A new report by the Conflict Intelligence Team (CIT) has indicated that the year 2025 was the deadliest for the civilian population on both sides of the frontline since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022. At least 2,919 civilians were killed and 17,775 were wounded in shelling and strikes.

The United States is sending its largest aircraft carrier, the Gerald R. Ford, along with escort ships to the Persian Gulf region amid tense relations with Iran. This was reported by The New York Times , Associated Press and other American media, citing their sources. According to the latest data, the aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford was in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of South America and the Caribbean.

British scientists have discovered a miniature RNA molecule that can copy itself. The discovery may explain how life arose on Earth from nonliving matter. Philip Holliger's team from the UK Medical Research Council's Laboratory of Molecular Biology found the QT45 molecule, consisting of just 45 nucleotides. The results of the work were published in the journal Science.

ECONOMICS 13 February 2026 Russia’s economy entered 2026 weaker than it was a year before, with growth declining and oil prices well below budgeted projections. Combined with a strong ruble, this confluence of factors is expected to widen the federal budget deficit yet again. If oil prices do not rise, something analysts do not expect, Russia’s National Wealth Fund (NWF) could be depleted by the end of this year.

News The Insider February 13, 2026 Photo: Reuters In the parliamentary elections held in Bangladesh, about 2/3 of the seats were won by a coalition led by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). It is headed by the son of the country's first female prime minister, who spent about 20 years in exile. The elections are the country's first since massive youth protests in 2024 that led to the overthrow of authoritarian Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Dissident writer and historian Roy Medvedev died at the age of 101. His daughter-in-law Svetlana Medvedeva reported the death of the publicist to the TASS agency. The probable cause of the historian’s death could be heart failure, she clarified. Roy Medvedev was born in 1925. He had a twin brother, Zhores Medvedev, a scientist and dissident. In 1938, their father was arrested “for Trotskyism” and given eight years in the camps, where he died in 1941.

At large-scale NATO exercises in Estonia, the Ukrainian military, acting as an enemy, defeated two battalions of the alliance in one day. The Wall Street Journal writes about this with reference to participants in the Hedgehog 2025 maneuvers, which took place in May last year. More than 16 thousand military personnel from 12 NATO member countries took part in the exercises. They were confronted by Ukrainian drone experts, including soldiers brought in from the front line.

The Perovsky Court of Moscow called the criminal cases against former Channel One employee Marina Ovsyannikova and the feminist punk rock group Pussy Riot politically motivated. Lawyer Dmitry Zakhvatov, who represented their interests, told The Insider about this. On February 2, the Perovsky District Court ruled that Dmitry Zakhvatov committed an administrative offense - he violated the “procedure for the activities of a foreign agent” (Part 1 of Article 19.34 of the Administrative Code).

Russia’s economy entered 2026 weaker than it was a year before, with growth declining and oil prices well below budgeted projections. Combined with a strong ruble, this confluence of factors is expected to widen the federal budget deficit yet again. If oil prices do not rise, something analysts do not expect, Russia’s National Wealth Fund (NWF) could be depleted by the end of this year.

Data concerning salaries of civil servants and social workers, as well as household expenses, have disappeared from the statistical collections of the Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat). The project “To Be Precise” drew attention to this. According to the project, about 168 datasets - tables that were published in statistical collections of Rosstat - were removed from public access.

Midad Energy from Saudi Arabia has signed a preliminary agreement to purchase foreign assets of the Russian Lukoil, which came under US sanctions in the fall. Reuters writes about this with reference to sources. The agreement, according to the publication, was signed at the end of January and covers all target assets. The Saudi company agreed to carry out the transaction in cash - the money needed for it was placed in an escrow account .

The building of the Presidential Executive Office Investigations Sergey Kanev 13 February 2026 Investigation: The Kremlin's hand: How Putin wages his hybrid war overseas In August 2025, Putin abolished the Directorate for Interregional and Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries, which had been responsible for promoting “soft power” (and for spying, of course) and replaced it with the Presidential Directorate for Strategic Partnership and Cooperation.

The Ministry of Justice included in the register of “foreign agents” the Open Space project, which provided legal and psychological assistance to civil activists, and also provided venues for events in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

The US State Department has ordered the closure of passport application centers at non-profit public libraries across the country, the Associated Press reports . The agency began sending out cease-and-desist orders in late fall, notifying libraries that they could no longer participate in the Passport Acceptance Facility program. The ban did not affect state libraries.

Since late October 2025, Vladimir Putin has been regularly reporting ( 1 , 2 , 3 ) on Russia’s successful development of state-of-the-art weapons that, he says, are unrivaled in their technical and tactical characteristics. If one were to believe Putin’s words, Russia’s achievements in weaponry would indeed be staggering: A task once considered “unattainable in the near historical future” has been accomplished.