24th July, TASS

Migrants Will Be Expelled for Discrimination and Disobedience at the Border

The Federation Council approved a law allowing foreign nationals to be expelled for discrimination, violations of human rights and freedoms, and disobeying military personnel at the border. The number of administrative offences that can lead to expulsion will rise to 45, including discrimination based on characteristics such as sex, race, nationality, language, origin, social status, age, religion, beliefs, or membership of social groups. Expulsion will also apply when a migrant refuses to comply with a lawful demand from a servicemember while crossing the border.

24th July, Meduza

Krasnodar Resident Detained for Publishing Video of Wildberries Warehouse Fire Following Ukrainian Drone Attack

Police detained a 19-year-old Krasnodar resident who allegedly filmed a fire at a Wildberries warehouse following a Ukrainian drone strike on 22 July and posted a sarcastic comment about her mother losing her job. The authorities said she had violated a regional ban on recording and distributing material showing the consequences of drone attacks, air-defence operations, or the locations of military units. Police forced her to apologise on camera, and she faces a fine of between 30,000 and 50,000 Rubles.

22nd July, Mediazona

Moscow Teacher Fined Following a Pupil’s Mother’s Complaint for Comparing the Second World War and the “Special Military Operation”

A Moscow court fined a schoolteacher 40,000 Rubles for allegedly “discrediting” the Russian army after she was accused of saying during an eighth-grade lesson that Russia was responsible for starting the “special military operation.” The teacher denied making the statement, while her defence argued that the case materials lacked the findings of the school’s internal investigation and that the pupils’ accounts contained inaccuracies. The proceedings began after the mother of one pupil contacted the federal Civic Chamber and two minors provided statements about what they had heard during the lesson.

22nd July, RBC

The Duma adopted a law on restrictions for convicted relocators.

The State Duma unanimously passed a package of laws targeting people outside Russia who evade criminal or administrative penalties for offences including discrediting the armed forces, calling for sanctions, participating in an undesirable organisation, and violating foreign-agent requirements. The restrictions include bans on obtaining passports, marrying, changing one’s name, registering as an individual entrepreneur or self-employed person, using consular services, registering property and accessing online banking, as well as the suspension of driving licences and the freezing of money and other assets. The Ministry of Justice will decide when these measures apply and will maintain a publicly accessible register of the affected individuals.

21st July, Vedomosti

Education Ministry Selects Books About the “Special Military Operation” for Schoolchildren

Russia’s Ministry of Education has compiled lists of works for classroom and extracurricular reading that include contemporary patriotic books about the “special military operation” and has sent them to school libraries across the country. A separate section titled “Za Nashikh” contains books devoted to the operation and its participants, including Donbas Is the Heart of Russia, Beyond the Line, and the poetry collection Poetry of the Russian Winter. The lists cover works included in federal educational programmes, extracurricular literature and modern patriotic publications, following Education Minister Sergei Kravtsov’s support for incorporating such material into school curricula.

21st July, Meduza

Rosgvardia Will Prepare in Advance for Mobilisation and Martial Law

Rosgvardia has proposed amending its civil-defence regulations to explicitly include preparations for dangers arising during mobilisation, martial law and wartime. The amendments would also extend evacuation provisions to include the agency’s military personnel and employees, alongside civilian staff and family members. According to the explanatory note, the changes are intended to align the regulations with amendments made to Russia’s civil-defence law in 2025, although the proposal has emerged amid reports that the authorities are considering another wave of mobilisation.

21st July, Interfax

Duma Introduces Judicial Mechanism to Block the Return of Foreign Businesses to Russia

Russia’s State Duma passed a law in its third reading that would allow courts to deprive certain foreign investors who exited Russian businesses after February 2022 of their contractual rights to repurchase shares or ownership stakes. The mechanism would apply to transactions involving investors connected with states designated as “unfriendly” and could be initiated by the current asset owner or the relevant government ministry, with cases heard by the Arbitration Court of the Moscow Region. Foreign investors affected by such a ruling could seek compensation within one year, although a court could reduce or entirely deny payment depending on the investor’s conduct, the losses caused and the investments made by the Russian purchaser. Is this an attraction for foreign investors?

19th July, RTVI

Fourth Monument to Stalin Unveiled in the Vologda Region

Vologda Region Governor Georgy Filimonov unveiled a bronze monument to Joseph Stalin and Soviet metallurgist Ivan Bardin in Cherepovets during celebrations marking Metallurgist’s Day. Filimonov described the installation as the restoration of historical justice and said both figures were connected with the creation of the Cherepovets Metallurgical Plant and the city’s transformation into a major Soviet industrial centre. This is the fourth monument to Stalin erected in the region, following a statue installed in Vologda in 2024 and busts unveiled in Kaduy and Nikolsk in 2025.

19th July, ECHO

Nadezhdin Announces the End of His State Duma Election Campaign

Boris Nadezhdin announced that he would not submit the signatures collected to register his candidacy in the State Duma elections, saying that government pressure had forced him to end his campaign. He stated that he could no longer legally engage in opposition politics in Russia and did not want to endanger his family, campaign staff, signature collectors or supporters. Nadezhdin had recently been designated a “foreign agent,” detained and fined over a link to a video featuring a photograph of Alexei Navalny, and prohibited from leaving Russia.

18th July, Meduza

Ozon, Like Wildberries, Changes Its Seller Agreement and Will Not Compensate for Goods Lost in Drone Strikes

Ozon has changed its seller agreement to exclude compensation for goods lost or damaged because of military operations, states of emergency, shelling, civil unrest, drone incidents and similar circumstances. The amendments took effect on 12 June and transfer the associated commercial risks to sellers, releasing Ozon from related claims. Wildberries introduced a similar clause in early July, and although it said it was not legally required to compensate sellers after drone attacks on its warehouses, the company was considering financial support measures.

17th July, Meduza

Nonexistent International Golos Movement Added to Russia’s List of “Undesirable” Organisations

Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation added the international public movement “In Defence of Voters’ Rights ‘Golos’” to its register of “undesirable” organisations, although the register provides no details about the group. Former Golos co-chair Stanislav Andreychuk said that neither he nor his former colleagues knew of any such international movement, stressing that Golos had always been an association of Russian citizens. Golos ceased operating in July 2025 after co-chair Grigory Melkonyants was sentenced to five years in prison, although the Russian authorities had not formally designated either the original association or the later Golos movement as “undesirable.”

17th July, Meduza

Blogger Ilya Remeslo Detained in a Case over “False Information” about the Army

Pro-Kremlin blogger Ilya Remeslo was detained in a criminal case concerning alleged “false information” about the Russian army, reportedly initiated over posts published on his Telegram channel. His lawyer said that Remeslo, who lives in St Petersburg, was being taken to Moscow, where a court would determine the restrictions imposed on him during the investigation. Remeslo had built his reputation by campaigning against Alexei Navalny but later criticised Vladimir Putin, accusing him of starting the war, damaging Russia’s economy, imposing censorship and suppressing the opposition.

17th July, Meduza

Google Follows Apple in Removing All VK Applications, Including the Max Messenger

Google Play removed at least 18 applications belonging to VK companies, including Max, VKontakte, Odnoklassniki and Mail.ru, apparently following the European Union’s introduction of sanctions against VK and the company developing Max. The immediate consequences may be limited because previously installed applications continue to work on Android and VK can distribute its services through alternative stores or APK files. However, more extensive restrictions, such as cutting VK off from Firebase, Widevine or developer verification, could seriously disrupt its services and affect tens of millions of users.

16th July, Izvestia

Russia May Ban the Sale of SIM Cards with Money Already on the Account

Ministry of Digital Development of the Russian Federation is considering requiring mobile operators to sell SIM cards only with a zero balance as part of the proposed “Antifraud 3.0” measures. Customers would be able to add money only after concluding a contract with an operator, creating a payment record that could help identify the SIM card’s actual user. The ministry said the measure, alongside a possible ban on pre-activated SIM cards, is intended to prevent criminals from anonymously using prepaid or fraudulently registered numbers and then discarding them.

16th June, Current Time

Yekaterinburg Telegram Channel Owner Charged over FBK and RVC Logos as Both Channels Fall under Security-Service Control

Two administrative protocols were filed against Bogdan Bukharin, administrator of the Telegram channels Oppositioner and Yashcheritsa, for allegedly displaying the symbols of extremist and prohibited organisations. The charges concerned posts about criminal cases involving cooperation with the Anti-Corruption Foundation and the Russian Volunteer Corps that included the organisations’ logos. Bukharin said security officers had seized control of both channels and warned readers to delete their comments, while maintaining his opposition to Vladimir Putin’s policies.

15th July, RBC

Migrants Might Be Required to Buy a Phone upon Arrival in Russia

Deputy Interior Minister Igor Zubov said migrants arriving in Russia, particularly labour migrants and those planning a long-term stay, will be required to purchase a mobile phone containing their electronic profile. Police will use the device to monitor each migrant’s location and prevent them from changing their place of residence or moving between settlements without official oversight. The phone will also allow authorities to notify migrants about expiring documents or instructions to report to a particular location.

14th July, Vedomosti

Russia–China Trade Turnover Grew by 25.6% in the First Half of 2026

Trade between Russia and China increased by 25.6% year on year to $134.175 billion between January and June 2026. Russian exports to China rose by 23.3% to $73.578 billion, while imports from China to Russia increased by 28.4% to $60.596 billion. China’s total foreign trade grew by 21.2% to $3.675 trillion, including increases in trade with ASEAN countries and the European Union.

13th July, TASS

ITTF Lifts Sanctions on Table Tennis Players from the Russian Federation

The International Table Tennis Federation will fully readmit Russian athletes to competitions under its authority from 28 July. The ITTF Executive Board reviewed the participation of athletes holding Russian passports and decided to remove the restrictions previously imposed on them. Russian players had competed internationally only under neutral status since August 2023, although Russian junior athletes had already been permitted to use their national flag and anthem from April 2026.

12th July, Meduza

Ksenia Sobchak Responds to Leaked Messages with Andriy Yermak and Kremlin Cultural Censor Sergei Novikov

Hackers published alleged private correspondence involving Ksenia Sobchak and several prominent figures, including former head of the Ukrainian presidential office Andriy Yermak and Sergei Novikov, a senior Kremlin official described by Meduza as Russia’s chief cultural censor. The messages purportedly show Sobchak asking Novikov for informal approval to hold a music festival in Onega, while other exchanges illustrate how her media organisation navigated state censorship and relations with officials. Sobchak denied that the screenshots were authentic and criticised Meduza for reporting on an anonymous, unverified leak, although comparisons with subsequent edits to her outlet’s publications provided indirect evidence supporting parts of the archive’s credibility.

12th July, The Insider

Security Forces and ‘Russian Community’Shut Down the “Sliyanie” Festival Near Vladimir, Citing Loud Music and Fuel Consumption

Police officers and activists from the far-right Russian Community group raided the electronic music festival “Sliyanie,” held in a forest near Pokrov in the Vladimir region, forcing organisers to suspend the stages and continue only with acoustic performances and quiet music. Witnesses reported drug searches and several possible detentions, while a local source said the authorities accused festivalgoers of making excessive noise and consuming too much petrol during a fuel shortage. The article places the intervention in the broader context of the Russian Community’s cooperation with law enforcement and its attempts to disrupt events it considers incompatible with “traditional values.”

10th July, Izvestia

Russian Federation has disabled access to inaccessible websites from foreign SIM cards.

Russia has begun filtering roaming traffic from foreign SIM cards under the same rules as domestic networks, preventing users from accessing websites blocked under Russian law. Services that independently restricted their operations in Russia, such as Netflix and some foreign AI platforms, may remain accessible. Around 500,000 people reportedly used foreign SIMs regularly for internet access, but the workaround was costly, inconvenient, and never widespread.

10th July, Meduza

Russia Opens First Treason Cases Over Telegram Stars Sent to Anti-Kremlin Armed Groups

Russian authorities have reportedly opened the country's first criminal cases for high treason against individuals who sent Telegram Stars, the platform's virtual currency, to channels associated with the Russian Volunteer Corps (RDK) and the Freedom of Russia Legion, according to the legal aid project Prison Lawyer. Similar cases had previously been prosecuted as facilitating terrorist activity, but investigators are now applying the more severe charge of treason, which carries a potential life sentence. The reported cases mark a further expansion of Russia's use of national security legislation to prosecute even small online financial interactions with organisations designated as terrorist by the Russian authorities. (brief comment about more fear)

9th July, Vedomosti

For the first time in 36 years, the Nizhny Novgorod region has exceeded the birth rate in Russia.

Nizhny Novgorod Region’s total fertility rate has exceeded the Russian national average for the first time since 1990, reaching 1.357 versus 1.352 nationwide. The rate has risen by almost 8% since June 2025, outperforming the Volga Federal District average of 1.295. Governor Gleb Nikitin attributed the improvement partly to the regional “Osnova” family-support programme and said the authorities would continue expanding measures that help families have children.

9th July, MK

Russians Are Drinking Less: Average Alcohol Consumption Falls by Half a Litre per Person

Alcohol consumption in Russia declined over the past year, with average per capita consumption falling by approximately half a litre of pure alcohol, according to official data cited by the Ministry of Health. Health officials attributed the decrease to stricter alcohol control policies, expanding public health initiatives, and growing public awareness of the health risks associated with excessive drinking. The article presents the trend as evidence of continued progress in the government's efforts to promote healthier lifestyles and reduce alcohol-related mortality and disease.

9th July, NSN

Ministry of Digital Development of the Russian Federation has recognised four military media outlets as socially significant.

Russia’s Ministry of Digital Development has proposed designating four military publications as socially significant periodicals. The list includes Krasnaya Zvezda, Army Collection, Warrior of Russia, and the Military History Journal. This status gives the publications access to subsidised postal delivery, government funding, and tax benefits.

9th July, RBC

In the history textbook, the wording about serfs, Ivan the Terrible and Lithuania was changed.

Updated Russian history textbooks for Years 7-8 revise descriptions of Ivan the Terrible’s reign, social classes and the Time of Troubles, including replacing the claim that secular estates were “the sovereign’s slaves.” They also soften Russia’s expansion into the Volga region from an effort to “seize” it to an attempt to “establish influence,” while portraying the Pereyaslav Council as the voluntary reunification of “Little Russia” and the Zaporozhian Host with Russia. The new edition further emphasises that Russia has always been multinational or multiethnic, noting that Minin and Pozharsky’s militia included Tatars, Bashkirs, Mordvins and other Volga peoples.

8th July, Interfax

State Duma Passes Law on the Development of Artificial Intelligence Technologies

The State Duma adopted a framework law establishing Russia's first comprehensive legal framework for the development and regulation of artificial intelligence, including large foundation models with at least one billion parameters. The legislation introduces the concepts of "national" and "sovereign" AI models, requires their data processing to be localised in Russia with the participation of Russian legal entities, provides state support for domestic AI developers, and mandates the labelling of AI-generated audio and visual content. It also grants the government authority to require the exclusive use of sovereign or national AI models in sensitive sectors, such as state information systems, as part of Russia's broader strategy to strengthen technological sovereignty.

8th July, Meduza

Russian Athletes Can Compete for the 2028 Olympics, but Will They Regain Their Flag and Anthem?

Meduza explains the implications of the International Olympic Committee's decision to provisionally lift the suspension of the Russian Olympic Committee, allowing Russian athletes to compete in qualification events for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics without mandatory neutral status. The article notes that while the IOC has removed its restrictions, decisions on whether Russian athletes may compete under the national flag and anthem—and whether they may participate in specific sports—remain in the hands of individual international federations, many of which continue to maintain their own bans. It also highlights that the IOC's decision is conditional on the Russian Olympic Committee refraining from activities in occupied Ukrainian territories, meaning the easing of restrictions could still be reversed.

7th July, Interfax

Singer Monetochka was sentenced in absentia to one year in prison.

Russian singer Monetochka (Elizaveta Gyrdymova) was sentenced in absentia to one year in a general-regime penal colony for repeatedly breaching Russia’s “foreign agent” rules. Prosecutors said she continued posting social-media materials without the required “foreign agent” label after two administrative penalties. The court also banned her from administering websites or online platforms for three years; she is currently wanted by Russian authorities.

7th July, RBC

Foreign Ministry Sees Baltic States Preparing for Mass Deportation of Russian Speakers

Russia's Foreign Ministry claimed that the Baltic states are openly preparing for the mass deportation of Russian-speaking residents, alleging that the policy is intended to permanently resolve the "Russian question." The statement was made by Grigory Lukyantsev, Director of the Foreign Ministry's Department for Multilateral Cooperation on Human Rights, during the presentation of a report on the human rights situation in selected countries, where he also accused Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia of systematic discrimination against ethnic Russians. The article reports these allegations as official statements by the Russian Foreign Ministry without providing independent evidence to substantiate the claims.

6th July, Izvestia

An unhealthy situation: Russia is experiencing a significant shortage of doctors.

Russia is experiencing a severe shortage of healthcare workers, with the Ministry of Health estimating a deficit of around 100,000 medical professionals, including approximately 23,000 doctors and more than 60,000 nurses and other mid-level staff. The shortage is particularly acute in primary care, emergency medicine, and rural regions, where heavy workloads, relatively low salaries, and migration to the private sector have made recruitment and retention increasingly difficult. The government attempts to address the problem through mandatory work placements for medical graduates, expanded targeted admissions, and financial incentives, while experts warn that these measures are unlikely to eliminate the structural causes of the workforce shortage in the near term.

6th July, RIA Novosti

Strike on the Sevastopol Panorama Was Planned by British Intelligence Services, Says SVR

Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) claimed that the June drone strike on the Museum of the Defence of Sevastopol was a provocation orchestrated by British intelligence, alleging that British military advisers secretly programmed the drones’ flight missions while Ukrainian personnel carried out the launch. According to the SVR, the attack targeted the historic panorama museum because of its symbolic connection to the Crimean War, arguing that the United Kingdom seeks historical revenge against Russia for its nineteenth-century defeat in Crimea. The agency provided no public evidence to support these claims.

6th July, T-invariant

The Passport as a Black Mark: How Dual-Use Restrictions Are Driving Russian Scientists to China

Tighter European export-control rules concerning dual-use technologies are making it increasingly difficult for Russian scientists, including those who oppose the war, to obtain academic and high-tech positions in Western countries. The article follows experimental physicist Nikita Asmedyanov, whose Russian citizenship reportedly prevented him from securing employment in Israel and France despite his strong publication record and expertise in plasma and high-energy-density physics. With Western institutions treating his passport as a security risk, he is now pursuing opportunities in China, while another Russian colleague has accepted an offer in the United Arab Emirates.

5th July, Meduza

Peskov stated that the "special military operation" had turned into a "real war" and that Western countries were to blame.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Russia’s “special military operation” had become a “real war,” blaming Western countries for supporting Ukraine with weapons, satellite targeting and military infrastructure. He claimed Russian forces were continuing to advance, citing the alleged capture of Kostyantynivka, although Ukraine and independent monitors disputed that claim. It should be noted that authorities have previously prosecuted people for publicly calling the invasion a war.

5th July, Meduza

Türkiye deported activist Ariadna Litvinova to Russia. In Russia, she is accused of "discrediting" the army for her anti-war graffiti.

