43-year-old animal rights activist from Lyubertsy near Moscow Evgenia Konforkina was sentenced by age 15 imprisonment. The decision was made by judge of the 2nd Western District Military Court Vadim Krasnov. As The Insider learned, he found Konforkina guilty of “treason” and “participation in the activities of a terrorist organization.” According to the verdict, she will also have to pay a fine of 300 thousand rubles. Evgenia Konforkina was arrested in October 2024.

In Kazakhstan, in 2025, security forces opened 700 cases against those who enlisted in Russian military formations. Such calculations are provided by Mediazona and the BBC Russian Service. As the authors of the study note, all the defendants in these cases, from the point of view of the Criminal Code of Kazakhstan, “carried out criminal intent” to participate in the war, and where exactly this or that accused served (in the Wagner PMC or the Ministry of Defense) does not matter.

The Kremlin-backed Matryoshka bot network has launched a disinformation campaign following Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s Christmas address, in which he wished death upon an unnamed person. In the statement itself, it was clear from context that Zelensky had in mind Vladimir Putin. However, as the Bot Blocker Project reports , Kremlin-backed accounts began spreading the false story that the target of the Ukrainian president’s “wish” had been none other than Donald Trump.

First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy Anton Gorelkin recommended that users in Russia abandon Gmail and choose Russian alternatives. He made a corresponding statement in his Telegram channel. According to the deputy, changing the address within the Gmail ecosystem makes no practical sense. Instead, he advised to immediately switch to domestic mail platforms. “This could be important in the coming year,” Gorelkin wrote .

On December 24, the Tolyatti City Duma stripped the mandate of United Russia deputy Alexander Dorozhkin. This was reported by Duma deputy Valentina Semibratova, the publication “7x7” draws attention to . Earlier, Dorozhkin’s wife said that she flew away to give birth to a child in Chile to provide him with a “strong passport.” Dorozhkin served as head of the municipal services commission. Last week, on December 16, he voluntarily left the ranks of United Russia.

Searches have been taking place at the St. Petersburg Humanitarian University of Trade Unions (SPbSUP) since the morning of December 25, local publications Rotunda and Fontanka report. The reason is a criminal case of fraud. The fact of the searches was also confirmed by the university administration, Rotunda clarifies. The reason was probably a criminal case of fraud.

These detention practices continued under the Trump administration. According to immigration lawyers, after being placed under arrest, the likelihood of release and approval of an application for political asylum is reduced significantly. This is due both to the attitude of migration judges towards detainees at the border and to the difficulty of obtaining legal services, especially if migrants do not have relatives or acquaintances at large who could find a lawyer.

The Insider has discovered that Russian customs data for 2025 lack information on shipments in 180 previously reported categories of high-tech goods, mainly in the areas of electronics and industrial manufacturing. Given that importers have not ceased their operations, it appears that data on these shipments is simply no longer being entered into the customs database.

The Kremlin's Matryoshka botnet launched a disinformation campaign amid Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky's Christmas message, in which he wished death on an unnamed person. The Bot Blocker project drew attention to this. The editors have at their disposal links to bot publications, as well as evidence provided by the project that the accounts belong to the Matryoshka network.

On December 25, NATO countries scrambled combat aircraft due to the flight of Russian Tu-95MS strategic bombers over the neutral waters of the Barents and Norwegian Seas. As the British Mirror writes, the alliance regarded this flight as a demonstration by Russia of military pressure on the West and aircraft were raised for observation and escort.

ECONOMICS Anastasia Ulyanova 25 December 2025 Contrary to the optimistic forecasts of 2022, the mass departure of international brands did not lead to rapid growth among Russian clothing manufacturers. Intensifying fiscal pressure and widespread uncertainty, rising prices for raw materials and accessories, competition from China, and an overall decline in demand (in 2025, shoppers were unmoved even by Black Friday) have combined to doom the sector.

Singer Larisa Dolina turned to the buyer of her apartment, Polina Lurie, with a request to let her live there for a few more months. The businesswoman’s lawyer, Svetlana Sviridenko, told RIA Novosti about this. According to her, Dolina explained this request by saying that she did not have time to pack her things. RBC writes that she asked to postpone her eviction until March 1. Sviridenko later reported that Lurie did not intend to allow Dolina to stay in the apartment after her eviction.

Three weeks after the presidential elections in Honduras, 67-year-old businessman Nasri Asfura was declared the winner. The counting of votes was delayed due to suspicions of irregularities and technical problems. The winner is a right-wing candidate who was supported by US President Donald Trump; he managed to get 40.1% of the vote. “Honduras, I am ready to rule. I will not let you down,” Asfura wrote on social networks after the results were confirmed.

Aeroflot Deputy General Director for Information Technology Anton Matskevich resigned from his post after a large-scale hack of the company’s computer system that occurred in July of this year. The Kommersant newspaper reports his resignation from his position. According to two newspaper sources, Matskevich was fired in mid-December. The company itself insists that he resigned of his own free will.

In the city of Serov, Sverdlovsk Region, as a result of an accident at boiler house No. 1, 338 residential buildings, in which about 17 thousand people live, were left without heat. This was reported by the local publication It's My City. The press service of the prosecutor's office of the Sverdlovsk region reported that problems with heating also began in two educational institutions, five preschools and in one of the units of the city hospital.