maia Sandu and Vladimir Zelensky. Sandu's remark, with which Zakharova argued, turned out to be fake.

Antifake Fake by Dmitry Kiselev: American military doctrine provides for a first nuclear strike, while Russian doctrine only provides for a retaliatory strike The Insider 1 October 2025 Dmitry Kiselev, speaking in Vesti Nedeli about Vladimir Putin’s initiative to extend for a year Russia’s obligations under the expiring treaty on strategic offensive weapons, in which it itself suspended participation in February 2023, said : “Unlike the United States, where a preventive disarming strike is built

Gas production from Russia's sanctioned Arctic LNG 2 project hit record levels in September as its cargoes appeared to be finding buyers in China. Bloomberg reports this, citing sources. Natural gas production at the NOVATEK-led facility averaged 17.9 million cubic meters per day through most of September. This is the highest level since the plant launched in December 2023 and is 14% more than in August, when the previous high was recorded.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade has published a list of vehicles that comply with the requirements of the Taxi Localization Law (effective from March 1, 2026). The list included 22 models from 6 Russian brands. These are Lada, UAZ, Sollers, Voyah, Evolute and Moskvich.

Literary critic Alexander Arkhangelsky, whom the Ministry of Justice included in the register of “foreign agents” in 2024, was not allowed to publish some of Boris Pasternak’s poems. He was going to include them in his new book “Poems You Can’t Live Without.” Arkhangelsky wrote about this in his Telegram channel. Update: On October 12, Alexander Arkhangelsky announced that he had received permission to publish Pasternak’s poems directly from the poet’s heirs.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), part of Robert Kennedy Jr.'s Department of Health and Human Services, without a public announcement updated its website and brought back the old term monkeypox after the agency began calling the disease mpox in late 2022 as the former name was recognized racist, The Telegraph reports . Monkeypox is characterized by painful sores filled with pus and can lead to death.

Pavel Durov, founder of the messaging app Telegram, said in an interview published on Sept. 30 that he believes there was an attempt to poison him in the spring of 2018. In April of that year, a Moscow court issued a decision to ban the app amid a wider government effort to gain access to its encryption keys.

Economics Vadim Belkin 1 October 2025 Russia’s federal budget is changing on the fly—it’s still unclear what the final deficit for 2025 will be. But the Ministry of Finance has already provided the draft budget for next year with a frank commentary that the tax increase will go towards military spending. The essence of the decision was to squeeze more money out of the economy right now, regardless of the consequences.

Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak, in order to combat fuel shortages in a number of Russian regions that arose due to attacks by Ukrainian drones on refineries, proposed increasing the import of gasoline and diesel fuel. Novak also considers it possible to allow the use of the octane-boosting additive monomethylaniline (MMA), banned in Russia in 2016, for six months. Kommersant reported on the Deputy Prime Minister’s proposals sent to Mikhail Mishustin.

News The Insider October 1, 2025 Evgenia Lomakova, a 20-year-old Muscovite with cystic fibrosis, received 6 years in prison on charges of attempted drug trafficking, The Insider has learned. According to government decree No. 54, her disease is included in the list for which detention and serving a sentence are impossible. However, since June she has been kept in a pre-trial detention center, and her condition has deteriorated sharply: her lung function has halved - from 69% to 32%.