Turkey deported Russian activist Ariadna Litvinova to Russia on July 4; she has not been heard from since and was reportedly detained on arrival in Moscow. Russian authorities accuse her of “discrediting” the army after she wrote anti-war slogans on banners at a pro-war exhibition in St Petersburg in February 2025. Litvinova had previously left Russia for Turkey after being released from pre-trial detention, and it remains unclear which Turkish laws she allegedly violated before being deported.

4th July, Gazeta.ru

The former Ukrainian Prime Minister will participate in the State Duma elections.

Former Ukrainian acting prime minister and ex-central bank governor Serhiy Arbuzov will run in Russia’s State Duma elections for the A Just Russia party. He is expected to stand on the party list covering Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories, Crimea and Sevastopol. The elections are scheduled for 18-20 September 2026.

4th July, Kommersant

Deputy Foreign Minister: The Baltic states provided corridors for Ukrainian air strikes on Russia.

Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin claimed that Latvia and other Baltic states had provided air corridors for Ukrainian drones attacking civilian infrastructure in Russia, citing what he called “verified data.” Baltic foreign ministers have denied ever allowing Ukraine to use their airspace for strikes on Russian territory. Similar allegations were made by the intelligence of the Russian Federation in May 2026, but Latvia and Lithuania said they could not confirm them.

4th July, Interfax

The Frunze Naval School will be re-established by September 1, 2026.

Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin has ordered the re-establishment of the M.V. Frunze Higher Naval School as a separate institution from the Kuznetsov Naval Academy. The reorganisation must be completed by 1 September 2026, with the school’s charter approved within two months. The school will provide higher, vocational and professional military education and conduct defence-related research. Mikhail Frunze was a Bolshevik revolutionary and Red Army commander who played a major role in the Russian Civil War and later became the Soviet Union’s top military leader.

3rd July, Verstka

The Ministry of Defence has decided to cancel mandatory medical examinations for contract soldiers and mobilised personnel (for active military personnel). It will be left only for the wounded and for serious illnesses.

Defence Ministry of the Russian Federation has proposed ending routine mandatory medical fitness examinations for serving contract soldiers and mobilised personnel during mobilisation, martial law or wartime. Full examinations would be required only for those with injuries or serious illnesses that could make them partially or completely unfit, with an initial medical check conducted under rules set by the ministry. Experts say the change may be intended to reduce medical-discharge requests and focus limited resources on severe cases.

3rd July, Meduza

A court has released a Moscow bar employee who was sentenced for a video featuring a hookah on a kulich (Easter bread).

A Moscow court released bar employee Ksenia Belousova, who had received a three-year prison sentence after posting a video of a hookah placed on an Easter cake. The court separated that punishment from her previous suspended drug conviction, leaving her with 200 hours of community service in the religious-offence case. In her final statement, Belousova said she was a practising believer and noted that her mother, father and brother were taking part in Russia’s war effort in Ukraine.

2nd July, Veter project

Re-rehabilitation. Authorities of the Russian Federation are massively reversing rehabilitation decisions made in the 1990s. Why? 

Since mid-2022, prosecutors of the Russian Federation have reviewed more than 14,000 Soviet-era cases and revoked the rehabilitation of over 4,000 people previously recognised as victims of political repression. The authorities present the campaign as correcting mistaken rehabilitations of Nazi collaborators and war criminals, but historians warn that its secrecy and political framing may also affect people convicted on fabricated or purely political charges. The article highlights the continued rehabilitation of Soviet intelligence officer Pavel Sudoplatov, despite evidence of his involvement in extrajudicial killings, as an example of the Russian Federation’s selective and politically driven approach to historical justice.

2nd July, Kommersant

The number of abortions continues to decline

Russia recorded 321,000 abortions in 2025, a 5% decrease from the previous year, according to Health Ministry data. Regional trends varied sharply: some areas nearly halved their numbers, while others saw little change or an increase. The government has tightened abortion regulations through mandatory counselling, stricter controls on medication, regional penalties for encouraging abortion, and new requirements for procedures to be performed in properly equipped hospital settings. Not that there is an increase in births, so the population keeps declining.

2nd July, Kommersant

Fuel burns profits. Wildberries (One of Russia’s largest marketplaces) is increasing its commissions for sellers due to rising fuel prices.

Wildberries will raise seller commissions from 7 July, citing higher fuel prices and logistics costs, with increases ranging from 5 to 20 percent depending on the fulfilment model. Experts warn that sellers, already spending up to 50-70% of revenue on marketplace fees and related costs, may pass the increases on to consumers, potentially raising prices for most goods and prompting some merchants to leave the platform. The move comes as Russia’s major online marketplaces face slowing sales growth despite continued expansion.

30th June, RBC

German Gref named the question that worries everyone (end of war)

Sberbank CEO German Gref said the main concern shared by Russians is the earliest possible end to the military hostilities. “What concerns us, I think we are all concerned about the same thing; I do not think there is a person in the country who has any other concerns besides the earliest possible end to the military hostilities, and that is obvious,” he said. Gref made the remarks at Sberbank’s annual shareholders’ meeting.

30th June, Mediazona

An employee of Popcorn Books, where "Summer in a Pioneer Tie" was published, "exposed his colleagues to criminal activity." Here's what he said.

Former Popcorn Books sales director Pavel Ivanov received a four-year suspended sentence after cooperating with investigators in a case alleging involvement in the banned “international LGBT movement.” Ivanov accused colleagues and executives at Individuum and Eksmo-AST of continuing to sell LGBT-themed books after restrictions were introduced, including through Kazakhstan, primarily to protect profits and meet sales targets. Mediazona notes that his claims are difficult to verify independently, while a former Individuum editor described much of his testimony as false or confused; other defendants are still awaiting verdicts.

30th June, Realnoe Vremya

The International Skating Union has cleared athletes from the Russian Federation to compete. (but without flags)

The International Skating Union (ISU) will allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete in team events during the 2026/27 season under neutral status. They may participate as an AIN team in disciplines including synchronised skating, speed-skating team pursuit, short-track relays and the ISU World Team Trophy, provided they meet qualification and neutrality requirements and use no national symbols. Athletes from the Russian Federation and Belarus had largely been excluded from ISU competitions since March 2022, apart from limited access to qualification for the 2026 Winter Olympics.

30th June, Meduza

The Institute for Conflict Studies and Analysis of Russia (based in Kyiv) claims that 81% of Russians support ending the war "tomorrow." This is the highest level in four years.

A survey by the Kyiv-based Institute for Conflict Studies and Analysis of Russia found that 81% of Russians support ending the war “as soon as tomorrow,” the highest level recorded in four years, while only 9% favour fighting until complete victory. The war has again become respondents’ top concern, ahead of low wages and high prices, and many associate peace with an improvement in their financial situation. Most respondents also expressed negative views of mobile-internet restrictions, approved-access lists, and potential Telegram blocking because these measures disrupt everyday life.

30th June, TKS.ru

Stolen and lost phones will be blocked through a single IMEI database.

Russian Federation plans a central IMEI database to block stolen, lost, counterfeit-identifier, and unlawfully imported mobile phones. Operators would register devices within an hour, block reported SIM cards within one working day, and disable prohibited devices within an hour, with the rules due to take effect on 1 March 2027. The government says users will not need to register their phones themselves, although experts warn that the treatment of “illegally imported” devices still require legal clarification.

29th June, Mediazona

Political scientist Alexei Chesnakov was fined for an article mentioning Meta without noting that the corporation has been designated as extremist in the Russian Federation.

A Moscow court fined political analyst Alexei Chesnakov 4,000 Rubles for an article that mentioned Meta without stating that the Russian Federation has designated the company an extremist organisation. Chesnakov was held responsible as editor-in-chief of Aktualnye Kommentarii, although the article was written by political analyst Gleb Kuznetsov. Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, was banned as an extremist organisation in Russia in March 2022.

27th June, Meduza

The home of Alexander Lunin, the soldier who recorded the address to Putin, was searched. He was arrested for 11 days.

Police searched Russian serviceman Alexander Lunin’s home in the Voronezh region, seizing computers, storage devices and other items. Lunin, who had travelled to Moscow and briefly stopped communicating, was later sentenced to 11 days of administrative detention (for displaying extremist or Nazi symbols). The search followed his June 25 video demanding a live meeting with Vladimir Putin to discuss problems in Russia and the military, while warning that the army could turn its weapons against the Kremlin if Putin refused.

27th June, Novaya Gazeta

St. Petersburg International Legal Forum (SPILF) in troubled waters

Novaya Gazeta portrays the 24–26 June 2026 St Petersburg International Legal Forum as divided between practical discussions for corporate lawyers and ideological sessions promoting “traditional values,” a strong state and state interests over individual rights. Justice Minister Konstantin Chuychenko endorsed claims of a “Western trace” behind attempts to weaken state power. He repeated that Russia should reconsider the constitutional balance between protecting human rights and strengthening the state. Alexander Bastrykin, head of Russia’s Investigative Committee, called for lowering the age of criminal responsibility to 12 and restoring the death penalty. Speakers advocated weakening the priority of individual rights, tightening restrictions on “foreign agents,” revising Russia’s constitution, and even restoring the death penalty, while avoiding discussion of judicial abuses or political repression. This rhetoric influences lawmakers, courts and law-enforcement agencies, while judicial failings, police arbitrariness, the diminished role of defence lawyers and political repression were not discussed.  The forum functions as an “ideology factory,” encouraging lawyers, judges, and officials to place the interests of the state above personal rights.

26th June, TASS

A Putin District Court has been established in Grozny’s Putinsky District. The law was signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

President Vladimir Putin signed a law establishing a district court for Grozny’s Putinsky District. The new court will have jurisdiction over the district, while the neighbouring Sheikh-Mansurovsky District Court’s jurisdiction has been redefined accordingly.

26th June, Interfax

Weightlifters from the Russian Federation have been allowed to compete in international tournaments under the official flag.

The International Weightlifting Federation has allowed athletes from the Russian Federation and Belarus to participate in all IWF competitions. The decision applies to athletes of every age group, who may compete under their national flags and with their national anthems. This ends the previous requirement for them to participate under neutral status.

26th June, Gazeta.ru

Putin appointed Gladkov as ambassador to Abkhazia.

President Vladimir Putin appointed former Belgorod regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov as Russia’s ambassador to Abkhazia. Gladkov replaces Mikhail Shurgalin, who was dismissed in a separate decree. Gladkov had led the Belgorod region since 2020 before resigning in May 2026.

26th June, RIA Tomsk

Decisions to erect two monuments to victims of repression in Tomsk have been overturned. (same one removed in April)

Tomsk’s city council unanimously revoked earlier decisions authorising monuments to Latvian and Lithuanian victims of Soviet political repression. The item was added to the agenda at the mayor’s request and approved without discussion or additional cost. The memorial square, established beside a former NKVD prison, was closed and its monuments removed in April due to safety concerns. Subsequent inspections found no landslide activity, and officials have not said when it will be restored.

26th June, Istories

A resident of the Amur region was stopped on the street, beaten, and forced to sign a contract.

Police reportedly stopped a man in a village in Russia’s Amur region on his way to a shop, forced him into a vehicle, beat him, and coerced him into signing a military contract. He had recently lost both parents, lived alone, and reportedly struggled with alcohol misuse. According to his relatives, the head of the village administration tipped off the authorities and allegedly receives 200,000 Rubles for each man detained and recruited as a contract soldier. After losing contact with him for several days, his relatives discovered that he had been forced to sign the contract and was registered with a military unit in another region. Rights activists described this as the first documented forced-recruitment raid of its kind outside the Penza region.

25th June, Meduza

The FSB hacked the phone of politician Andrei Pivovarov using spyware from the Israeli company Cellebrite.

Citizen Lab found that FSB used Cellebrite’s UFED technology to extract data from opposition politician Andrei Pivovarov’s iPhone while he was detained in June 2021. Pivovarov said investigators copied virtually everything, including political correspondence, and used the messages to support allegations that he continued working for the banned Open Russia organisation. The phone was reportedly hacked after Cellebrite had announced it would stop selling its products in the Russian Federation and Belarus.

25th June, Expert.ru

Russia to create special repository for "destructive" literature

Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation stated that the Russian State Library is creating a restricted archive for literature classified as “destructive,” particularly books supplied to libraries by foreign NGOs. The government is also directing libraries to buy approved patriotic, historical, fiction, and children’s books, with 875 million Rubles allocated for purchases in 2026. Books linked to designated “foreign agents” must be kept away from children, labelled 18+, and may face restrictions on display, advertising, and sale.

25th June, Current Time

Apple removed VKontakte, Zen, Odnoklassniki, and other VK products from the App Store.

Apple removed several VK-owned apps from its App Store without warning, including Odnoklassniki, Dzen, Mail.ru, VK Music, VK Messenger, VK Video and Skillbox, while the main VKontakte app reportedly remained available. VK said the decision was unjustified, stressed that the company is not under sanctions, and warned that affected users may lose push notifications, although previously installed apps will continue to work. Apple had not commented on the removals at the time of publication, while the apps remained available through Google Play and other stores.

24th June, Mediazona

Yabloko deputy chair Maxim Kruglov is sentenced to seven years for antiwar posts.
A Moscow court sentenced Maxim Kruglov, deputy chairman of Russia’s Yabloko party, to seven years in a general-regime prison colony and barred him from administering online platforms for three years. He was convicted of spreading “false information” about the Russian military in two social-media posts from April 2022 concerning civilian deaths in Ukraine and events in Bucha, charges he denied. In his final statement, Kruglov argued that the prosecution treated political disagreement as hatred, called for peace negotiations and investigations into war crimes, and said he remained hopeful for Russia’s democratic future.

24th June, RBC

The State Duma has assured that it does not plan to impose fines for cohabitation without marriage.

Russian Federation is not considering bans or fines for couples who live together without registering a marriage, State Duma official Tatyana Butskaya said. Her comments followed a deputy justice minister’s claim that unregistered cohabitation and high divorce rates threaten Russia’s national security and demographic health. Butskaya said marriage should instead be encouraged through family-support programmes and school education on family values.

23rd June, IStories

The body of a 20-year-old conscript from the Urals was returned to his mother with a gunshot wound to the head after he refused to sign a contract.

Twenty-year-old Russian conscript Maxim Mironov was transferred to the Kursk border region after refusing pressure to sign a military contract and died there from a gunshot wound to the head. Military paperwork described an “accidental discharge,” but his family suspects murder, citing the nature of the wound, missing personal belongings, an incomplete forensic examination, and contradictory official information. The family has appealed to investigative, military and prosecutorial authorities, while a military investigator reportedly suggested “improper handling of a weapon” as the likely explanation.

23rd June, Vedomosti

Putin: Russian Federation is ready for negotiations based in Istanbul and taking into account the realities on the ground

President Vladimir Putin said Russian Federation is ready for peace talks with Ukraine based on the Istanbul agreements, discussions held in Anchorage, current battlefield realities, and principles he outlined in 2024. He argued that Ukrainian attacks on civilian infrastructure would not change the situation at the front, claiming Russian forces were continuing to advance. Although Putin previously said Russia could accept compromises discussed with Donald Trump in Anchorage in August 2025, presidential aide Yuri Ushakov later said Moscow was focused on victory rather than implementing those agreements.

23rd June, Izvestia

Taking a downward turn: Tax debts of businesses and individuals reached a record 4 trillion

By April 2026, tax debts owed by Russian businesses and individuals had reached a record of nearly 4 trillion Rubles, about one-third higher than a year earlier. 1.7 trillion Rubles was unpaid tax itself, with the remainder consisting of penalties and interest. The largest arrears involved VAT, corporate profit tax and social-insurance contributions, while Moscow accounted for the biggest regional share. Experts link the rise to worsening business finances, higher tax burdens and stricter enforcement, warning that construction, retail, hospitality and logistics are particularly vulnerable and may need more flexible repayment arrangements to avoid bankruptcies.

22nd June, Meduza

A Museum of Memory of the Victims of the "Genocide of the Soviet People" has opened in Moscow, promising everyone a "vaccination against neo-Nazism."

Moscow has opened a new museum devoted to victims of the “genocide of the Soviet people,” presenting Nazi crimes through 18 thematic sections and immersive installations intended to give visitors a supposed “vaccination against neo-Nazism.” The museum occupies the former premises of the Gulag History Museum, which closed in 2024 after officially cited fire-safety violations and amid reported pressure to remove material about Soviet repression. Meduza frames the replacement as part of the Russian authorities’ growing promotion of the “Soviet genocide” concept while marginalising remembrance of Stalinist crimes.

22nd June, The Nation

How “the Blob” Gaslighted Itself Into Thinking That Russia Is on the Brink of Collapse

Washington’s foreign-policy establishment has repeatedly mistaken Russia’s genuine economic, demographic and political weaknesses for signs of imminent collapse, despite the country’s resilience under sanctions and war. It attributes this misjudgement to securitised Russia studies, shrinking academic expertise, ideological conformity, limited access to Russian society and overreliance on exiles or regional experts whose political aims may shape their analysis. The author warns that such wishful thinking produces wasteful programmes, suppresses nuanced debate and encourages dangerous policies built on the false assumption that Russia will soon disintegrate.

21st June, RIA

Zakharova recalled that the Poles who fell victim to the UPA were citizens of the USSR.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that most Polish victims of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army during the 1943-44 Volhynian massacres were legally Soviet citizens from November 1939. Her remarks followed Polish President Karol Nawrocki’s reported decision to strip Volodymyr Zelenskyy of the Order of the White Eagle over what he described as the glorification of UPA figures. Interpretations of the massacres and attitudes toward Ukrainian nationalist leaders remain a major source of tension between Poland and Ukraine.

20th June, Meduza

"There's no explanation why this all surfaced in Penza. But I don't believe this region is unique." Security forces have rounded up dozens of Penza residents and taken them to the military registration and enlistment office. Some have already been forced to sign contracts. Is this a new tactic by the authorities? And who is at risk?

In Penza and nearby towns, security forces detained dozens of men. They took them to military recruitment offices, where some were pressured or deceived into signing Defence Ministry contracts and rapidly sent to military units. Those most at risk appear to be people vulnerable to police pressure, including men with unpaid child support, criminal records, legal problems, or intoxication. The anti-war group “Get Lost” helped secure the release of at least four detainees and believes the operation may represent a broader recruitment tactic that could appear in other regions of the Russian Federation.

19th June, RIA

The Bank of Russia cut the key rate to 14.25 percent but warned that fiscal loosening and price risks remain.

The Central Bank reduced the key rate by 25 basis points to 14.25%. Its statement said economic growth was continuing at a moderate pace after an early-year dip, but it also warned that budget policy over the next three years would be more stimulative than expected and that this could require a higher interest-rate path than previously assumed. 

18th June, Meduza

Moscow's former ombudsman boasted of the positive legacy of the "Navalny era."

Former Moscow human-rights ombudsman Tatyana Potyaeva said one positive legacy of the “Navalny era” was enabling detainees held in pre-trial detention outside their home regions to vote in regional elections. She said the issue became prominent during the mass anti-fraud protests of the 2010s, when arrested activists wanted to vote but lacked the legal right to do so. After she repeatedly raised the problem with election and human rights officials, the law was amended accordingly.

18th June, Agenstvo

A Chechen man has been detained on suspicion of murdering the artist Skrepetsky.

Polish police have detained a suspect in the killing of Semyon Skrepetsky, whose real name was Robert Kuzovkov. The man, reportedly a Chechen, was using what investigators believe may be a forged Georgian passport, while authorities are trying to identify who ordered the murder. Skrepetsky was shot dead in Biała Podlaska on 16 June and was known for satirical works targeting Vladimir Putin, Ramzan Kadyrov and Alexander Lukashenko.

