Monthly Newsletter
24th July, MK.ru
The problems of reproduction will be dealt with seriously: the government promised “demographic special forces" to citizens of Russia/Russovians
The head of the supreme chamber of the Russian parliament, the head of the Federation Council, explained how the "demographic special forces" in the country's leadership intend to stop the decline in demography. Matvienko made the main thesis of her speech a strategy based on "family-centricity". The "demographic winter" threatening Russia was declared by VTsIOM to be so close that ways to prevent the “frostiest” scenarios are necessary (16th May). ‘Special forces’ implies swift and effective decision, compared with already existing anti-abortion committees, and financial incentives. There are also challenges of housing that seem as the primary issue that discourages childbirth.
18th July, Vedomosti
The State Duma has adopted amendments on fines for searching for extremist content
New amendments make intentional search for extremist content (which does include a slogan ‘Russia is for Russians’) an offence. Use of VPN would be considered an aggravating circumstance. VPN promotion is a punishable offence. “What else do I have to say?”
https://www.vedomosti.ru/society/articles/2025/07/18/1125175-gosduma-prinyala-popravki-o-shtrafah
8th July, Fontanka
The State Duma allows the FSB to create its own pre-trial detention centres/prison system
On Tuesday, July 8, the State Duma of the Russian Federation approved in the second and third readings a law allowing the Federal Security Service (FSB) to create and control its own pre-trial detention centres (SIZOs)/prison system. The explanatory note states that the special service will receive the authority to protect jails, escort suspects and accused, provide household services, as well as organise treatment, including psychiatric care. FSB servicemen will be able to use special means and weapons in the event of escape, attempted forcible release or threat to the life and health of others. As previously noted, this marks a clear breakaway from the prior system that attempted to integrate with the European legal framework.
https://www.fontanka.ru/2025/07/08/75696356/
6th July, KU66
"Demography has disappeared": Rosstat has stopped disclosing data on the country's population
The Federal State Statistics Service of Russia has stopped publishing the entire section "Demography” for the first time. There is no more information on fertility, mortality, population, migration, marriages, and divorces. Demography is not the only closed topic: since 2022, the Russian authorities have been gradually restricting access to key statistical data. Customs statistics, gold and currency reserves, oil and gas production, and after drone attacks, fuel production data fell under the stamp "secret".
26th June, RBC
A photographer from Perm was sentenced to 16 years in prison for treason
The court sentenced Perm photographer Skvortsov to 16 years in prison for treason. In 2022, he spoke out against the military operation in Ukraine, and in the same year, he left Russia because of his position, but in 2023, he returned to Perm. The court clarified that the case was heard behind closed doors. The official reason for the prosecution was not disclosed; the media, citing various online human rights communities, wrote that Skvortsov had given the American journalist the book "Soviet 'Secret Bunkers': Urban Special Fortifications of the 1930s-1960s." That book was publicly available at the time, and state media reviewed it. Once again, the state is maintaining a tactic of selective punishment, choosing a few to send a message to the rest.
https://www.rbc.ru/politics/26/06/2025/685cfd2d9a7947d6a907faf5
24th June, Meduza
Niche office project
Meduza found out that the ‘Russian community’/Russkaya Obschina does not just coordinate attacks on migrants with the security forces - it carries out their tasks, making a theory that the organisation is a federal ‘honeypot’ to control far-right more plausible than before. ‘Russian community’ both promotes a loyalist narrative aimed against the West with existing migrant issues, acting so that security services do not become an outrage target. Security force oversight is necessary in that case, given how numerous legal conflicts do not result in persecution when other organisations were shut down for less. The article suggests that the relative longevity of the ‘Russian community’ is due to their focus on Orthodox Christianity, which discouraged neo-pagan fighting organisations. Now, the regular crackdown would be seen as demeaning to the public perception they have been trying to promote. The main method is to wait until the organisation has too many incidents to ignore.
