On July 8, journalist and media executive Ksenia Sobchak announced that hackers had broken into her email account and briefly gained access to her Telegram channels. Around the same time, screenshots showing fragments of her private correspondence appeared in the channels. Sobchak called them fakes and deleted them. The next day, however, the hacker group Black Mirror and the anonymous project VChK-OGPU published even more screenshots of Sobchak’s messages, along with some of her voice messages.

The Khoroshevsky District Court in Moscow has sentenced Lev Ponomarev, an 84-year-old human rights activist, in absentia to five and a half years in prison, the independent Russian news outlet Mediazona reported. Ponomarev was found guilty of running the operations of an “undesirable” organization and of evading his obligations as a so-called “foreign agent.” The judge also banned him from administering websites for nine years.

Oil has begun leaking again from the bow section of tanker Volgoneft-239, which sank in the Kerch Strait in December 2024, according to the Russian open-source intelligence project SkyEye, which analyzed satellite imagery from early July 2026. Greenpeace confirmed to the BBC that petroleum products have been leaking in the area regularly since early July. Satellite images almost constantly show oil slicks 2–3 to 8–10 kilometers (roughly 1 to 6 miles) long, the group said.

Kazakhstan’s Interior Ministry has set up 59 police checkpoints near vehicle border crossings to stop fuel from being smuggled out of the country, the ministry said on its website. All vehicles crossing the border are now being inspected for auxiliary fuel containers. Since the start of the year, local police have recorded 255 cases of vehicles operating with illegal auxiliary fuel tanks. Of the offenders, 195 were foreign nationals, all of whom received administrative penalties.

One of the richest people in Russia, Andrey Melnichenko, donated 32 billion rubles in 2023 to the Sirius educational center, which was founded on Vladimir Putin’s initiative, The Economist reported, citing sources. According to The Economist, the donation came after Russia’s Prosecutor General’s Office moved to confiscate Sibeko, a company linked to Melnichenko. Two months later, prosecutors dropped their claims.

In Mali, Tuareg rebels and the al-Qaeda-linked jihadist group JNIM attacked a convoy of mercenaries from the Russian Defense Ministry’s “African Corps,” along with Malian soldiers, AFP and Reuters reported. The convoy escorting more than 200 Russian fighters and more than 100 Malian soldiers was heading toward the northern town of Anefis, according to Reuters. A contingent of Russian mercenaries and Malian troops continues to hold a military base in the rebel-held town.

The Lepse electrical machinery plant in Russia’s Kirov region was fined 50,000 rubles after management failed to meet its staffing quota for the “ mobilization reserve ,” the independent investigative outlet Verstka reported. A court ruling obtained by journalists showed that the plant was required to meet its staffing quota for the “mobilization reserve” by March 4.

The Maly Theater will stage a play about the Decembrist uprising written by Vladimir Medinsky in its 2026/2027 season, the theater’s actor Vladimir Dubrovsky said in an interview with the newspaper Tula.aif.ru. Dubrovsky gave the interview after a Maly Theater performance in Tula of another Medinsky play, “Smuta, 1609–1611.” He called Medinsky “one of the most popular” authors and was then asked whether he watches Medinsky’s lectures. Yes, I watch them with pleasure.

Из носовой части танкера «Волгонефть-239», затонувшего в Керченском проливе в декабре 2024 года, снова начала вытекать нефть, сообщает российский OSINT-проект SkyEye, изучивший спутниковые снимки от начала июля 2026-го. В организации «Гринпис» журналистам «Би-би-си» подтвердили , что утечки нефтепродуктов в этом районе происходят с начала июля регулярно. По данным «Гринпис», на спутниковых снимках практически постоянно фиксируются нефтяные следы длиной от 2–3 до 8–10 километров.

A car crash in the Konyshevsky district of Kursk region has killed a 15-year-old girl and injured three others. Alexander Chepik, the region’s first deputy governor, was also involved in the crash. Kursk Governor Alexander Khinshtein said the girl was a passenger in a car driven by her brother, who lost control of the vehicle. The car crossed into oncoming traffic and struck the vehicle in which Chepik was riding as a passenger.

The Saratov oil refinery, owned by Rosneft, has halted processing after a Ukrainian drone attack, Reuters reported, citing two sources. The drones struck the CDU-6 primary oil distillation unit, which has a capacity of 20,000 tons per day and is the only such unit at the facility, according to the agency. The refinery had already suspended operations twice after earlier drone attacks — in March and May, Reuters said.

A Russian strike overnight on July 6 hit the city of Vyshneve, outside Kyiv, where the state defense conglomerate Ukroboronprom had an ammunition depot, President Volodymyr Zelensky told reporters on July 9. Zelensky described the explosion in Vyshneve as an “absolutely horrifying situation” that had left a large number of people injured. He offered condolences to the injured and to the relatives of those killed. “But condolences alone are not enough,” he said.

В Малом театре в сезоне 2026/2027 выйдет спектакль о восстании декабристов по пьесе Владимира Мединского, рассказал актер театра Владимир Дубровский в интервью газете Tula.aif.ru 28 июня. Актер давал интервью после прошедшего в Туле спектакля Малого театра, поставленного по другой пьесе Мединского под названием «Смута. 1609–1611 гг.». Дубровский назвал Мединского «одним из самых популярных» авторов. Затем его спросили, смотрит ли он лекции Мединского. Да, с удовольствием смотрю.

Sberbank has launched a service with a map to help drivers find a gas station where “gasoline is most likely available.” The company says the map reflects a current picture of 23,000 stations nationwide. The service is based on anonymized fuel-purchase data. Tapping a specific station shows when a gasoline or diesel purchase was last recorded there.

Anatolii Stepanov / Reuters / Scanpix / LETA Ukrainian forces have stepped up their use of “midstrikes” — drones able to hit targets several dozen kilometers behind the front line. Their success, alongside that of “deepstrikes,” has fueled assertions that Ukraine has wrested back the initiative and blunted Russia’s advance. Ukrainska Pravda asked soldiers how much the strikes on the “middle rear” are actually changing the situation at the front.