17th June, Vedomosti

In 2025, more than 1,000 foreigners received the "traditional values ​​visa"

In 2025, Russia issued 1,112 “traditional values” visas, led by applicants from Germany, France, the United States, Italy and Estonia. Interest has reportedly increased: applications for temporary residence under the programme rose from 2,275 in October 2025 to about 3,400 by May 2026. Around 78% of applicants recorded between September 2024 and June 2025 came from Europe.

17th June, Insider

Memorial: The average prison term for political prisoners in Russia has risen to 11 years. In 2021, it was less than seven years.

Memorial reports that the average prison sentence in politically motivated Russian cases rose from 6 years and 7 months in 2021 to 11 years in 2026. Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, authorities have introduced or expanded criminal laws, increasingly classified cases as treason, terrorism or sabotage, and charged defendants under multiple articles to secure harsher sentences. The report concludes that political defendants are now treated as a distinct group of “enemies,” facing exceptionally severe punishment, violence and diminished legal protections.

17th June, Current Time

A memorial to Gulag prisoners was dismantled in Vorkuta at the request of a participant in the war against Ukraine.

Authorities in Vorkuta removed a memorial to Gulag victims after a local councillor and participant in Russia’s war against Ukraine claimed it honoured “Nazi collaborators.” The monument, installed in 2010 at the Yur-Shor cemetery, listed 33 mostly western Ukrainian prisoners, while officials said some had links to the Ukrainian Insurgent Army and the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists.

17th June, Meduza

Ilya Traber, a businessman close to Putin since the 1990s, has been arrested. Traber is suspected of murdering St. Petersburg deputy Alexander Petrov.

Businessman Ilya Traber, reportedly close to Vladimir Putin since their St Petersburg years, was arrested and placed in pretrial detention over the alleged contract killing of businessman and municipal deputy Alexander Petrov in 2020. Investigators reportedly revived the stalled case after receiving new information, while searches were conducted at properties and companies linked to Traber and his longtime business partner Vladimir Danilenko. Traber’s rise from the antiques trade to major port and oil-terminal interests, his alleged links to organised crime, claims not proven in a 2018 Spanish trial, and his longstanding connections within Putin’s circle. Connection or not, the murder of a friend and a business partner is considered illegal under criminal bylaws.

16th June, Gazeta.ru

"Recognition of New Borders," Russia Explains the Significance of the Victory over Ukraine in The Hague Court

A Hague arbitration tribunal rejected most of Ukraine’s claims concerning maritime rights around Crimea, including demands related to the Kerch Strait, natural resources, compensation, and dismantling the Crimean Bridge. Russian officials portrayed the ruling as a major legal victory and argued that it strengthened Russia’s claims over the surrounding waters, noting that Western governments are unlikely to change their position on Crimea. The tribunal reportedly criticised aspects of the environmental-impact assessment process for infrastructure projects but found no proven environmental damage. Trying to invent a victory that is not there.

15th June, RIA

FIFA will allow the Russian Federation team to participate in the new U-15 tournament.

FIFA will allow Russia’s team to participate in a new under-15 tournament, reportedly scheduled for September in the United States. The competition will be open to all 211 FIFA member associations, with no country subject to existing sanctions for this event. Matches will use experimental seven-, eight-, and nine-a-side formats, with shorter playing times and smaller pitches.

13th June, Ixbt

Sanctions may leave Max without a foreign TLS certificate

Messenger Max’s official website may lose access to a foreign TLS certificate because its associated company is on a US sanctions list, and Let’s Encrypt must comply with US law. Let’s Encrypt has not announced a revocation, but the current certificate expires on 4 September 2026. Max may need another certificate authority or a Russian certificate; otherwise, visitors could see browser security warnings.

11th June, RBC

Rosselkhoznadzor will ban the import of all quarantine products from Armenia.

From 12 June 2026, Russia’s agricultural watchdog will ban all plant products subject to quarantine controls from Armenia, including their transit through Russia to other Eurasian Economic Union countries. The agency cited repeated phytosanitary violations, including three June detections of khapra beetles in Armenian nuts, dried peaches and dried tomatoes. The restrictions will remain until Armenia establishes an acceptable system for ensuring the safety and traceability of its exports. It coincides with the drop in relations between the two states, as it happened with other countries before.

11th June, Meduza

Russia imposes its first fine for criticising the Taliban

A court in Rostov-on-Don fined a 19-year-old resident 10,000 Rubles for comments on VKontakte criticising the Taliban and migrants. The court said his remarks incited hatred between Russians and Afghans, and the man reportedly admitted guilt and expressed remorse. This appears to be Russia’s first fine for criticism of the Taliban since Russia removed the group from its list of terrorist organisations in April 2025.

10th June, Meduza

Roblox is no longer blocked in the Russian Federation.

Russia’s Digital Development Ministry said Roblox is no longer blocked in Russia. The ministry said Roblox had “fully complied” with Russia’s legal requirements on user safety, after the platform was blocked in December 2025 over alleged extremist material and “LGBT propaganda.” Officials of the Russian Federation had said Roblox was cooperating, and on 9 June 2026, the ministry asked law enforcement agencies to lift the restrictions.

9th June, Interfax

The State Duma has passed a law on fines for violations when authorising websites and applications.

Russia’s State Duma has passed a law imposing fines on website and app owners who fail to use legally approved methods to authorise users in Russia. Permitted methods include mobile-phone verification, Russia’s ESIA/EBS identity systems, or a Russian authorisation service. Fines can reach 700,000 Rubles for companies. The law also introduces penalties for violations involving recommendation technologies, including failing to inform users about their use or ignoring Roskomnadzor orders to stop using them.

9th June, RBC

Beeline (mobile operator) launched a "white VPN"

Beeline has launched a “white VPN” option that gives subscribers direct access to foreign services such as Spotify, Netflix, Ticketmaster and Brawl Stars without using a separate VPN.
The feature is available from 9 June 2026 through the bee subscription and works automatically, without extra payment or manual setup. The company says it applies only to services that are not banned in Russia but stopped operating there themselves, presenting it as a legal and more convenient way to restore access.

9th June, Novaya Gazeta

The State Duma approved new restrictions for "foreign agents"

Russia’s State Duma approved new restrictions on people and organisations labelled “foreign agents,” including bans on social advertising and tougher reporting rules. Banks will have to give the Justice Ministry information about “foreign agents’” transactions, accounts and deposits within three days, while rejected applications to leave the register generally cannot be resubmitted for a year. Russia’s “foreign agent” system began in 2012 and has expanded since 2022 to include people or groups deemed under “foreign influence,” with more than 1,200 individuals and entities currently listed.

8th June, Verstka

A St. Petersburg resident was fined for words in a private WhatsApp call after the denunciation of the interlocutor. The court considered this conversation public.

A St Petersburg court fined resident Denis Timofeyev 30,000 Rubles for allegedly “discrediting” the Russian army during a private WhatsApp video call on New Year’s Eve, after the other participant recorded him and reported him to emergency services. The court rejected his lawyer’s argument that the call was private, saying the remarks could have been heard by third parties and therefore counted as public. A lawyer called the ruling legally mistaken, arguing that a two-person WhatsApp call is not public by itself.

5th June, BigAsia

The prospects for Russia's cultural code were discussed at the SPIEF.

At a SPIEF session on Russia’s “cultural code,” Gazprom-Media head Alexander Zharov said the key question is how Russian identity should be expressed in an era of digital technologies, social media, and short videos. He presented research from 36 Russian cities identifying the core traits of the “Russian person” as justice, even when it may conflict with the letter of the law; resilience, meaning both defending one’s position and finding a way out of impossible situations; and breadth of soul, linked to hospitality, generosity, and patience. Other speakers mostly discussed how Russia’s cultural code should be promoted abroad, but Zharov’s statement is the clearest attempt in the article to define its internal moral content.

4th June, 66.ru

A court sentenced a Ural resident for a post featuring a bloodied Stalin.

A court in Sverdlovsk Region fined 19-year-old Stanislav Kaygorodov 45,000 Rubles after he was charged with “rehabilitating Nazism” over a Telegram post. The post allegedly showed Joseph Stalin in bloodstained clothes and said that in 1945 “a system of repression and dictators won.” Prosecutors had asked for forced labour, while Kaygorodov partially admitted guilt. A reminder that ‘rehabilitation of nazism’ article is more about stopping the critique of the Soviet period.

4th June, Meduza

Russia's Ministry of Justice: 96% of new "foreign agents" do not have foreign funding

Russia’s Justice Ministry said that in 2025, only 4% of the people and organisations newly designated as “foreign agents” had foreign funding. Since 2022, Russian law has allowed the label to be applied not only for foreign funding, but also for vaguely defined “foreign influence” in other forms. Meduza notes that more than 1,200 people and organisations were on Russia’s “foreign agents” register by 2026, with journalists and critics of the war in Ukraine often added to the list.

3rd June, Agents.media

The son of the head of the presidential administration explained how businesses fear the arrival of security forces.

Alexander Vaino, son of Kremlin chief of staff Anton Vaino, criticised Russia’s state-subsidy system at the St Petersburg Economic Forum, saying businesses avoid subsidies because they fear inspections or visits from law-enforcement agencies. He argued that state support often creates extra risks, and regional authorities may even advise firms not to take subsidies because mistakes could trigger trouble for both businesses and officials. Even insiders recognise the repressive nature of Russia’s political and economic system.

3rd June, Censor.net

Vitaly Gruzinov, sentenced to 21 years in Russia, said in his final statement.

Vitalii Gruzinov, a Ukrainian serviceman sentenced by a Russian court to 21 years, rejects the charges as fabricated and says he has never cared about Russia’s Constitution because his Constitution is Ukraine’s. He responds to accusations of hating Russians by saying that he is Russian by ethnicity, but not a citizen of the Russian Federation; he is a citizen of a multiethnic Ukraine and sees himself as equal to all peoples, not a “younger brother.” He frames this identity as part of his loyalty to Ukraine, denounces Russia’s claims and alleged torture in captivity, and says the prisoners’ public statements may be their last chance to speak the truth. It is possible to be an ethical Russian but not a Rossiyanin/Russovian.

3rd June, Kommersant

A monument to Dzerzhinsky was unveiled at a children's camp in Nizhny Tagil.

A monument to Felix Dzerzhinsky was unveiled in Nizhny Tagil (Sverdlovsk Region) at the end of May, city council member Dmitry Kostennikov announced on his VKontakte page. The bust was unveiled at the "First" sports and patriotic camp, named after the revolutionary. The Dzerzhinets movement was also launched in Nizhny Tagil. "A particularly significant moment was the presentation of the first badge to a Dzerzhinets movement participant. The badge was personally presented by Felix Edmundovich's great-nephew, Vladimir Mikhailovich Dzerzhinsky," said Mr Kostennikov.

2nd June, I-stories

What's on the minds of urban youth? People want a "normal life." And they associate it with the West.

The article summarises CASE focus groups with young urban Russians aged 18–30, finding that their main concerns are ordinary personal goals: careers, income, housing, travel, consumption, and a “normal life,” which they often associate with the West. It argues that emigration is widely seen not as betrayal but as a personal search for better opportunities, while the post-2022 “turn to the East” has not made China or other non-Western models culturally attractive to them. The authors conclude that state propaganda and patriotic education have had limited impact: this generation is politically apathetic and self-interested rather than strongly pro-Putin or oppositional, but its attachment to everyday comfort may still offer hope for a more “normal” Russia.

2nd June, Vedomosti

The Decree of the President of the Russian Federation on holding the International Week "Peoples of Russia" annually was signed.

A presidential decree has established the annual International Week “Peoples of Russia,” starting in 2026, to strengthen national unity and foster international humanitarian cooperation. The event will be coordinated by the Russian Security Council staff and will focus on preserving the cultural and historical heritage of Russia’s peoples and the CIS countries. Its programme will include business and concert events, educational activities, photo exhibitions, and a film forum featuring Russian and foreign productions.

2nd June, Verstka

Citizens of Russia are being lured to war with the help of vacancies "in the rear of the Special Military Operation" in China and Belarus.

Recruiters have posted around 50 online job ads offering military contracts for supposed “rear-area” military service in Belarus and China, including roles such as warehouse guards, drone-factory workers, technicians and drivers. The ads target broad groups, including pensioners, people over 45, people with health issues, and those without military experience, promising high pay, debt write-offs, benefits and “safe” conditions. Similar “rear” recruitment schemes have previously been used to lure people into signing regular Russian Defence Ministry contracts, where there is no guarantee that they will avoid deployment to combat zones.

2nd June, RBC

Putin introduced a new condition for applicants for citizenship of the Russian Federation.

On 2 June, Vladimir Putin changed the citizenship procedure rules so that applicants for Russian citizenship must submit a document confirming the absence of a criminal record, or listing convictions, issued no earlier than three months before the application. At the same time, a separate decree exempted Ukrainian citizens and stateless persons who had permanently resided in Ukraine and moved to Russia from presenting that document until 1 January 2028. 

2nd June, Business Online

The International Fencing Federation has lifted all restrictions on athletes from the Russian Federation.

The International Fencing Federation has lifted restrictions on Russian fencers, allowing them to compete again with national symbols, including the flag and anthem.
The decision applies to individual and team FIE events and is expected to take effect from the 2026 World Championships in Hong Kong. This follows earlier stages of reintegration, after Russian and Belarusian fencers had previously been limited to neutral status. First gymnasts, now fencers.

2nd June, Current Time

A court in Pskov sentenced a Belgian-Russian citizen to 16 years in prison for treason for transferring money to his ex-girlfriend in Ukraine.

A court in Pskov sentenced Belgian-Russian citizen Mikhail Loshchinin to 16 years in prison on treason charges after he transferred money to his former girlfriend in Ukraine. He was detained by Russia’s FSB after crossing the border in July 2025, reportedly because his phone contained contacts and messages with the woman, as well as money transfers. His family says he was tortured and mistreated in detention, and Belgian diplomats were not allowed to visit him.

1st June, Insider

Three Russian citizens were stripped of their citizenship for "promoting anti-civic Russian (Russovian) sentiment." This specific wording had not previously been officially stated publicly.

Three residents of Russia’s Tyumen region were stripped of Russia’s citizenship for alleged “propaganda of anti-civic Russian sentiments,” a wording that had not previously appeared publicly in official reports. The FSB claimed the unnamed Central Asian-born individuals tried to radicalise members of a Transcaucasian diaspora, but did not disclose what specifically prompted the case. This wording is not a standard legal basis for revoking citizenship, though Russia has already used politically motivated grounds to cancel acquired citizenship in other cases.

1st June, Expert

Vladimir Medinsky recalled the artistic benefits of Soviet censorship

Presidential Aide Vladimir Medinsky told Expert that Russia’s film industry needs stronger state quality control because it receives too much public money while lacking real market discipline. He argued that Soviet censorship, despite its ideological problems, had “artistic benefit” because it prevented poor-quality films from reaching cinemas and forced weak work to be remade. Medinsky said the same principle should apply today: films made with state funding should not be accepted if they are low-quality, and producers should have to revise them.

30th May, Current Time

Scholar Andrei Lankov announced the cessation of communication with journalists due to two protocols on cooperation with "undesirable" organisations

Korea expert Andrei Lankov said he will stop giving interviews and comments to journalists after learning that a second administrative protocol had been drawn up against him in Russia for alleged cooperation with “undesirable” organisations. He said a third administrative case could lead to “very serious problems,” so he will instead share his views mainly through posts on his blog. The first protocol against him was filed in spring 2025, possibly linked to his participation in Carnegie projects, while the reason for the second remains unclear.

28th May, Current Time

How the children of Putin and Kabaeva were surrounded by governesses from Western countries

An investigation by Sistema found that Vladimir Putin and Alina Kabaeva’s alleged children have been educated by about 20 foreign nannies and tutors from Western countries since 2017, despite Putin’s public anti-Western rhetoric. It says Kabaeva’s cousins helped manage the hiring, while the children were immersed in English and German and shielded from topics such as LGBT issues. The report also describes strict working conditions for staff, heavy secrecy and health controls, and estimated spending of hundreds of thousands of dollars a year on foreign caregivers.

28th May, Mediazona

A 26-year-old resident of the Chelyabinsk region was sentenced to three and a half years in prison because of the message "donate to the Armed Forces of Ukraine to everyone urgently" in a chat for six people

A court in Ozyorsk, Chelyabinsk region, sentenced 26-year-old Leonid Kuzminykh to three and a half years in a general-regime penal colony over a Telegram message saying, “everyone urgently donate to the Ukrainian Armed Forces.” He was convicted of public calls against state security, with prosecutors arguing the message in a six-person friends’ chat amounted to a politically motivated call to finance a foreign organisation against Russia’s security. Kuzminykh said he had not donated money or posted similar messages elsewhere, but the court ruled he could not be “corrected” without isolation from society.

27th May, Vedomosti

Russia and Afghanistan signed an agreement on military-technical cooperation

Russia and Afghanistan signed an agreement on military-technical cooperation at an international security forum in Russia, though the terms were not disclosed. The deal is connected to Russian security concerns: FSB chief Alexander Bortnikov warned on 26 May 2026 about drug labs and trafficking routes from Afghanistan into Russia, while also saying cooperation with the Taliban could help address those threats. Previously, Kabul had discussed sending Afghan labour migrants to Russia, with language described as the main obstacle, and that Russia’s Supreme Court had earlier suspended the ban on the Taliban’s activities in Russia.

26th May, Vedomosti

The former vice-governor of Kuban went missing on the frontline

Former Krasnodar Krai vice-governor Sergey Vlasov, who had been convicted in a major bribery case, has gone missing in the zone of Russia’s “special military operation.” Reports say it is too early to declare him dead because his body has not been found. Vlasov was detained in May 2024 and sentenced in December 2025 to 11 years in a strict-regime colony, a 90 million Ruble fine, and a 12-year ban from government and municipal posts.

26th May, Meduza

Associate Professor of the Faculty of Mathematics of the Higher School of Economics Andrei Dymov was sentenced to three and a half years in prison. He donated three and a half thousand Rubles to the Anti-Corruption Foundation

HSE mathematics associate professor Andrei Dymov was sentenced to three and a half years in prison on charges of “financing extremism” over donations to Alexei Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation. Meduza reports that he donated a total of 3,500 Rubles, pleaded guilty, and was taken into custody immediately after sentencing. The case is part of a broader Russian crackdown on people who donated to the FBK after it was designated “extremist” in June 2021.

26th May, RBC

The Duma adopted a law on the seizure of property of relocators in case of offences

The State Duma passed a bill allowing authorities to arrest the property and bank funds of Russians living abroad who commit certain administrative offences “against Russia’s interests.” The listed offences include illegal access to restricted information, spreading extremist materials, abuse of media freedom, violating “foreign agent” rules, discrediting the armed forces, and calls for sanctions. The law also allows cases to be considered without the accused being present, while the seizure can be challenged in court.

25th May, Vedomosti

What will be the political and consumer consequences of the ban on Armenian goods?

Russia temporarily restricted imports of Armenian flowers, products from several cognac producers, and Jermuk mineral water shortly before Armenia’s June 7 parliamentary elections, amid worsening Moscow–Yerevan ties and Armenia’s closer cooperation with the EU. Experts see a political signal behind the restrictions, although Russian regulators cite phytosanitary and quality-control problems. For Russian consumers, the impact is expected to be limited: the banned cognac brands have a small market share, no shortage is expected, and importers could switch to suppliers from Georgia, Azerbaijan or Uzbekistan. A repeat of the economic pressure previously applied to Ukraine and Georgia.