https://meduza.io/feature/2025/06/24/nishevyy-proekt-kontory
20th June, Kommersant
A Belgorod woman received 22 years in prison for ‘treason and assistance to terrorism’
Thirty-year-old Russian citizen Nadezhda Rossinskaya (nickname Nadine Geisler) was sentenced to 22 years in prison for ‘donating to a terrorist group within the Ukrainian military’. Nadezhda denied the accusation, saying she helped only Ukrainian refugees. In her final speech, Nadezhda outlined numerous inconsistencies of the trial, with the closed trial acting to prevent their spread and punish those who oppose the state. Given that Nadezhda has already been declared an extremist/terrorist last year, it is tough to disagree.
https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/7808486
May 14th, Channel One
Sermon. Documentary film by Alexander Prokhanov
A 3-episode documentary by Alexander Prokhanov, an author who is known for preaching extreme imperial rhetoric in praise of states that existed throughout history, be it the Tsardom, USSR, or current Russia. The film contains the following quote: “The Russian state is the benefactor of the Russian people. Although perhaps there is no other state in the world that is more severe, harsh, or even cruel, the Russian people endure the cruelties of the state, bear the burdens imposed on them because they understand that when there is a state, there are Russian people. There is no state, the people disappear, turning into a senseless crown”. This is a reminder of how exactly the Russian state sees an acceptable form of nationalism - complete loyalty to the state, and acceptance that everything the state does is in their best interest.
https://archive.org/details/1TV_20250513_210000_Aleksandr_Prokhanov/start/240/end/300
https://www.1tv.ru/doc/propoved-dokumentalnyy-film-aleksandra-prohanova
May 14th, RBC
Grigory Melkonyants sentenced to 5 years in prison
The Russian court has sentenced the co-chairman of the non-government election monitoring organisation for ‘undesirable activity.’ During the trial, the defence called "absurd" the statements that organisations different in legal form can be a single whole, and again turned to the wording - not "proven", but "obviously". This trial is a reminder of how the Kremlin values statistics and its presentation, willing to shut down and arrest organisations that can provide alternative data and interpretations.
https://www.rbc.ru/politics/14/05/2025/68243c549a79474ebed8c249
12th May, Golos
Grigory Melkonyants' last plea
Melkonyants said in his last statement that he did not understand why he had to prove the "negative fact" that the Golos movement was not a structural unit of ENEMO and that he did not organise its activities "by speaking at a round table in the Central Election Commission." He cited two responses from the Ministry of Justice, from which it follows that ENEMO does not have structural divisions in Russia, and the Golos movement and ENEMO are two different organisations that are included in two different registers. Melkonyants pleaded not guilty and asked Judge Evgenia Nikolaeva to interpret "irremovable doubts" in his favour.
https://golosinfo.org/en/articles/154637
15 April 2025
In Moscow, a pensioner was beaten for trying to tear off the niqab from a metro passenger. In the past, the attacker was a hostage of Basayev's militants.
In Moscow, a 64-year-old pensioner was beaten in a metro station after attempting to remove a niqab from a female passenger. She was subsequently detained and placed under administrative arrest for 7 days for disorderly conduct, and the attacker was arrested for 13 days. Pensioner is a survivor of the 1995 Budyonnovsk hospital hostage crisis.
29 March 2025
End of March, a celebration of Uraza Bayram or Eid al-Fitr took place around the world, including Russia.
By this point, big public celebrations in Moscow and St. Petersburg are no longer new, showing demographic changes. However, other major cities are usually ignored, even though the same gatherings occur all across the country, including Siberian cities that were not part of Khanates (historical habitats of Muslims), such as Novosibirsk and Vladivostok.
15 March 2025
New political party is announced to being formed in Russia, that aims to unite imperial Russian nationalists and called Coalition of Russia’s patriotic forces ‘Russian Spring’/Коалиция российских патриотических сил «Русская весна».
Among the first policy initiatives are anti-migrants package of measures and a proposal to repeal the effect of an article 282 of the Russian Criminal Code.