25th May, Meduza

Andrei Zvyagintsev in Cannes called on Putin to "end this massacre already." The Kremlin said that the director "has no right to vote"

Russian director Andrey Zvyagintsev used his Cannes acceptance speech for Minotaur to urge Vladimir Putin to “end this bloodshed,” saying the whole world was waiting for it. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he would not pass the message on and argued that Zvyagintsev had “no right to speak” because, according to him, the director had not condemned events in Donbas since 2014. The Kremlin said it had not seen Minotaur, while Russian TV channels did not report Zvyagintsev’s Cannes Grand Prix win.

25th May, Izvestia

Three other equals: the Russian Federation will appeal to the International Court of Justice to protect Russians in the Baltic States

Izvestia reports that Russia plans to take Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia to the International Court of Justice, claiming they discriminate against Russians and Russian speakers and have ignored Russian attempts at negotiation. The article alleges restrictions on the Russian language, education, media, historical memory, and political activity, highlighting the imprisonment of Latvian Russian activist Aleksandr Gaponenko as an example. It says experts expect any ICJ case to take years and perhaps have limited legal prospects, but Moscow sees it as a way to internationalise the issue and support the repatriation of Russians from the Baltic states.

22nd May, Novaya Gazeta

Security forces raided the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences over a translation of Aristotle, for which 52 million Rubles had been allocated. The project's director went on indefinite leave on the day of the searches.

On 19 May 2026, Russian security officers searched the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences and several employees’ homes in a large-scale fraud case linked to a state-funded project to prepare a complete edition of Aristotle’s works. The project received about 52 million Rubles, but investigators allegedly believe many reported outputs were fictitious, irrelevant to Aristotle, unpublished, or possibly double-counted. The project’s head, Andrey Smirnov, took indefinite unpaid leave on the day of the searches, and people at the institute believe he may have left Russia. The case may also be part of a longer power struggle around the institute, in which Malofeev-linked conservative circles had previously tried to pressure or take control of it.

21st May, Kommersant

The fate of the debtor. Which generations in Russia are most likely to go bankrupt?

In Q1 2026, Russian courts declared 137,500 citizens bankrupt, up 13.7% year on year, with millennials making up the largest share at 47%. Women accounted for 56% of personal bankruptcies, while Generation X made up 26%, Zoomers 20%, and baby boomers only 7%. Bankruptcy is becoming less certain as a route to debt relief: courts refused to discharge debts in more than 2,200 cases, 2.6 times more often than a year earlier.

20th May, ECHO

Old men go to jail, young men go out. How did the hypersonic case end?

T-invariant reports that Russia’s “hypersonic scientists” case ended in May 2026 with prison sentences for Valery Zvegintsev and Vladislav Galkin, capping an 11-year crackdown in which 11 physicists were prosecuted for treason, and three died during investigations. Elderly scientists were especially targeted, receiving terms that amount to de facto life or death sentences, while younger researchers are leaving hypersonic research or science altogether. It also says some imprisoned scientists are trying to prove their usefulness to the state through defence-related work or proposals resembling Soviet “sharashka” prison research labs.

20th May, Daily Storm

He burned Rus' with Batu, but his commander is better than Alexander the Great. The State Duma debated Tuva's decision to award the Order of Subutai to NVO soldiers.

Tuva’s decision to create an Order of Subedei for soldiers fighting in Russia’s “special military operation” sparked disagreement in the State Duma. Critics argued that the award glorifies a Mongol commander who helped devastate medieval Rus’. At the same time, supporters said he can be considered a regional hero for Tuvans and that Tuva, as a part of the multinational Russian Federation, has the right to name its own awards. A historian described Subedei as one of history’s most effective commanders, greater than Napoleon and Alexander the Great, while noting that using his name in today’s Russia raises questions because he fought against and destroyed Russian cities.

19th May, Current Time

Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) stated that Kyiv is preparing strikes against Russia from Latvian territory and threatened "retaliation."

Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service claimed that Ukraine is preparing drone strikes on Russia from Latvian territory and threatened “retaliation.” Latvia’s foreign minister and president rejected the claim as Russian disinformation, saying Latvia does not provide its airspace for attacks on Russia. Is the Russian Federation creating a cause for war in Latvia?

18th May, Insider

Russia received another Airbus in defiance of sanctions.

On 15 May 2026, an Airbus A320 with Russian registration RA-73899 arrived at Moscow’s Vnukovo airport, reportedly for the airline Severo-Zapad. The aircraft had previously been operated by Etihad Airways and Air Albania, owned by GA Telesis, stored in Istanbul, then flown via Oman before reaching Russia. This case shows that Russia is still using “grey” routes to obtain Western aircraft despite aviation sanctions.

15th May, Meduza

The "Russian community" is financed by pro-Kremlin political scientist Sergei Mikheev and billionaire Igor Khudokorm, associated with the son of Nikolai Patrushev.

Meduza summarises a BBC investigation alleging that Russia’s largest loyalist nationalist group, Russkaya Obshchina/Russian Community, is funded by foundations linked to pro-Kremlin commentator Sergei Mikheyev and billionaire Igor Khudokormov. The group presents itself as member-funded, but financial documents suggest outside backing, while Meduza notes its close cooperation with Russian security forces, police, and the Orthodox Church, often participating in joint actions with law enforcement.

15th May, Interfax

The court satisfied the claim of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation against Euroclear for 200 billion euros in full.

A Moscow arbitration court fully upheld the Bank of Russia’s €200 billion claim against Belgian depository Euroclear. Euroclear’s lawyers said the company’s right to a fair trial had been violated, citing the closed nature of the proceedings. The claim concerns alleged damage from the freezing of Russian central-bank assets, which followed Western sanctions imposed after Russia’s actions in Ukraine. The Russian Federation is preparing for a lengthy battle that will further delay the outcome of frozen assets.

15th May, The Bell

The growth of Putin's rating coincided with a change in the methodology of VTsIOM.

Vladimir Putin’s approval rating rose after VTsIOM changed its polling methodology. From May, VTsIOM began combining phone surveys with in-person apartment interviews in a 50/50 split, citing problems with mobile access, spam filters, and distrust of cold calls.  In-person polling can produce more socially desirable answers, and Putin’s approval rose to 66.8% after the change, while other government ratings continued to fall. A reminder not to take officially sanctioned ratings at face value.

14th May, Mediazona

The authorities of Novosibirsk refused to restore the stolen plaque in memory of the victims of repression, as it was installed by Memorial.
Novosibirsk authorities refused to restore a stolen plaque commemorating victims of Soviet repression because it had been installed by Memorial, which Russia’s Supreme Court designated an “extremist organisation” on 9 April 2026. The plaque was torn off on 23 April from a stone in Narymsky Square connected to the Iskitim branch of Siblag; it said a full monument to victims of state terror was planned there. City official Yevgenia Perova said the removal was unauthorised but claimed the text lacked objectivity, neutrality and historical accuracy, and the city has removed the stone from its register of decorative-monumental elements.

14th May, Vedomosti

Over the past 15 years, the share of Orthodox Russians has decreased by 1.2 times.

A 2026 survey by St Tikhon’s Orthodox University found that found that 65% of Russians identify as Orthodox, down from 78% in 2011, while 9% identify as Muslim, 16% with no religion, 6% as atheists, 3% with other faiths, and 1% were unsure. Among self-identified Orthodox respondents, regular participation in services has also declined: 17% attend services several times a year or more, compared with 28% in 2011. Experts quoted say the trend may reflect generational change, the treatment of Orthodoxy as cultural or ethnic identity rather than active faith, and a broader European decline in mass religious affiliation.

13th May, Expert.ru

Governors of the Belgorod and Bryansk regions resigned

Vyacheslav Gladkov resigned as governor of Russia’s Belgorod region, and President Vladimir Putin appointed Alexander Shuvayev as acting head of the region. The article says Gladkov had recently extended a medical leave, while sources cited by Vedomosti suggested he may move to another government or diplomatic role. Bryansk governor Alexander Bogomaz also resigned voluntarily, with Yegor Kovalchuk appointed acting governor and a new regional election scheduled for 20 September. Given that the previous Belgorod governor was recently awarded, arrests shouldn’t follow.

13th May, RTVI

Moscow imposes restrictions on the publication of data on terrorist attacks and drone attacks.

Moscow authorities are introducing restrictions on publishing texts, photos, and videos about the aftermath of terrorist attacks and drone strikes before official confirmation. The rule will apply to government bodies, media, emergency services, organisations, and ordinary citizens, with exceptions for non-public reports to law enforcement or emergency services. Violations may lead to fines of 3,000–5,000 Rubles for individuals, 30,000–50,000 for officials, and 50,000–200,000 for legal entities.

13th May, Meduza

Two Estonians who crossed the border and ended up in the Pskov pre-trial detention centre, then visited a psychiatric hospital.

Two Estonian citizens crossed into Russia in winter to seek asylum but were arrested for illegal border crossing and placed in a pretrial detention centre in Pskov. According to one of them, 25-year-old Danil, both men were later taken for psychiatric examinations, and he says he was declared insane or mentally ill, a conclusion he disputes. Despite poor detention conditions and the criminal case, Danil still hopes Russia will grant him political asylum and eventually citizenship.

12th May, Vedomosti

Gorelkin (Deputy Chairman of the IT Committee) called on Russian developers to transfer projects from GitHub.

Anton Gorelkin, deputy head of the Russian State Duma’s IT committee, said GitHub is effectively leaving Russia and discriminating against Russian users, citing access problems and a failed-connection rate above 16%. Roskomnadzor says it is not restricting GitHub in Russia, while Gorelkin argued the problems stem from the platform’s own administration and noted GitHub’s ownership by Microsoft. He urged Russian developers to move projects to alternative Git repositories, including domestic platforms, and predicted further fragmentation of the internet into national digital ecosystems.

12th May, People of Baikal

"I will survive and get out". A 63-year-old doctor from Irkutsk was imprisoned for five years for one comment on YouTube.

Svetlana Burim, a 63-year-old retired anaesthesiologist from Irkutsk, was sentenced to five years in a penal colony for a single YouTube comment praising a fighter from the Russian Volunteer Corps, which Russian authorities classify as a terrorist organisation.
The FSB traced and questioned her, how her own anti-war statements became key evidence, and how the case was decided in one military court hearing. Her son, who left Russia after being targeted for anti-war views, says she had long wanted to emigrate; from detention, Burim wrote that she would survive, be released, and “live some more.”

9th May, Various sources

Unique cases of Victory Parades outside of Moscow

In Chita, a column of wives and mothers of participants in the war with Ukraine was brought to the Victory Parade. A column of the "Russian Community" marched in the parade in Surgut.

9th May, Insider

Z-blogger Guzenko, who accused Putin of lying, was sent into the assault with a broken leg and a rusty machine gun, according to his fellow soldiers.

Russian pro-war blogger Yegor Guzenko, known as “Thirteenth,” disappeared after criticising Vladimir Putin over internet shutdowns. According to Guzenko’s colleagues, he was sent on an assault mission despite a badly broken leg, had his phone taken away, and was given a rusty, jammed rifle. Guzenko had earlier accused Putin of lying about the shutdowns being needed for security and had previously claimed he was beaten and tortured after a conflict involving the Akhmat unit.

8th May, Gazeta.ru

The Moscow City Court overturned the decision to ban the Yaplakal website.

The Moscow City Court overturned a lower court ruling that had banned the Russian humour site “YaPlakal,” rejecting the prosecutor’s claims. The earlier ban reportedly targeted “YaPlakal” and two joke websites over materials alleged to insult human dignity and people on national or racial grounds. The site’s management said it was confused by the decision, noting that it had received no official complaints and had complied with Roskomnadzor orders.

7th May 2026, RTVI

"Is it not customary to apologise to the Russians?": KVN joke turned into a lawsuit against Channel One

A Russian opera singer, Sergei Moskalkov, sued Channel One after a KVN comedy segment joked that one downside of Moscow was that there were “too many Russians.”
He argues the remark insulted Russians as a national and cultural community, harmed his dignity as a Russian and Moscow resident, and is seeking 300,000 Rubles in moral damages.
The joke triggered outrage among military-patriotic bloggers, activists, and a State Duma deputy, while the university represented by the KVN team called the joke “extremely unsuccessful” and promised an internal follow-up.

6th May, Meduza

Signal or scoop?

A European intelligence report claims Vladimir Putin fears assassination by drone from within Russia’s own elite and has tightened security dramatically, but Meduza’s analyst Andrey Pertsev doubts the strongest claims, especially that Putin is effectively hiding in bunkers. iStories’ Roman Anin says parts of the report are independently corroborated and argues that the arrest of Sergey Shoigu's ally Ruslan Tsalikov may have destabilised elite “guarantees,” while Pertsev says Shoigu’s remaining power base looks too weak for a serious coup threat. Both read the leak as likely intended to send Putin a warning before Victory Day, but Meduza concludes the key things to watch are further arrests around Shoigu, Putin’s public visibility, and whether elite loyalty rules continue to hold.

6th May, Verstka

Sofia Chepik, one of the organisers of the Scarlet Swan movement, has left Russia.

Sofiya Chepik, a 20-year-old organiser of the “Scarlet Swan” movement, has left Russia and told Vyorstka she now feels safe and calm. She said she had been considering leaving since early April, before being jailed for 15 days and later saying she was forced under threats to appear in an FSB video about an alleged terrorist plot. The article also says “Scarlet Swan” became known through TikTok calls for pro–free internet rallies, after which several young organisers and moderators were detained, fined, or left Russia.

5th May, RBC

The Security Council revealed how much the number of foreigners in Russia has decreased.

Russia’s Security Council said the number of foreign citizens in Russia fell by about 700,000 over a year, from 6.8 million to 6.1 million as of April 1, 2026; Q1 arrivals also dropped to 2.5 million, with 72% being from the CIS/Post-Soviet countries. The report says temporary-residence permits and residence permits declined, while residence-permit cancellations and biometric/pre-entry checks increased. At the same time, authorities reported more legal work permits, higher patent-tax revenues, and a 38.9% fall in crimes recorded among foreign citizens, presenting this as evidence of tighter migration control and labour-market formalisation.

5th May, Mediazona

A monument to a fallen participant in the war in Ukraine will be erected at the site of the demolished memorial to repressed Poles in Yakutsk.

A monument to Dmitry Yegorov, a Russian participant in the war in Ukraine who died in 2023, will be installed in Yakutsk at the site of a demolished memorial to repressed Poles. The previous memorial, dedicated to Polish victims of exile and mass repression, was dismantled in 2023 after its plaques and stones disappeared. Yegorov was posthumously named a Hero of Russia by Vladimir Putin, and officials say the new monument is being completed and prepared for installation.

5th May, Kommersant

Bachelor's and master's will be linked by one chain. Admission to a Master's program without reference to previous education may be limited.

Lawmakers in the Russian Federation have drafted a bill that would let the Ministry of Education restrict entry to some master’s programmes to applicants whose bachelor’s degree, or relevant work experience, matches the chosen field. The aim is to prevent students from switching into specialist areas without enough foundational training, though experts say such limits should apply only to high-risk fields such as engineering, natural sciences, medicine and mathematics. Profile-switching is common and valued by students, so experts argue for differentiated requirements rather than a blanket ban.

5th May, Meduza

The Government of the Russian Federation has approved a set of measures "to prevent destructive behaviours of young people." Among other things, they "start" the work of cyberpatrols

The government approved a 2026–2030 package to prevent what it calls negative social phenomena or destructive behaviour among children and young people. The document, published at the official legal portal, includes cyber squads and media patrols in secondary and higher education. The package goes further than internet monitoring. It includes identifying minors allegedly preparing actions that could destabilise the situation and sharing that information with the Interior Ministry; establishing rapid inter-agency mechanisms to restrict the dissemination of content related to school attacks and youth violence; and expanding patriotic “hero” projects across the education, defence, police, National Guard, and Investigative Committee systems.

4th May, Kommersant

Parallel imports will narrow the range. Computers and memories of well-known manufacturers will disappear from the list.

The Industry and Trade Ministry of the Russian Federation is narrowing parallel imports by excluding computers, memory modules, and hard drives from major brands such as Acer, Asus, IBM, Intel, Kingston, Samsung, SanDisk, and Transcend. The change, expected to take effect by the end of May, is presented as support for domestic electronics producers and reflects the government’s view that the market has enough supply or Russian alternatives. Industry representatives warn that local producers may struggle to replace the affected products quickly, potentially causing a 12-month transition period with reduced choice and higher prices.

4th May, Meduza

The court arrested all the property of the founder of Rusagro, Vadim Moshkovich.

A Moscow court froze all property belonging to Vadim Moshkovich, founder of Rusagro and former senator, including his shares in the agribusiness group. Prosecutors also sought freezes on assets belonging to former Rusagro CEO Maxim Basov and other connected people, estimating the seized Rusagro shares at more than 1.174 billion Rubles. The case is part of a state claim to transfer the assets to the government, with prosecutors accusing Moshkovich of illegally running a business while serving as senator and moving company profits abroad; Moshkovich and Basov deny wrongdoing.

3rd May, Insider

The Supreme Court reported an increase in sentences in cases of treason by 460% in two years. "Statistics are underestimated by half" – human rights activist.

Russia’s Supreme Court says Russian courts handed down 219 treason convictions last year, with most defendants receiving 10 to 15 years in prison. The Insider calculates that treason convictions have risen by more than 460% in two years, while human-rights lawyer Ivan Pavlov argues the official figures may be understated by about half. Rights group First Department says 2025 set a record for convictions under “espionage” articles, with 468 people sentenced so far, including students, IT workers, teachers, entrepreneurs, teenagers, and residents of occupied Ukrainian territories.

2nd May, Gazeta.ru

"This is how it will be all in May." Residents of the Moscow region complained about home Internet on white lists

Residents of Moscow Region reported that some home internet providers temporarily allowed access only to “whitelisted” sites, disrupting work and everyday online services. Providers reportedly blamed higher-level instructions, while some experts and officials said there were no state plans to extend such restrictions to wired home internet and suggested the issue may relate to provider infrastructure. The article links the complaints to wider security-related internet restrictions around the May holidays and Victory Day events, especially measures aimed at reducing drone-related risks.

1st May, Verstka

Roskomnadzor began to massively draw up protocols on foreign developers of computer games.

Since December 2025, Russia’s media regulator Roskomnadzor has filed at least eight administrative cases against major foreign video-game developers over alleged violations of Russia’s personal-data rules. Take-Two and Electronic Arts have already been fined 2 million Rubles each, while Battlestate Games, NetEase, Epic Games, Digital Extremes, and Embracer Group are also mentioned in related proceedings. Such cases against gaming companies used to be rare, but the crackdown comes amid wider Russian political pressure on foreign games and calls for stricter regulation.

30th April, Meduza

Former Deputy Minister of Natural Resources Denis Butsaev left Russia immediately after his resignation.

Denis Butsaev, Russia’s former deputy minister of natural resources and ecology, reportedly left Russia immediately after resigning on April 22, 2026, travelling first through Minsk. Later, he went to Tbilisi and is now believed to be in the United States. The reports link his departure to criminal cases involving senior managers at the Russian Environmental Operator, where Butsaev previously worked, though his exact status in those cases is unclear.

29th April, RIA

Kiriyenko: 94% of citizens of Russia (Russovians) consider multinationality to be the strength of the country

Sergei Kiriyenko, First Deputy Head of Russia’s Presidential Administration, said that 94% of Russian citizens see Russia’s multiethnic character as a strength. Speaking at the “Znanie.Pervye” marathon, he said Russia is home to people of 194 nationalities and ethnic groups, and that 84% of Russians feel positively about living near people of other nationalities. He added that these are the highest figures in recent years, while only 12% said such proximity could cause anxiety.

29th April, Gazeta.ru

The State Duma proposed to oblige enterprises to independently protect themselves from UAVs.

Sergey Mironov, leader of A Just Russia and a State Duma deputy, proposed requiring energy and strategically important companies to create their own armed units to defend facilities from drone attacks. He said a law that took effect in late March allows private security organisations to receive firearms for protecting critical infrastructure, but argued that protection should be an obligation, not just a right. Mironov urged the government to issue direct instructions and adopt the necessary regulations quickly, linking the measure to election security and reducing economic and environmental damage.

29th April, Proekt

The House That SWIFT Didn't Build

Proekt’s investigation alleges that, after Russia’s disconnection from SWIFT and wider financial sanctions, a shadow cross-border payments system emerged in which “payment agents” take Rubles in Russia and route funds abroad through intermediaries, crypto exchanges, and companies in countries such as Kyrgyzstan, the UAE, Thailand, India, and Hong Kong.
The article focuses on A7, formally owned by Ilan Shor and state-linked PSB, describing it as the largest player in this market and alleging possible hidden links to Roman Abramovich, while noting that Abramovich’s representative denies any connection.  According to Proekt, A7 and similar networks are used not only by ordinary importers but also by sanctioned or military-linked companies, including suppliers connected to Russian drones, as well as major consumer, energy, travel, and state-linked businesses.

29th April, Obyasnyaem

Dmitry Chernyshenko named the main civic Russian values.

Dmitry Chernyshenko said that Russia’s core values include collectivism, unity, respect for roots, mutual support, historical memory, continuity between generations, creative work, and service to the Fatherland. He connected these values to examples such as the Sochi Olympics, the 2018 FIFA World Cup, volunteer efforts during emergencies, and support for the current war.

28th April, Vedomosti

The series "Method-3" was removed from "Kinopoisk" and "Ivi" at the request of the Ministry of Culture.

The Method-3 series was removed from the online streaming services Kinopoisk and Ivi following a Roskomnadzor request based on a Ministry of Culture finding. Producer Vladimir Maslov said the platforms were not given clear explanations of which laws or “traditional values” the show allegedly violated, and argued that the series is an 18+ work of fiction rather than an attempt to glorify crime. Kinopoisk said the finding accused the series of containing material that discredits or promotes rejection of “traditional Russian spiritual and moral values.” At the same time, Ivi confirmed the removal but declined further comment.

28th April, Gazeta.ru

The court acquitted the ex-"people's governor” of the DPR in the case of discrediting the army.

A Moscow court acquitted Pavel Gubarev, the former “people’s governor” of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, in a case accusing him of discrediting the Russian army. The court dropped the case because linguistic analysis found no signs that his Telegram posts about the Akhmat special forces unit discredited Rosgvardiya troops. Gubarev did not attend the hearing, and the article says the complaint against him was allegedly filed by “ill-wishers.” Kadyrovites no longer above criticism?

28th April, Vedomosti

The Government Commission approved the transfer of part of the migration powers from the Ministry of Labour to the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

The government commission has approved a bill transferring some migration-policy powers from the Ministry of Labour to the Interior Ministry, including decisions on which foreign skilled specialists can get residence permits without temporary residence permits and which professions are exempt from work-permit quotas. The Interior Ministry would also decide when foreign workers may work outside the region where their permit was issued, while coordinating these changes with the Labour Ministry. Experts say the move updates outdated rules but may shift migration regulation toward security and control, potentially narrowing the list of eligible professions.

28th April, Delovoy Peterburg

Foreign(internet) traffic in Russia will become paid

The Digital Ministry of the Russian Federation is considering extra charges for internet traffic identified as foreign, especially on mobile networks. Market participants warn that VPN traffic is hard to distinguish from ordinary foreign traffic, so users may end up paying for access to many overseas services. The proposal follows claims that VPN use has pushed foreign traffic in Russia to around 30%, while officials have also discussed charging users who exceed 15 GB of international traffic per month.

28th April, Kommersant

Solovyov apologised to Bonya for the insults after her appeal to Putin

TV host Vladimir Solovyov invited blogger Victoria Bonya onto his programme and apologised on air for insulting her after she appealed to President Vladimir Putin. Bonya had criticised social media blocks and warned of growing public discontent in Russia, while also raising issues such as floods in Dagestan, permits for hunting protected animals, and livestock seizures in Siberia. The Kremlin said it had reviewed her appeal and that authorities were working carefully on the problems she raised. Hard to remember when Solovyov apologised before.

27th April, Izvestia

Business shortage: the talent pool in Russia has almost halved in five years

Russia’s labour reserve has almost halved over five years, falling from about 7 million to roughly 4.4 million people, with 415,000 fewer potential workers in 2025 alone. The shortage is driven by demographic decline, strong labour demand, defence-sector hiring, and the fact that many previously inactive groups have already entered the workforce. Regional gaps vary sharply, but overall, the shortage is pushing wages and business costs higher, making automation, retraining, and targeted support for young workers and labour mobility increasingly important.

27th April, MoskvichMag

Lenin Rooms and Sovintern: They're Trying to Bring the USSR Back to Moscow

The new socialist international forum “Sovintern” started in Moscow’s House of Unions, described as an international socialist network initiated by the Just Russia party and framed around the legacy of “Soviet civilisation.” Delegates from several countries attended, and the opening included a greeting letter from Vladimir Putin, while discussions covered socialism, AI, Donbas, “digital partisans,” anti-imperialism, and a “Third World War” framing. In addition, a proposal by Senator Ayrat Gibatdinov to revive Soviet-style “Lenin rooms” in schools and workplaces for patriotic education.

26th April, Current Time

Russian political prisoner Oleg Tyryshkin has died. He served a two-year sentence under the article on "justification of terrorism" for comments in the VK

Russian political prisoner Oleg Tyryshkin has died while serving a two-year sentence for “justifying terrorism” over comments he posted on VKontakte. The 64-year-old Kuzbass miner and trade union activist reportedly died of heart-related causes during a prison transfer, though his exact location was unclear. His trial was closed, he had serious health problems, and his death was the third known death of a Russian political prisoner in April 2026.

25th April, Novaya Gazeta

The Tomsk mayor's office promised to restore the Memorial Square for the Repressed after a "survey of the territory" (Demolished monuments may be relocated)

Tomsk city hall said it would restore the Square of Memory for victims of Soviet repression after inspecting the site, saying the demolition was linked to cracks in nearby paving and a building. The Kalmyk Culture Ministry, responding to an appeal from a Tomsk activist, said the demolished memorial stones could be moved from central Tomsk, with any new location to be agreed with public activists. The square, opened in 1992 on the site of a former NKVD prison, contained memorials to several repressed ethnic groups, and its demolition drew protests from Yabloko and from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland.

23rd April, Lenta

Putin named a way to improve the demography

Putin said Russia can improve its demographic situation by uniting the efforts of business, nonprofits, the state, the media, and religious organisations. He also called for addressing issues in the economy, culture, education, and healthcare, while promoting values of large, multigenerational, close-knit families. Putin previously attributed Russia’s falling birth rate to demographic “echoes” from the 20th century, external challenges, and global demographic trends.

22nd April, Verstka

"In recognition of the merits of its personnel”. Vladimir Putin restored the Felix Dzerzhinsky name to the FSB Academy.

On 22 April 2026, Vladimir Putin restored the honorary name “F. E. Dzerzhinsky” to the FSB Academy, Russia’s main security service university, with the decree citing the academy staff’s merits and Dzerzhinsky’s contribution to state security. The academy had carried Dzerzhinsky’s name from 1962 to 1993, when it was the Higher School of the KGB of the USSR. Dzerzhinsky founded and led the Cheka, the Soviet security police associated with the Red Terror, making the renaming a highly symbolic revival of Soviet security-service heritage.

21st April, Gazeta

Marketplace sellers are losing customers due to VPN blocking.

Marketplace sellers in Russia say VPN blocks are reducing sales because shoppers with VPNs enabled cannot open product links. An analyst estimated losses at 2–3% of ad-driven clicks, while sellers report fewer purchases from external advertising integrations. The problem began around 15 April 2026, when many Russian services started malfunctioning or blocking access through VPN connections.

21st April, Kommersant

Harmful advice to the Investigative Committee

Russian Federation’s Investigative Committee head Alexander Bastrykin ordered a review of children’s author Grigory Oster’s books after a report by State Duma deputy Maria Butina claimed they undermine children’s moral foundations. Kommersant says the review will focus on works including School of Horrors and The Book of Tasty and Healthy Food for Cannibals, and could involve psychological-linguistic expert analysis. Publisher AST said it had received no official requests and defended Oster’s humorous “Harmful Advice” poems as ironic lessons that discourage foolish or harmful behaviour.

21st April, Novaya Gazeta

Searches and detentions of Eksmo's top managers

From 21 April onward, senior managers of Eksmo, the country’s largest publisher, were detained and questioned in a case linked to Popcorn Books and alleged “extremism” tied to LGBT-themed literature. By late 23 April, the managers had been released under an obligation to appear, without formal charges and with their procedural status still unclear. Independent reporting treated the affair as part of a wider campaign to discipline publishers under the state’s “traditional values” agenda.

20th April, Interfax

The list of coordinators for the registration of Russian domains has been approved by the government.

The Russian government has approved an official list of nonprofit organisations that will coordinate domain-name registration for the .ru, .рф, and .su zones. The Coordination Centre for TLD RU will oversee .ru and .рф, while the Russian Research Institute for Public Networks will oversee .su. From 1 September 2026, only these coordinators will handle second-level domain registrations for government bodies, state and municipal institutions, and state-owned companies.

20th April, Kommersant

Tourists were left without access

Tourists from the Russian Federation in countries such as Turkey, Egypt and Thailand are reporting blocked or unstable access to Russian banking services, marketplaces, travel-booking sites and the Gosuslugi government portal when using local Wi-Fi or mobile networks. The problem appears linked to Russian resources restricting VPN traffic from 15 April, because services often cannot reliably distinguish VPN connections from ordinary foreign traffic. Tour-industry representatives advise travellers to keep a Russian SIM card with enough roaming data, while the Russian government is reportedly developing a service to preserve access for citizens abroad.

20th April, Vedomosti 

An official from the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation linked the government's decisions to genuine concern for citizens' interests.

 Alexander Kharichev, a senior Kremlin official responsible for monitoring and analysing social processes, argues that public trust in the state is the core bond holding Russia together and that this trust rests on four things: honesty, tangible results, genuine concern for citizen interests, and less distance between the authorities and society. He presents Russia as facing not only demographic, technological, and social pressures, but also a “hybrid war” of military, economic, and informational pressure aimed at weakening unity, rewriting the past, and undermining trust in the state. He also describes Russian identity as layered: ethnic identity as on at the base, an all-Russian civic identity above it, with a civilizational-value identity tied to traditional values and a shared national code at the top.

20th April, Vedomosti

Magomedsalam Magomedov identified three foundations for the unity of the peoples of Russia.

Russia’s interethnic unity rests on three equal pillars: a shared value system, the preservation of languages, and a common historical experience, especially overcoming hardships together. An official from the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation argues that Russia should be understood not only through the idea of “unity in diversity” but also as a “civilisation-state,” and that measuring civic identity alone is not enough because identity is multilayered. He also warns that the main current threats come from online incitement of ethnic hatred, distorted history, and religious or cultural disrespect, and calls for stronger real-time monitoring, fast factual official responses, and a bigger regional role in preventing conflicts.

19th April, RIA Novosti

The Russian Federation remembers the victims of the genocide of the Soviet people

Media and official structures of the Russian Federation marked 19 April 2026 as the first countrywide observance of the new memorial date dedicated to victims of the genocide of the Soviet people during the Great Patriotic War. Reporting that day highlighted exhibitions including “No Statute of Limitations,” archival work, and the declassification of historical case materials by the security services, while diplomatic and parliamentary voices linked the date to contemporary battles over historical interpretation.

19th April, Meduza

In Tomsk, the memorial to the victims of Bolshevik terror was dismantled

In Tomsk, the Square of Memory for Victims of Political Repression was closed off on April 19, and the “Stone of Sorrow” memorial plus other national memorial stones were dismantled, with eyewitnesses saying the whole square was being torn down. Police guarded the site, said the closure was connected to anti-landslide measures, and reportedly told people not to photograph it, while Tomsk city authorities first said the fencing was due to the risk of a garage collapse and that the removed monuments had been placed in storage. It is the first demolition of this kind.

18th April, Mediazona

For the first time, Rosreestr (The Federal Service for State Registration, Cadastre and Cartography) blocked the registration of rights to real estate at the request of the military registration and enlistment office

Russia’s state property registry, Rosreestr, has for the first time suspended a real-estate registration because of a military enlistment office order tied to failure to appear after an electronic summons. The case involved a reservist who received a notice through Gosuslugi in November 2025 for military training, did not appear, and then discovered in April 2026 that Rosreestr had blocked his property registration based on a restriction order dated November 27, 2025, issued by the enlistment office. This fits within a broader legal system in which people who ignore electronic summonses can face travel, driving, property registration, and financial restrictions, and activists warn that enforcement may spread further to tax authorities and banks.

17th April, Current Time

FSB officers will now be able to check phones and laptops when crossing the Russian border; refusal can lead to an arrest for up to 15 days

Amendments to Russia’s border law have come into force, giving FSB border officers the authority to inspect phones, tablets, laptops, and other devices when people cross the Russian border. It adds that officers may visually examine device contents and demand access if they suspect border-regime violations or the transport of prohibited items, and that refusing to unlock or hand over a device can be treated as disobeying a lawful order. The refusal can lead to a fine of 5,000–7,000 Rubles or administrative arrest for up to 15 days, while a lawyer quoted says such practices already existed informally and advises people not to cross the border with devices containing potentially compromising data.

17th April, Mediazona

A Ural lawyer was sentenced to 25 years in prison in the case of cooperation with the Freedom of Russia Legion

A military court in southern Russia sentenced Yekaterinburg lawyer Denis Tamantsev to 25 years in prison for alleged cooperation with the Freedom of Russia Legion, with the first three years to be served in prison and the rest in a high-security penal colony. According to the prosecution, he posted social media messages in August 2023 calling for violent actions against Russian officials and justifying the activities of the banned legion, then later corresponded with one of its members and filled out an application to join. Investigators also alleged that he planned an attack on court bailiffs in Yekaterinburg, travelled to Astrakhan to retrieve weapons and explosives from a stash, and was detained in December 2023.

16th April, RBC

Operators have frozen the expansion of communication channels to Europe

RBC reports that about 20 telecom companies handling Russia’s links to Europe agreed, at meetings with Digital Development Minister Maksut Shadayev, to stop expanding those international channels. The idea is to curb VPN use, because VPN traffic appears to operators as foreign traffic; if capacity stays capped while demand grows, operators may end up filtering that traffic or making access to foreign services more expensive. The authorities hope this will pressure foreign online services to place servers inside Russia, while operators may face extra approval requirements and monthly cross-border traffic reporting.

16th April, Kommersant

VPN services got waved off by their hosts

Draft amendments to Russia’s “Antifraud 2.0” legislation would bar hosting providers from supplying computing capacity to website and IT-system operators that enable access to information blocked in Russia, effectively tightening pressure on VPN-related infrastructure. The final text is still being coordinated by the Digital Development Ministry and other agencies, but the proposal could force Web hosts to move from being passive intermediaries to actively screening clients against Roskomnadzor requirements and refusing service to violators. Industry representatives say many providers are not yet technically ready for that role and warn that compliance costs, on top of existing regulatory and hardware pressures, would likely raise prices for other customers.

16th April, The Bell

"Now they decide everything." The Russian Internet has a new curator: the FSB agency responsible for Navalny's poisoning.

Russia’s recent crackdown on the internet - WhatsApp/Telegram calls, tougher anti-VPN measures, and the broader campaign against foreign platforms is being driven by the FSB’s Second Service, a political-security unit better known for targeting opposition figures than for telecom regulation. This marks a major institutional shift: control of the RuNet (Russian Internet) has moved away from more technical FSB structures and toward a branch associated with “defending the constitutional order,” ideological policing, and the persecution of dissidents, with Alexei Sedov’s team allegedly gaining broad authority after a 2025 meeting with Putin. This harder line has deepened tensions between security officials and civilian technocrats, while provoking public backlash, rising VPN demand, and concern inside the Kremlin over the political costs of internet restrictions.

16th April, Meduza

Russian users with VPNs enabled have had their access to the Gosuslugi website restricted.

The Gosuslugi (government digital platform) service has restricted access for users in Russia with VPNs enabled. Users of both the app and the website see the message: "For the app to function properly, please disable your VPN. Access is restricted for security reasons. "The Gosuslugi website can still be accessed from outside Russia with a VPN enabled. A similar situation has occurred previously, whereby users from abroad with a VPN could access websites that restrict access to Russian users who have enabled bypass tools.

16th April, Kommersant

Ten years with the right to appeal. The Government of the Russian Federation has approved the statute of limitations for privatisation disputes.

Russian business and legal reporting on 17 April said the government had approved and sent to the lower house a bill setting a 10-year limit for many legal claims over past privatisation deals. Russian reporting emphasised that the clock would run from the moment state ownership ended, while external reporting noted that the bill was meant to reassure business after a wave of state seizures and that important exclusions remained, including anti-corruption, extremism, and strategic-enterprise grounds. Selective stabilisation: enough reassurance to keep investment channels open, but not enough to suggest a more liberal settlement between state and capital.

16th April, Novaya Gazeta

The Prosecutor General's Office has determined that the Katyn massacre was carried out by the NKVD. An exhibition featuring historical falsifications is now open at the execution site.

A new exhibition at Katyn by the Russian Military Historical Society revives the old Soviet falsehood that the 1940 massacre of Polish prisoners was carried out by the Germans, even though Soviet authorities admitted in 1990 that the NKVD was responsible. The claim contradicts both late Soviet and current official records, citing the 1990 TASS statement, a 2005 letter from the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office, and a 2010 State Duma declaration acknowledging that the killings were carried out by the NKVD on Stalin’s orders. The new exhibition is a politically motivated distortion of established historical facts at the very site of the massacre.

15th April, RIA Novosti

Russian Federation's GDP has been declining for two months in a row, Putin said.

At an economic meeting in Moscow, Vladimir Putin said Russian GDP had fallen by 1.8% in January-February 2026 and noted that manufacturing, industrial output overall, and construction were in negative territory. He instructed the cabinet to prepare concrete proposals to restore growth, while Russian reporting emphasised that calendar and weather factors were part of the explanation but not the whole story. External reporting at the same time noted that the IMF had just raised its 2026 growth forecast for Russia to 1.1%, chiefly because higher oil prices were cushioning the slowdown.

15th April, Delovoy Peterburg

Gutsan announced the nationalisation of Russian enterprises acting in the interests of the Armed Forces of Ukraine

Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation Alexander Gutsan said Russia had nationalised 32 strategic enterprises whose owners were allegedly acting against Russia’s interests and in support of Ukraine and the Ukrainian armed forces. The seized assets total about 2.5 trillion Rubles, with Gutsan saying that prosecutors intervened because the owners were accused of moving dividends abroad, evading taxes, increasing debt, and financing anti-Russian activity.

15th April, Agenstvo

Schools have begun holding lessons about the “genocide of the Soviet people.” High school students are being told about “new Nazis” in Ukraine.

Russian schools are holding remembrance lessons for students in grades 9–11 ahead of the new April 19 Memorial Day for victims of the “genocide of the Soviet people,” using a teaching script tied to the “Navigators of Childhood” program. It reports that the lesson links World War II atrocities to the present war in Ukraine, describing Donbas as a special territory for Russians and referring to Ukrainian forces as “newly minted Nazis,” while also showing students a state-backed video about children in the occupied Donetsk region. Schools have also held these lessons for younger children than the guidelines specify, and the campaign comes alongside new official measures, including the first observance of the Memorial Day in 2026 and a law punishing denial of the claimed “genocide of the Soviet people.”

13th April, Meduza

In Moscow, a first-year student threw a moccasin at Lenin's sarcophagus due to his disagreement with his policies. The student was arrested for 10 days.

A Moscow court sentenced 18-year-old first-year college student Konstantin Bodunov to 10 days of administrative arrest for petty hooliganism after he went into Lenin’s Mausoleum, struck Lenin’s glass sarcophagus several times, and threw his moccasin at it on April 8. According to the court decision, Bodunov said he acted because he disagreed with Lenin’s “economic and religious policy,” although he did not admit guilt in court.

12th April, SOTA

The Moscow State University church was banned from holding a religious procession on the street under the pretext of COVID-19.

The Church of St. Tatiana at Moscow State University was barred from holding its usual Easter procession on the street and was told it could go no farther than the journalism faculty courtyard. According to MSU lecturer Natalya Loseva, officials cited “COVID restrictions” as the reason, even though the procession had reportedly taken place for about three decades. The article adds that COVID remains the formal justification for banning public rallies in Moscow, and notes that Loseva’s senior role at the Russian Federation propaganda effort cannot appeal the restriction.

11th April, Insider

References to Memorial have been removed from the Yeltsin Centre's exhibition.

Two plaques mentioning “Memorial” (a human rights group focused on the study of Soviet repressions) were removed from the Yeltsin Centre museum exhibition after Russian authorities said the organisation can no longer be referenced without special labelling. The Yeltsin Centre said it is discussing the issue with lawyers and expects changes to the exhibition, although it has not yet decided what those changes will be. It is connected to the recent decision by the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation to declare the so-called “International Public Movement Memorial” extremist and ban its activities, despite “Memorial” saying no such formally named organisation exists.

10th April 2026, Novaya Gazeta

Dmitry Medvedev became the editor-in-chief of new textbooks on social studies for grades 9-11

Dmitry Medvedev has been appointed chief editor of new Russian social studies textbooks for grades 9–11, a move announced by Deputy Education Minister Olga Koludarova. Officials say Medvedev made extensive page-by-page edits and comments, and that his work influenced not only the final textbooks but also the new federal standards and teaching programs; the author team also includes lawyers, economists, sociologists, and historians. According to Medvedev and the outlets citing him, the new books are meant to broaden students’ horizons and teach them to defend their views with arguments, while fitting into a broader reform that keeps social studies for grades 9–11 and reduces its place in lower grades.

10th April, Verstka

Novaya Gazeta journalist Oleg Roldugin arrested in a case of illegal use of personal data

A Moscow court ordered Novaya Gazeta journalist and Sobesednik co-founder Oleg Roldugin held in pretrial detention until May 10 in a criminal case over the alleged unlawful use of personal data. Investigators accuse him of illegally accessing, collecting, storing, or transferring computer information containing personal data, allegedly obtained through improper access and used in articles described by the authorities as having “negative” content. Oleg was detained after lengthy searches of Novaya Gazeta’s newsroom and his home on April 9, during which equipment and documents were seized, and lawyers noted the case may be the first criminal prosecution of a journalist in Russia for allegedly using bots to obtain data from databases.

10th April, Novaya Gazeta

Stanford University, the alma mater of Brin (and Kirill Dmitriev), was recognised as an "undesirable" organisation, and the grandson of the writer Alexei Tolstoy was recognised as a "foreign agent"

Russia’s Justice Ministry added Stanford University to its list of “undesirable organisations,” based on a Prosecutor General’s Office decision dated March 26, and also included two other groups: Stanford’s Centre for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies and the German NGO Crisis Modelling for Peace. In addition, the ministry expanded its “foreign agents” register to include literary scholar Ivan Tolstoy, grandson of writer Alexei Tolstoy, along with several activists, an electoral expert, and the project “Tatar Shurasy,” accusing them of criticising the Russian authorities and opposing the war in Ukraine.

6th April, Verstka

Ex-governor of the Kursk region sentenced to 14 years in prison in the case of bribery during the construction of fortifications

A court sentenced former Kursk region governor Alexey Smirnov to 14 years in prison for taking large bribes, fined him 400 million Rubles, barred him from holding public office for 10 years, and ordered the confiscation of 20.9 million Rubles. Smirnov admitted guilt and struck a deal with investigators, while prosecutors said he and another official took nearly 13 million Rubles for protection in school-repair contracts and about 8 million more from a regional deputy whose company-built border fortifications with Ukraine. Investigators linked the fortification case to up to 1 billion Rubles in embezzlement, and Smirnov testified that former governor Roman Starovoit (who was found dead in July 2025) had suggested collecting percentages from contractors.

6th April, Meduza

The services of Sberbank, Alfa-Bank and telecom operators temporarily stopped working. Rostelecom's home Internet has been disconnected

On the evening of April 6, multiple services in Russia—including banking apps and websites, telecom providers, satellite TV companies, and the state services portal—experienced outages, according to the monitoring project Sboy.rf. The reported disruptions affected Rostelecom, Alfa-Bank, NTV Plus, Tricolor, Gosuslugi, T2, and Mosenergosbyt, while Detector404 also received reports about problems with Sber, Gazprombank, Okko, and World of Tanks. The exact cause was unclear at the time, although Rostelecom said it had recorded and quickly neutralised a major DDoS attack on its network, and even on Sboy.rf itself reportedly went down amid the incident.

5th April, BFM

Cloudwards: Russia took the penultimate place in terms of Internet freedom

According to Cloudwards’ 2026 internet freedom report, Russia ranked second from last with 4 points, ahead only of North Korea, which scored 0. The report evaluates how freely people can use the internet in different countries by looking at access to torrent sites, adult content, political and civic online expression, and VPN services, and it specifically singled out Russia as a country where VPNs are blocked or heavily restricted.

4th April, Meduza

Meduza asked historian Alexei Uvarov to carefully reread the entirety of two new history textbooks for high school students that have sparked a storm of criticism.

Meduza asked historian Aleksei Uvarov to re-read Russia’s new high-school history textbooks, and he argues that they contain numerous factual errors, distortions, and politically motivated framing, including exaggerated claims about Russia’s uniqueness and selective use of quotations from Vladimir Putin. History books also downplay or omit some of the Soviet state’s most brutal actions and human costs, such as mass repression, the suffering and deaths of Gulag prisoners, famine, and the treatment of Soviet POWs, while often presenting these events in sanitised or morally evasive language. The textbooks teach a stark “Russia versus the West” worldview and promote an anti-humanist message in which the state’s goals outweigh individual lives, rights, and moral judgment. The fact that textbooks systematically minimise or omit state-inflicted suffering, especially Soviet ones, is a reminder of a historical legacy that primarily originates from the Soviet background, not the prior history.

4th April, Vedomosti

Kasperskaya apologised to Roskomnadzor for linking the failure of banks with the blocking of VPN.

Natalya Kasperskaya (co-founder of Kaspersky Lab) apologised to Roskomnadzor after previously linking a mass outage at Russian banks and the Faster Payments System to efforts to block VPNs. After speaking with Roskomnadzor’s leadership, she said the disruption was apparently not caused by the regulator and may instead have stemmed from a problem at Sberbank, whose infrastructure is closely connected to other banks. Previously, she had warned that blocking VPNs could disrupt critical online services because VPN protocols overlap with infrastructure used by banks, while the outage itself affected major banking apps.

3rd April, Meduza

The head of the Investigative Committee instructed to check Yuri Dud because of an interview with the commander of the RVC, Denis Kapustin.

Investigative Committee chief, Alexander Bastrykin, ordered a legal review of journalist Yury Dud after Dud published a 4-hour-42-minute interview with Denis Kapustin, commander of the Russian Volunteer Corps, on April 2, 2026. The committee said Kapustin had already been sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment in Russia and claimed the interview contained positive assessments of banned extremist ideologies and signs of promoting violence against people on ethnic grounds. Because of those claims, Bastrykin instructed the Main Investigative Directorate to examine the published material.

2nd April, Gazeta

Medvedev called for countering the creation of ethnic enclaves in Russia.

Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, called preventing the formation of ethnic enclaves by migrants in Russia an urgent issue that deserves close attention. He argued that when foreign nationals live in compact clusters in separate areas, this can hinder their adaptation and weaken compliance with Russian laws and “law-abiding behaviour.” He also spoke of a planned package of legislative measures to speed up decisions on declaring certain foreign nationals’ stay undesirable, including immediate deportation if a migrant is found to have a dangerous disease.

2nd April, ECHO

The Basmanny Court convicted German sculptor Jacques Tilly in absentia in the case of "fakes" about the army and insulting the feelings of believers.

Moscow’s Basmanny Court has sentenced German sculptor Jacques Tilly in absentia over charges of spreading “fake” information about the Russian army and offending believers’ feelings. The case was based on a Düsseldorf carnival work depicting Patriarch Kirill and Vladimir Putin, as well as an interview Tilly gave to Deutsche Welle, and the court sentenced him to 8.5 years in prison, fined him 200,000 Rubles, and banned him from administering websites for four years. The article adds that Tilly is known for papier-mâché political caricatures, including anti-war depictions of Putin used in German protests and carnivals, and that Deutsche Welle previously reported he donated related proceeds to help Ukrainians.

31st March, Business-Online

"Every second user does not turn it off at all": Russian Federation declares war on VPN.

The Russian Federation has intensified its campaign against VPNs with a set of measures that includes charging for mobile international traffic exceeding 15 GB a month, urging major platforms to restrict users with active VPNs, and stopping Apple ID top-ups through mobile operators. This is a government response to how widespread VPN use has become in Russia, with an expert noting that the country now leads the world in VPN usage and that about every second user keeps a VPN always activated. The authorities aim to make VPN use less convenient and more costly without openly relying on straightforward administrative punishment, which Digital Development Minister Maksut Shadaev has called a “difficult compromise.”

30th March, Kommersant

Sites that do not block VPN traffic can be excluded from the "whitelists"

The Digital Development Ministry of the Russian Federation has warned major online platforms that they could be removed from official “whitelists” of sites still accessible during mobile internet shutdowns if users can reach them while a VPN is enabled. The ministry has urged marketplaces, banks, and big tech companies to block access from VPN users, a move that could affect services such as Wildberries, Ozon, Yandex, and VK. Officials are trying to curb VPN use without imposing a full ban, even as VPN traffic in Russia keeps rising and regulators continue expanding blocks on VPN services. Will it treat all foreign visits as an attempt at evasion, reducing the spread of the pro-Russia message abroad?

30th March, Moscow Times

Russian Exiles in Europe Face a Catch-22

Anti-war Russian exiles in Europe are trapped by contradictory expectations: they are urged to be more visibly pro-Ukraine yet also pressured to stay out of sight because their presence is seen as inherently offensive. Many of these exiles have already sacrificed careers, homes and safety, but still face bureaucracy, xenophobia and suspicion in Europe, leaving them blamed both when they speak out and when they remain quiet. Instead of trying to prove themselves as “good Russians” or a model minority, exiles should focus on practical mutual aid and solidarity with other migrant communities, grounded in universal human rights.

29th March, Insider

Russia has banned all protests against internet blocking: at least six protest organisers have been arrested.

All planned protests against internet blocking in Russia on 29 March have been banned, and at least six organisers have been arrested, with two detained and four others facing pressure from authorities. Even a previously permitted rally in Penza was cancelled, despite being scheduled in a zone that normally does not require approval, as the Interior Ministry warned of possible administrative and criminal liability for participants. Non-religious demonstrations not aligned with the state are not permitted, with each region citing different reasons for this.

27th March, RBC

Peskov explained the business's idea of ​​making contributions to the state as a sense of duty.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said one participant at Vladimir Putin’s closed-door meeting with business leaders offered to give the state a “very large sum of money,” and that this was the businessman’s own family decision rather than a request from Putin. Peskov said the idea reflected a sense of duty, arguing that many of the businesspeople present started their companies in the 1990s and that their early success was connected in some way to the state. Peskov did not identify the businessman and specifically denied that the initiative had come from Rosneft chief Igor Sechin. A reminder that there are no oligarchs in the Russian Federation, just rich businessmen who owe their success to the state’s loyalty.

27th March, Interfax

The Ministry of Justice has designated Oscar-winning actor Pavel Talankin a foreign agent.

Among the newly designated “foreign agents” by the Justice Ministry is teacher and documentary co-author Pavel Talankin. He is accused of spreading what the authorities call false information about Russian state policy and opposing the war, with additional allegations of cooperation with foreign agents or “undesirable” organisations. Talankin recently co-created the Oscar-winning documentary Mr Nobody Against Putin, which a Chelyabinsk court had banned from distribution in the Russian Federation one day earlier, on March 26, 2026.

26th March, BFM

Putin ordered the introduction of quotas on the distribution of foreign films in the Russian Federation.

Vladimir Putin ordered officials to introduce quotas for foreign films in Russia as quickly as possible, saying at a meeting of the Council for Culture that Russia should more tightly regulate imported cinema, as France and China do. Putin argued that the issue is both ideological and financial: he criticised Russia for allowing what he called “stupid” and “unnecessary” material through while failing to support domestic producers. The discussion was closely tied to Nikita Mikhalkov’s lobbying on behalf of Russian cinema, noting that he had previously proposed a 5 million Ruble fee for foreign films and again raised the question of quotas at this meeting. Another idea supported by the president at a meeting of the Culture Council is to use artistic works without the consent of their heirs, if they refuse permission. Putin stated that a law should be passed that would permit the use of works without the consent of copyright holders who are not the authors and who set patently impossible conditions. In addition, Putin supported the idea of creating an award to rival The Nobel Prize in Literature.

26th March, Vedomosti

The Human Rights Council reported the disappearance of Nikita Zhuravel.

22-year-old Nikita Zhuravel, who was convicted of treason and for burning the translated Quran, has reportedly gone missing while being transferred to a penal colony, according to human rights advocate Eva Merkacheva of Russia’s Presidential Human Rights Council. Relatives often receive no timely information during prisoner transfers, even though Russian law requires a colony to notify a chosen family member within 10 days after the prisoner arrives, and the detention centre is supposed to notify them when the transfer begins. In February 2024, a court in Grozny sentenced him to 3.5 years on charges of insulting the feelings of believers and hooliganism, and in 2025, he was sentenced to 14 years in prison for treason. (He was lated found in the Ulyanovsk colony)

23rd March, RIA

The State Duma will consider a project to strengthen the protection of historical memory.

State Duma leadership stated that a second-reading debate was set for 24 March on amendments to the Criminal Code aimed at “protecting historical memory.” The package would expand criminal liability for desecration of memorials and burials associated with victims of the “genocide of the Soviet people,” including sites outside Russia, adding liability under the “rehabilitation of Nazism” article for publicly denying or approving that genocide. Reported maximum penalties included up to five years’ imprisonment for damage to protected burial/memorial sites, and up to three years for public denial and/or “insulting the memory” of victims. The initiative was explicitly framed as countering “falsification of history” and defending the multiethnic Soviet wartime “sacrifice.” 

23rd March, Vedomosti

"Where they can, they save": How Indians are settling in Russia.

Indian migrant workers are increasingly being recruited to Russia, especially for labour-demanding sectors such as garment production. It also shows the trade-offs of that move: many workers send most of their earnings home, live close to their workplaces, and some struggle with food, weather, or pay. More broadly, this migration is a part of Russia’s labour shortage, noting a 2025 Russia–India agreement on temporary employment, rising work-related entries by Indian citizens, and recruitment costs of about 170,000 Rubles per worker for employers. Will it develop into a stable community?

22nd March, Insider

An activist who tried to organise a rally against internet blocking in Rostov-on-Don was searched and beaten.

Security officers searched the home of Yevgeny Makovoz, a Rostov-on-Don activist who had applied to hold a protest against internet shutdowns and allegedly beat him during the raid. According to people close to him, nine unidentified men came to his home on March 21, seized all his equipment, and left him with a concussion. Proposed anti-shutdown protests were submitted in 28 cities across 17 Russian regions, with authorities reportedly rejecting 20 applications and approving four rallies when the article was posted.

21st March, Vedomosti

The Ministry of Digital Development has denied the introduction of "whitelists" for home internet providers.

Russia’s Digital Development Ministry denied reports that Moscow's home internet providers were introducing “whitelists,” calling those claims fake and saying there is no need for such a system. The ministry said that when there are security threats from drones, authorities may selectively shut down mobile internet in some regions because it can affect drone guidance, but these measures do not apply to fixed home internet.

20th March, Gazeta

Medvedev concluded that most UN countries are self-proclaimed

Dmitry Medvedev and Viktor Medvedchuk argued in a joint article that, by formal criteria, most UN member states could be considered “self-proclaimed.” They pointed to countries that declared independence from Spain, as well as the Netherlands and Belgium, and argued that these states emerged through the exercise of a claimed right to self-determination. They described the breakup of the Soviet Union and the emergence of new states in its place as an irreversible process, echoing a position that the article says Vladimir Putin has also expressed.

19th March, RBC

The State Duma will consider a bill to protect citizens of Russia arrested abroad.

The State Duma will consider a government-backed bill that would allow Russia to use its armed forces to protect citizens of Russia who are arrested, detained, or prosecuted abroad under decisions by foreign or certain international courts. The proposal would amend the laws on citizenship and defence and give the president of the Russian Federation the authority to deploy the military for that purpose. In essence, the measure is presented to shield citizens from legal actions by courts whose jurisdiction Moscow says it does not recognise.

19th March, Fontanka

Spring, a lesson, or a beautiful way out? The mysterious story of citizen Remeslo

Pro-government blogger and lawyer Ilya Remeslo suddenly spent about a day publishing unusually harsh attacks on the Russian authorities and President Vladimir Putin, insisting his Telegram channel had not been hacked, gave interviews, and then went silent. On March 19, 2026, he was hospitalised in St. Petersburg’s Skvortsov-Stepanov psychiatric clinic. His relatives called the ambulance, and there was no visible involvement by state bodies. For now, it remains an unresolved mystery.

19th March, Vedomosti

Svintsov, a deputy expelled from the Liberal Democratic Party, was unable to join A Just Russia.

State Duma deputy Andrei Svintsov, recently expelled from the LDPR, considered joining A Just Russia but failed. A source close to A Just Russia mentioned that Svintsov had become “toxic,” while New People’s vice speaker Vladislav Davankov also said the party would not take him in because he was too far from their values. Svintsov told Vedomosti that his expulsion was unexpected and that he had not yet decided whether he would run for the Duma again or for which party, while political analysts stated that his public image and past positions, including on Telegram restrictions, made him an unsuitable fit for A Just Russia.

18th March, Current Time

Political prisoner Vladimir Osipov, convicted in the case of "fakes" about the army, died in pretrial detention.

56-year-old Vladimir Osipov died in a hospital in Ukhta on March 18 after being sentenced to 6.5 years in prison for anti-war posts on Odnoklassniki, charges he denied. His relatives and friends say he was beaten during his arrest, suffered from severe hypertension and other health problems, and was repeatedly denied proper medical care in pretrial detention and prison before being hospitalised in a coma. This is the fourth death of a political prisoner that has become known since the beginning of 2026. And since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, from 2022 to 2026, at least 44 people imprisoned under political and anti-war articles have died in custody.

17th March, Afisha

A bill was submitted to the State Duma to ban the media from writing accusatory information before the court's decision.

A bill has been submitted to the State Duma that would bar the media from publishing accusatory information about a person before a court decision has entered into legal force. It would punish wording such as “according to sources,” “allegedly,” or “possibly” in reporting on a person’s possible involvement in a crime, allowing only neutral language until the court rules. The proposal, introduced by the State Council of Tatarstan, would also restrict journalistic investigations and impose fines of 100,000-300,000 Rubles for individuals, 300,000-700,000 for officials, and 1-2 million for organisations. (It was withdrawn on 31st March)

17th March, Gazeta

In 2025, 88% of films with state support did not pay off

Only 5 of 41 of Russia’s films made with state support recouped their costs in 2025, meaning 88% were commercially unsuccessful. The article says this was worse than in 2024, when about 78% of such films failed to break even, despite bigger budgets and several releases approaching or exceeding 1 billion Rubles in box office receipts.

16th March, Gazeta

The government supports the idea of expanding the grounds for the deportation of foreigners.

Russia’s government has backed a bill that would expand the grounds for deporting foreign nationals to cover about 20 additional administrative offences, including “discrediting” the army, distributing extremist materials, and displaying Nazi or extremist symbols. The proposal would also allow deportation for offences such as calls for terrorism, justification of terrorism, calls for sanctions against Russia, petty hooliganism, disobeying police, and violating rules for protests or public gatherings. The bill would also remove the requirement for a detailed personal-circumstances review before deportation in some cases, including certain drug-related administrative offences.

15th March, Meduza

Security forces descended on the "Funeral of Winter" metal festival in Yaroslavl. People were forced to the floor and stripped naked while searching for "forbidden" tattoos.

Security officers raided the “Funeral of Winter” metal festival in Yaroslavl on March 14, forcing attendees to lie face down on the floor and searching some of them for allegedly “banned” tattoos.  Witnesses said some people were made to undress, had their hair cut, and were marked with insults such as “queer” and “fascist.” At the same time, a military commissariat official reportedly urged male attendees to join the war. Men were reportedly held for around five hours with their hands behind their heads, women were released earlier, and it remains unclear whether anyone was formally detained.

13th March, Kommersant

(Internet) "Whitelists" have been introduced in Moscow.

Mobile internet access in Moscow has begun operating through “whitelists,” meaning service is available only for approved users or devices in at least some parts of the city.  According to the telecom-market sources, the system is now working, although coverage remains uneven because some base stations are still switched off in certain districts. Experts estimate that the total damage to Moscow’s businesses over five days was between 3 billion and 5 billion Rubles, with courier services, taxis, car-sharing companies, and retail businesses among those most affected by the outages.

13th March, RBC

Khrushchev's great-granddaughter was recognised as a foreign agent

The Justice Ministry of the Russian Federation added political scientist and writer Nina Khrushcheva, the great-granddaughter of Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, to its “foreign agents” register on March 13, 2026.  The ministry said she had spread what it called false information about government decisions, spoken out against the war in Ukraine, taken part in creating materials by designated “foreign agents,” and appeared on a platform provided by a foreign source while living outside the Russian Federation. The same update also added journalist Sergei Reznik, activist Alexei Nesterenko, economist Ekaterina Zhuravskaya, and publicist Vadim Shtepa to the list.

11th March, IStories

Star Factory (X-Factor) by Sergei Kiriyenko

The Kremlin is turning the “New Media Workshop,” launched under Sergei Kiriyenko and reportedly funded with about 1 billion Rubles in 2023–2024, into a pipeline for training loyal media managers and propagandists, after initially using it to staff propaganda work in occupied Ukrainian territories. The outlet says the program borrows the format of Western journalism fellowships but repurposes it to promote state messaging, with figures such as Vladimir Solovyov, Maria Zakharova, and other officials involved as mentors. Graduating from the program can open the door to careers, state grants, and influence across Russia’s media system, and many alumni have gone on to work in pro-Kremlin media projects in occupied parts of Ukraine.

11th March, Novaya Gazeta

Nuclear reaction to the occupation. The story of Zaporizhzhya NPP engineer Ruslan Lavrik: he refused to work for Rosatom and received 16 years in prison for treason.

Ruslan Lavrik, an engineer at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant who refused to sign a contract with Rosatom, was later accused of passing coordinates of Russian troops and making small donations to support Ukraine and was sentenced to 16 years in a strict-regime colony for treason. Lavrik was abducted in June 2024, held for months through an “administrative carousel” of repeated short arrests, and subjected to beatings, electric shocks, and threats against his wife before being forced to sign confessions. Ruslan’s case fits a broader pattern of repression at the occupied plant, where workers who refused to cooperate with Rosatom were allegedly pressured, tortured, or imprisoned.

11th March, Meduza

Comedian Alexey Shcherbakov's concerts were cancelled following Nurlan Saburov's performances for an unknown reason.

All of comedian Alexey Shcherbakov’s scheduled concerts in Russia for 2026 were abruptly cancelled in March without explanation, tickets disappeared from sale, refunds were offered, and neither he nor his manager publicly commented. The cancellation could be linked to a broader crackdown around the “What Happened Next?” comedy circle, noting that his fellow host, Nurlan Saburov, had already been banned from entering Russia for 50 years and that pro-war channels later attacked Shcherbakov for avoiding overt support for the war. Shcherbakov is a performer known for deliberately crude, abrasive humour who largely avoided public anti-war statements.

11th March, OVD-Info

A Ural priest who called the founder of the Russian Volunteer Corps "a great guy" was sentenced to 5.5 years in prison.

 A military court in Yekaterinburg sentenced 55-year-old Hieromonk Yevgeny Pinchuk (Nikandr), a priest, to five and a half years in a general-regime penal colony for “justifying terrorism.” According to the report, the case was linked to a July 2023 comment in which he allegedly called the founder of the Russian Volunteer Corps a “great guy” and expressed respect for him; prosecutors had sought a six-and-a-half-year sentence. Pinchuk has been in pretrial detention since October 2025 and faces separate charges of rehabilitating Nazism and inciting extremism. Previously, he had faced administrative charges for making anti-war statements.

10th March, RBC

The Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) has revealed details of its advertising ban on Telegram.

The Federal Anti-Monopoly Service said advertising on platforms subject to access restrictions, including Telegram, YouTube, VPN services, Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp, is considered a violation of advertising law, and that both advertisers and ad distributors can be held liable. The regulator said this interpretation is based on a provision of the advertising law that bans ads on resources whose access is restricted in Russia, as well as on platforms run by organisations deemed undesirable or outlawed for extremism or terrorism. Fines can reportedly reach 500,000 Rubles for legal entities.

10th March, Forbes

14 new Russovian (citizens of the Russian Federation) billionaires in the Forbes world ranking

Forbes’ 2026 global billionaires list added 14 new billionaires from the Russian Federation, bringing the total number on the list to a record 155, continuing a four-year rebound after the sharp drop that followed the 2022 market collapse. According to Forbes Russia, seven of the 14 newcomers are linked to agriculture and food, ten built their businesses from scratch, and four inherited fortunes rooted in the privatisations of the 1990s. The richest new entrant is Ruslan Rakhimkulov, whose wealth is estimated at $1.9 billion, while the richest Russian overall in the ranking is Severstal co-owner Alexey Mordashov with $37 billion.

10th March, NG

Jurors are not allowed to observe the actual competition between the parties.

The Supreme Court (SC) of the Russian Federation forbade defence lawyers from discrediting the examinations of the prosecution in front of the jury. Such a measure should strengthen the authority of expert opinions, but the legal community is outraged that they thereby actually turn into indisputable evidence, which is unacceptable under the law. And the defence cannot really and publicly challenge the completeness, correctness and reliability of such scientific research in the presence of "people's assessors", who are thereby deprived of the opportunity to see the real adversarial nature of the parties. The article focuses on a Moscow region case in which the Supreme Court overturned a jury acquittal after the defence questioned a DNA report before jurors, while some legal experts said the ruling reflects an effort to keep courtroom debate from becoming a contest of competing pseudo-experts.

6th March, Interfax

The monument to Solzhenitsyn is planned to be moved from the centre of Vladivostok

Authorities in Vladivostok plan to relocate the monument to Alexander Solzhenitsyn from the city centre to Vera and Nadezhda Square on Ovchinnikova Street, near a memorial dedicated to victims of political repression. The city has awarded a contract worth 201,000 Rubles to dismantle, transport, and reinstall the 2.5-metre statue, with the work expected to be completed by 2 July 2026, the city’s anniversary day. The monument was erected in 2015 to commemorate Solzhenitsyn’s 1994 visit to Vladivostok, but it has remained controversial, has been vandalised several times, and has faced unsuccessful attempts at removal.

5th March, Insider

In St. Petersburg, a case was opened on "justification of terrorism" because of positive statements about Navalny

The Investigative Committee opened a criminal case on public justification and propaganda of terrorism against a resident of St. Petersburg, Nadzillo Idibekov. According to the investigation, on February 24, in the lobby of the Prospekt Bolshevikov metro station, he shouted statements that "positively assess the activities of a person included in the list of those involved in extremist activities or terrorism." This is the first known criminal case under the article on public justification and propaganda of terrorism, in which the reason was positive statements in support of Alexei Navalny, who, after the decisions of the Russian courts, was included by Rosfinmonitoring in the list of "terrorists and extremists”.

5th March, Fontanka

Arsen Markaryan was imprisonedfor 4.5 years for rehabilitating Nazism

The Moscow City Court sentenced blogger Arsen Markaryan to 4.5 years in a general regime colony for the rehabilitation of Nazism. He is also prohibited from administering websites for 4 years. The case was initiated following a video published in early 2025. According to the investigation, it contained a contemptuous and negative attitude to the feat of Alexander Matrosov, a Red Army soldier who closed the embrasure of the bunker in 1943.

4th March, TASS

The taxi industry expects Haval and Tenet to be accepted soon

The taxi industry expects the Ministry of Industry and Trade to soon include the Haval and Tenet brands in the list of cars that meet the criteria of the law on localisation. The federal law establishing requirements for the localisation of cars used as taxis came into force on 1 March 2026. Currently, a vehicle can be added to the regional register of taxis if one of two conditions is met. It appears that industries are struggling to keep up with the laws.

4th Match, RG.ru

Sobyanin announced that the number of civil servants in the capital will be reduced by 15%

Moscow will cut the number of civil servants by 15% and reduce the city’s 2026 investment program by 10% as part of a broader budget optimisation drive. Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said the move was prompted by weaker-than-expected revenue growth: in January–February 2026, budget revenues rose by 2% instead of the 6.5% projected when the budget was drafted.  At the same time, he said the cuts are intended to preserve Moscow’s social obligations, maintain city services, continue key development projects, and keep funding for the Defence Ministry and servicemen’s families.

4th March, KP.ru

Prison minimum in Russia: the number of prisonersfell to a record 308 thousand

Russia has updated the historical minimum in terms of the number of prisoners: 308 thousand people are now held in colonies, and pre-trial detention centres (209 per 100 thousand population), and another 89 thousand people under investigation are awaiting sentencing in detention centres. Whereas in the early 2000s, more than 1 million people were behind bars. According to Supreme Court official Vladimir Davydov, this drop reflects a long-term “humanisation” of criminal justice: the prison population fell to about 700,000 by 2013, and the share of sentences involving actual imprisonment declined from 40% over the past quarter-century to 26% in 2025.

3rd March, The Insider

University employees fined for mentioning "undesirable" organisations in dissertations published on university websites

Four university administrative staff in Russia’s Yaroslavl region were fined 20,000 Rubles each after FSB inspections found mentions of organisations labelled “undesirable” in Russia inside dissertations published on university websites. A repeat case within a year could trigger criminal prosecution with a penalty of up to five years in prison, and warns that this will likely make it risky to publish academic works containing such references in open access.

2nd March, Current Time

Russia’s Supreme Court has declared the Anti-War Committee of Russia a "terrorist" organisation.

Russia’s Supreme Court, at a hearing held behind closed doors, granted a request from the Prosecutor General’s Office to designate the Anti-War Committee of Russia a “terrorist” organisation and ban its activities in the country. Judge Oleg Nefedov delivered the ruling. He had previously declared the non-existent "international LGBT movement" and "international Satanism movement" to be "extremist" and designated Alexei Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation a "terrorist" organisation. The committee was founded in February 2022 to oppose Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and its members include prominent exiled Kremlin critics such as Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Garry Kasparov, Dmitry Gudkov, Vladimir Kara-Murza, Yekaterina Shulman, and Viktor Shenderovich. The FSB had already opened a criminal case against all committee members last year, alleging involvement in a “terrorist community” and a seizure of power, citing their support for Ukraine, the 2023 Berlin Declaration condemning the war, and their work with a Russian democratic platform in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. Previously, the group was also labelled “undesirable.”

1st March, Vedomosti

Putin expressed condolences over the death of Ali Khamenei.

Vladimir Putin sent his condolences to Iranian leader Masoud Pezeshkian following the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his family. In his message, the head of state emphasised that the incident constitutes a gross violation of universal human principles and international law.

25th to 27th February, various sources

City halls across the Russian Federation have been denying permits for demonstrations against the Telegram block.

In Moscow, COVID restrictions were the reason, while in Novosibirsk, the application was rejected due to the application not being an organisation but by a citizen.

26th February, Vedomosti

Siluanov: The government is revising the budget rule for oil

The Russian government is dealing with the issue of tightening the budget rule in terms of the base oil cut-off price, said Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov. "I think that we will consider and make such decisions quickly enough," he told reporters. The minister said that Russia is less focused on oil and gas revenues (NGD), and in 2026 their share will be less than 20%. At the same time, according to him, new ambitious goals have been set for the current year. From this year, the cut-off price for oil according to the budget rule will begin to systematically decrease by $1 per year and by 2030 will reach $55 per barrel.

26th February, Meduza

Denying the "genocide of the Soviet people" will soon carry a prison sentence of up to five years. What does that term even mean?

The new bill would criminalise publicly denying or insulting the memory of the so-called “genocide of the Soviet people,” but the deeper purpose of the concept is political rather than purely historical.  Citing historian Konstantin Pakhalyuk, the article argues that the idea is meant to answer recurring accusations that the USSR helped start World War II by recasting the Soviet people as not only Nazism’s main conqueror but also its main victim, and therefore not responsible for unleashing the war. Furthermore, this reading is backed by documents from the first case to address the issue, where prosecutors said that “distorting” World War II history and comparing Nazism with other regimes serves to shift blame onto modern Russia, something they portrayed as a threat to Russian national security, European cooperation, and international stability.

26th February, Current Time

Telegram will be completely blocked in Russia starting in April

Several media in Russia, citing sources close to the Kremlin and the telecom sector, reported that Russia plans to fully block Telegram in early April, with April 1 mentioned as the likely start date.  According to the report, the reasons discussed include alleged recruitment for illegal acts through Telegram, claims that foreign intelligence can access Telegram correspondence, and accusations that the platform supports bots used to obtain Russians’ personal data. At the same time, Roskomnadzor did not clearly confirm the report, and the move has been controversial because Telegram is widely used by Russian forces in Ukraine, prompting officials to say it may remain available for military use at the front.

26th February, RTVI

Russia will not extradite migrants fighting in military formations to other countries.

Russia’s State Duma has passed a law banning the extradition of foreign nationals and stateless people who have served or are serving under contract in the Russian armed forces or other military formations, if another country wants to prosecute them or enforce a sentence against them. The measure is part of a broader legislative package that also seeks to block deportation, administrative expulsion, and other forced-removal decisions against such people, with officials saying the goal is to protect them from what Russia calls unjustified criminal prosecution abroad for participating in the war. Lawmakers pointed to cases in which foreign citizens who fought on Russia’s side were later punished in their home countries, including examples from Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.

25th February, Novaya Gazeta

Scientist non grata. Andrei Lankov was expelled from Latvia and blacklisted.

North Korea expert Andrei Lankov was detained in Riga on February 24 shortly before a scheduled lecture, then expelled from Latvia after being placed on the country’s blacklist and banned from entry four days earlier.  Latvia’s Foreign Ministry later confirmed that Lankov had been declared persona non grata based on information from the country’s security services and under an immigration-law provision used against people seen as threats or as supporting violations of international law, including Russia’s war in Ukraine.  Lankov said he did not know the precise reason for the decision, suggested officials disliked his refusal to turn complex realities into a politically useful caricature, and said he did not plan to challenge the expulsion.

25th February, Meduza

Western analysts say Russia is on track to losing 50,000 soldiers a month. A Meduza investigation suggests those estimates are based on manipulated data.

Meduza argues that widely cited Western estimates of roughly 50,000 Russian losses per month are overstated because they rely on distorted open-source data rather than a real battlefield turning point. According to the investigation, Russia has been retroactively declaring large numbers of previously missing soldiers dead through court procedures, which makes many older deaths show up in databases as if they were new 2025 casualties. After adjusting for those reclassifications and for improved obituary-database coverage, Meduza estimates current Russian battlefield deaths at under 600 per day and total irreversible losses at about 27,000 per month, far below the headline figure.

23rd February, ECHO

Dispersal of "Bakshevskaya Maslyanitsya": Orthodox activists deny their involvement, z-bloggers are indignant

A police breakup of the long-running “Bakshevskaya Maslenitsa” festival near Moscow sparked backlash, after which the Orthodox activist group “Sorok Sorokov” said it did not ask authorities to cancel the event and only came after learning of the ban. However, prior posts from the group suggest its activists were present with police, and at least one person was detained after allegedly swearing during an exchange with a “Sorok Sorokov” representative. Pro-war bloggers condemned the situation as absurd and shameful, while “Sorok Sorokov” justified its attention by claiming the celebration may have included “pagan rites,” especially burning an effigy.

21st February, Novaya Gazeta

The court nationalised the KIMP bearing holding

The Gagarinsky Court of Moscow, at the request of the Prosecutor General's Office, seized a holding company for the production of KIMP bearings in favour of the state. "In the context of the armed conflict with Ukraine and the collective West, they devoted themselves to profit, betraying the vital interests of society and their state," the Prosecutor General's Office said earlier. Sounds a bit like the Soviet “revolutionary legality”.

20th February, ABNews

Roskomnadzor began to block the VLESS protocol in VPNs

Residents of several regions of Russia were cut off from the usual communication channels at once. Users from Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Volgograd and Primorye complained about failures in the functioning of VPN services. According to local media, technical problems were provoked by the actions of Roskomnadzor, which targeted the Xray/VLESS protocol. Network specialists quoted in the piece argue the protocol can’t be fully eliminated yet, so users should expect intermittent outages and slower speeds while they may need to switch tools and servers more often to keep access.

20th February, RG

The Museum of the History of the Gulag will become the Museum of Memory of the Victims of the Genocide of the People of the USSR

Moscow’s Gulag History Museum, which stopped operating in November 2024 after a fire-safety inspection, is set to be rebranded as the “Museum of Memory” focused on victims of what officials call the “genocide of the Soviet people” and Nazi war crimes during World War II, with reopening planned for 2026.  Reports say the new concept will draw on archival materials from the “Without Statute of Limitations” project and will include sections on manifestations of Nazism, trials of Nazi criminals, and evidence related to biological weapons testing, including digital features for preserving personal family histories.  Natalya Kalashnikova (previously head of the “Smolensk Fortress” museum) has been appointed director, while questions and controversy remain over what happens to the former repression-focused exhibition and the museum’s thousands of artefacts.

20th February, ECHO

Kyrgyzstan denied asylum to an activist from Donetsk. Russia demands his extradition

The Kyrgyz authorities have denied political asylum to an activist from Donetsk, Artyom Borodin, who has been in a pre-trial detention centre in Bishkek for six months under extradition arrest. His extradition is demanded by the Prosecutor General's Office of Russia - a case has been opened against Borodin for calls for extremism. Kyrgyzstan has not recognised Russia's annexation of the Donetsk region, but Borodin's arrest warrant relies on Russian regulations declaring the occupied territories part of the Russian Federation and the 2015 "law" of the separatist "DPR".

19th February, Current Time

The Russian general boasted to his wife of the ears cut off by the Ukrainians. These were not the only tortures that he was proud of

A joint investigation by RFE/RL’s “Schemes” and “Systema” says an archive of messages from 2022–2024 shows Major General of the Russian Federation Roman Demurchiev bragging to relatives and fellow officers about abusing and killing Ukrainian captives and desecrating bodies, including sending his wife a photo of severed ears. The material indicates senior commanders were aware of—and did not stop—such conduct, and they situate Demurchiev as a decorated, high-ranking officer who held major command roles during the invasion.

18th February, Insider

The International Memorial Association was recognised as an "undesirable organization"

On 17 February 2026, Russia’s Ministry of Justice added the International Memorial Association (“Memorial”) and several other foreign NGOs and media projects (including Zukunft Memorial e.V., the Henry Jackson Society, JICA, “Arctida,” and Georgia’s Civic IDEA) to the country’s list of “undesirable organisations.” According to Russian law, participation in the activities of an organisation recognised as "undesirable" first entails administrative liability, and in the event of repeated prosecution, criminal liability. At the same time, financing such an organisation or collecting funds for it, as well as organising its activities, constitutes a criminal offence immediately, without prior administrative punishment.

18th February, Agenstvo

The State Duma unanimously voted to introduce “prevention” of “an incorrect understanding of the history of Russia.” It will be handled by the security services.

On 18 February 2026, Russia’s State Duma unanimously approved in first reading amendments to the 2016 “prevention of offences” law, adding “prevention/suppression of evasion of the duty to defend the Fatherland” and “countering distortion of historical truth” to the list of areas covered by preventive measures. Sponsors say this would empower security and law-enforcement bodies to act earlier via warnings, “preventive conversations,” legal education, and possible preventive supervision of people previously convicted under relevant articles (including “rehabilitation of Nazism,” insulting veterans, or evading military service), arguing that a “hybrid war” fosters “incorrect” views of Russia’s history.  During the debate, some deputies questioned how police can objectively judge contested historical issues, while critics warn the measure could broaden enforcement around “memory” laws and be used for political pressure.

16th February, SOTA

The 14th Free Russia Forum opened in Vilnius today

The forum coordinates the efforts of the Russian opposition and plans further actions to counter the Russian Federation’s regime. It has brought together various political forces to discuss key issues related to political activity in exile. For the first time, RVC is present.

14th February, Meduza

The Russian Federation authorities continue to break Telegram and WhatsApp

In the past few days, starting on February 9, the Russian authorities have resumed active attempts to break popular foreign Internet services and make them completely unavailable in the country. Telegram worked intermittently, and YouTube and WhatsApp were under the threat of complete blocking. Around the same time, outlets reported that YouTube, WhatsApp and other domains were removed from Russia’s National Domain Name System records, a move framed as a step toward tougher blocks. At the same time, the restriction of foreign messengers threatens not only communication between users. For example, Telegram is a whole ecosystem with information and entertainment channels, mini applications, its own cryptocurrency and much more.

13th February, Mediazona

The head of the Magnitogorsk Centre "E" (Centre for Combating Extremism) was detained in the case of selling personal data from the database of the Ministry of Internal Affairs to an acquaintance

In the Chelyabinsk region, FSB officers detained police lieutenant colonel Ilya Afonasenko, who heads the interdistrict branch of the Centre "E"(Centre for Combating Extremism) located in Magnitogorsk. Afonasenko is suspected of abuse of office (Part 3 of Article 286 of the Criminal Code). According to the investigation, in March and April 2025, the head of the Magnitogorsk Centre "E", on a "systematic basis”, was selling personal data from a state database about a specific person to an acquaintance for money.

11th February, Novaya Gazeta

The Kazakh authorities have agreed to extradite Yulia Emelyanova, a former activist of Navalny's headquarters, to Russia. Formally, she is accused of stealing a phone

Kazakhstan’s Prosecutor General approved Russia’s request to extradite St Petersburg activist and former Navalny volunteer Yuliya Emelyanova, who has been held in a detention centre.
Russia formally accuses her of stealing a taxi driver’s mobile phone worth about 12,000 Rubles.  Emelyanova and human-rights advocates say the case is fabricated and tied to her political activity. Her lawyer and support groups say the extradition order was issued without proper notification and before Kazakhstan finished considering her asylum request, which they call a procedural violation.

10th February, Kommersant

Films without distribution certificates will be checked on complaints to the Ministry of Culture

From 1 March 2026, Russia’s Ministry of Culture will start checking online films and series that lack distribution certificates for possible “discrediting” of traditional spiritual values. Reviews will be triggered by any citizen’s complaint and assessed via an expert mechanism. If violations are found, the ministry will send its conclusion to Roskomnadzor, which can require platforms to restrict access within 24 hours, preferably by deletion. Separately, a Duma committee backed amendments introducing administrative fines for distributing this kind of content up to 3 million Rubles after 1 March 2026, with the possibility of avoiding penalties by promptly deleting content after Roskomnadzor’s demand.

9th February, OVD-Info

A resident of the Murmansk region was fined under the article on discrediting the army because of likes on YouTube

A court in the Murmansk region fined 72-year-old Vasiliy Yovdiy 30,000 Rubles under the administrative article on “discrediting” the Russian army, for liking videos on YouTube, the first known case of this kind. According to the reports, FSB border officials gained access to his phone and found “liked” videos; the court treated his likes as a public “approval reaction,” including under videos linked to people labelled “foreign agents” and one about the killing of General Igor Kirillov. Lawyers and commentators note the contradiction that YouTube likes are generally not visible to other users and criticise the ruling as poorly reasoned and procedurally dubious.

6th February, Meduza

St. Petersburg scientist Alexey Dudarev was accused of treason for publishing scientific journals that "may have been read by Norwegian intelligence."

In St. Petersburg, scientist Alexei Dudarev, a Doctor of Medical Sciences and chief researcher at the Northwestern Scientific Centre for Hygiene and Public Health of Rospotrebnadzor, has been arrested on treason charges. The basis for the scientist's criminal prosecution was Dudarev's publications in open international scientific journals of the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP). The programme operates within the framework of the Arctic Council, an intergovernmental forum of which Russia is a member. Investigators claim that information from the scientific publications could have been accessed and used by Norwegian intelligence.

6th February, Meduza

Comedian Nurlan Saburov was banned from entering Russia because of his unwillingness to cooperate with the FSB.

The ban on Nurlan Saburov's entry into Russia was initiated by the Service for the Protection of the Constitutional Order and the Fight against Terrorism of the FSB (Second Service) and its head, Alexei Zhalo, Important Stories reports. According to an acquaintance of the comedian, Saburov was summoned several times to the FSB building on Lubyanka, forced to cooperate, but he neither consented nor refused and "tried to freeze." As a result, the comedian, who holds Kazakh citizenship, was denied a residence permit in Russia three times, the journalist's interlocutor said. The source added that the last time Saburov was summoned to the FSB was in 2025, when he was given a choice: either sign a contract with the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation and go to the front for a year or leave Russia. On February 6, Nurlan Saburov was banned from entering Russia for 50 years.

3rd February, TASS

36 thousand citizens of Tajikistan were deported from Russia in 2025

About 36 thousand citizens of Tajikistan were deported from Russia in 2025. The Ministry of Labour and Social Protection reported that more than 124,000 Tajik citizens were added to Russia's registry of controlled persons (people who have overstayed their legal status), 68,000 of whom were removed from the list, and over 38,000 Tajiks legalised their status in Russia. The registry of controlled persons was created on February 5, 2025, and is maintained on the official website of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs and on the Unified Portal of State and Municipal Services.

2nd February, Vedomosti

Scientists have been asked to "carefully evaluate" missions to unfriendly countries.

After the December arrest of archaeologist Alexander Butyagin in Poland, at the request of Ukraine, the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia recommended that universities and research institutes, when invited to events in "unfriendly" countries, evaluate them for possible politicisation of the agenda, and, if necessary, contact the department. The government list of "unfriendly" countries includes 49 countries, mainly the states of the European Union (EU), the G7 and three East Asian countries (Singapore, the Republic of Korea, and Japan). According to Vedomosti's interlocutor in the academic environment, several scientists at one of the federal universities were frozen on planned foreign business trips for the spring of 2026 even before the letter from the Ministry of Education and Science was sent out. Other interviewees say this further complicates already-reduced scientific exchange and is nudging travel toward “friendly” destinations such as Turkey and Saudi Arabia, with trips to Iran also rising.

2nd February, MoskvichMag

Soon, the "young people" of Afghanistan will be clearing snow from our (Moscow) yards.

Recently, the import of workers from India has been actively discussed. Migrants from Afghanistan could be another option. According to the ambassador of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan in Moscow, Gul Hassan, negotiations are at an advanced stage. The negotiations have taken place, and "there is reason to expect positive results." Hassan says that Afghanistan has a young population, and the authorities are interested in sending them to places with a shortage of workers. So far, neither specific figures nor deadlines have been named. However, the direction of work is clearly indicated. At the end of 2024, the authorities estimated the shortage of highly qualified specialists in our country at 1.5 million people, primarily in construction, transport and housing and communal services. By 2030, according to the Ministry of Labour's forecasts, this figure may rise to 3.1 million. The current situation in Afghanistan makes the issue of selection extremely problematic: Afghan passports are now issued to "a variety of people", not always ethnic Afghans, and control over this process is in the hands of the Taliban. As a result, "anyone" can theoretically come to Russia under the guise of workers, from random people to militants with experience in conflicts in Syria. The Russian Federation currently lacks the tools to screen these migrants fully.

30th January, Meduza

For the first time, the platform of the Russian opposition at PACE gathered in Strasbourg

On January 29, 2026, Strasbourg hosted the first meeting of a new platform of Russian democratic forces under PACE (Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe), with 15 approved members, including Garry Kasparov, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Vladimir Kara-Murza, Lyubov Sobol, and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, among others. Participants have agreed on basic procedures and said their priorities include supporting political prisoners and protecting the practical rights of anti-war Russians abroad, while also urging Europe to help Ukraine. The debut also highlighted ongoing frictions over the next year procedure and produced a viral moment when Kara-Murza dismissed a reporter from SOTA with the insult.

30th January, TVRain

A teenager kills a Roskomnadzor employee in Moscow, and state media is banned from writing about it

On January 19, a 16-year-old teenager killed 42-year-old Alexei Belyaev, an employee of the department, in the building of Roskomnadzor in Moscow, according to the anonymous telegram channel "Cheka-OGPU". According to the channel, the schoolboy stabbed Belyaev in the chest when he was leaving the office. The authors of the Cheka-OGPU learned about the incident by accident, noticing a woman on social media seeking a lawyer for her son. She allegedly has a resolution stating that the teenager is charged with murder motivated by political hatred (paragraph "l" of part 2 of Article 105 of the Criminal Code). According to the woman, the investigation calls the child "an ardent opponent of the activities of Roskomnadzor." Later, she deleted the post. Channel contributors then found information about the schoolboy, who ran a YouTube channel and was fond of games and animation. The school said that the teenager stopped attending classes. The Agency notes that Belyaev's Tax Identification Number was invalidated on January 19, that is, on the day of the alleged murder.  Meduza, citing sources, writes that media loyal to the Kremlin were advised not to publish information about the murder of Belyaev.

30th January, RBC

Prosecutor's Office asks U.S. to dismiss $225 billion in Tsarist debt against Russia

The Prosecutor General's Office demanded that the lawsuit of the American investment fund Noble Capital, which wants to recover $225 billion from Russia on imperial bonds. The Russian side does not admit responsibility for the securities of 1916. Noble Capital RSD filed a lawsuit in a U.S. court for the District of Columbia in June 2025. The fund demanded that Russia fulfil its obligations on bonds for $ 25 million, issued with a coupon of 5.5%, which were sold to American private investors in 1916. The law firm Marks & Sokolov, representing Russian interests in this case, stressed that neither the USSR nor Russia had ever admitted their responsibility for the bonds in accordance with established international law. Once again, the only viable historical continuation the Russian Federation has is with the USSR.

29th January, Insider

11 Russian universities will withdraw from the Bologna process

From September 1 of this year, additional universities in the Russian Federation will cancel the "bachelor" and "master" formats; instead, basic and specialised higher education will be introduced. The transition away from the Bologna system began in 2022 with a pilot in six universities, and the new model will now be tested in 11 additional institutions. In May 2022, State Duma Deputy Speaker Pyotr Tolstoy said that it was time for Russia to abandon the Bologna system and return to the "traditional Russian education system" so as not to "suffer an ideological defeat" and not to "lose our schoolchildren and citizens."

28th January, Garant

Operators will be obliged to turn off communications and mobile Internet at the request of the FSB of Russia

The deputies adopted in the first reading a bill that provides for the obligation of providers to stop providing communication services, including mobile Internet, at the request of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation. Parliamentarians propose to supplement Article 44 of Law No 126-FZ with a new paragraph. According to it, operators will be exempt from liability for non-fulfilment or improper fulfilment of their obligations to the client if this is related to the fulfilment of the requirements of the federal security service.

28th January, Meduza

"Now I am a bum." The apartment of track and field athlete Daria Klishina was given to the military

Russian track and field athlete Daria Klishina said that her one-room apartment in Tver, which the authorities gave her in 2011, was taken away from her. "As they gave it, so they took it away," she said in an interview with Vita Kravchenko. She was discharged from the apartment in 2025. The keys to the apartment were handed over to a military man whom Klishina does not know. It was justified by the state due to Daria not being a member of a national team.

26th January, Meduza

The Kremlin said that 250 thousand Russians who returned from the war do not work anywhere. "On a call from above", media reports about this were edited

At the end of December 2025, the head of the presidential department for public projects, Sergei Novikov, said that 250 thousand soldiers who returned from the front were not employed anywhere. "We have a fairly large grey zone - these are tens of thousands of people who... did not find a job. They returned, do not work, or spend the money they received, or make a living in another way... And in general, 250 thousand people... did not find a job anywhere... We must, of course, do this," a senior Kremlin official said. RIA Novosti published his quote on December 23 in the news with the headline "About 250 thousand veterans NWO remain unemployed, Novikov said." But soon the publication was changed, removing the mention of 250 thousand unemployed from the text and headline. Now the news is talking about "tens of thousands" of soldiers out of work.

26th January, Kommersant

The government supported the introduction of liability for denying the genocide of the Soviet people

The Government Commission on Legislative Activity supported the initiative to introduce criminal liability for denying the fact of genocide of the Soviet people and insulting the memory of its victims. An amendment is made to the article on the rehabilitation of Nazism (Article 354.1 of the Criminal Code). The same bill introduces criminal liability (in Article 243.4 of the Criminal Code) for the destruction or damage of monuments and other memorial structures perpetuating the memory of the victims of genocide, as well as for the desecration of their burials. Under the article on the rehabilitation of Nazism, which also appeals to the conclusions of the Nuremberg Tribunal, the maximum punishment is three years in prison or a fine of 3 million Rubles. Will it spread to statements that could be interpreted as denigration of the Soviet people in the future?

26th January, Meduza

Russia has been using Interpol mechanisms for years to persecute its critics abroad. At the request of Moscow, they are put on the wanted list. The Russian Federation can find out where they go.

Russia uses lists of people wanted by Interpol to seek the arrest of political opponents, businessmen and journalists, and the organisation's messaging system to monitor critics of the Russian authorities abroad, the BBC and the French investigative project Disclose found out. The leaked files also indicate Russia uses Interpol’s secure messaging channels to request information and sometimes obtain details on targets’ movements, effectively enabling monitoring of critics outside the country. Over the past 11 years, the Commission for the Control of Interpol’s Files reportedly received more complaints about Russia than any other country: about 700 people complained, and around 400 succeeded in getting Russian notices cancelled. One highlighted case is Igor Pestrikov, an ex-co-owner of Solikamsk Magnesium Plant, who said being listed for two years harmed his ability to rent housing and access banking until the oversight body ruled the request largely political. While Interpol says it increased scrutiny after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, internal reports cited in the leak suggest ~90% of Russian requests still passed initial screening in 2024, alongside discussions in 2024–2025 about easing some extra restrictions on Russia.

23rd January, Istories

A deserter who survived a torture cellar and fled the front three times was denied asylum in Germany.

Georgy, a Russian conscript who fled the front three times, was placed in a basement for "refuseniks" in the village of Zaitsevo, and is wanted in Russia for desertion, has been denied asylum in Germany. Germany's Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) justified the refusal by claiming that mobilisation in Russia had supposedly been completed in October 2022, as Sergei Shoigu reported to Vladimir Putin at the time. BAMF employee also doubted the existence of torture cellars where Russian military personnel are illegally held and decided that deserter Georgy and his family would face no consequences upon returning to Russia other than a fine of 30,000 Rubles for evading a summons. According to Georgiy, German authorities initially refused to consider his case because he entered via Croatia, where he had already applied for asylum.

23rd January, Vedomosti

The total fertility rate continued to decline in 2025

Rosstat data cited by Vedomosti show Russia’s total fertility rate fell to 1.374 as of December 2025 (from 1.4 in 2024), staying around 1.37–1.39 during 2025. The article highlights sharp regional gaps: the rate was above 2 in Chechnya, Yamalo-Nenets AO, and Tuva, while among the lowest were Leningrad, Smolensk, and Vladimir oblasts; it also notes a decline in the indicator for third and subsequent births to 0.362. Experts argue that the effectiveness of pro-natalist policies depends on stronger, more up-to-date support for families—especially large families—and on more uniform implementation across regions, ideally without means-testing, with some measures folded into the national project “Family” (2025–2030).

23rd January, Kommersant

United and collective

At the “Znanie. Gosudarstvo” forum, Kremlin official Alexander Kharichev delivered a programme talk presenting the “pentabasis” model (person–society–family–country–state) as a framework for defining Russia’s direction. He contrasted Russia’s “sovereign traditionalism” with Western “liberal globalism” and said that research into a “civilizational code” shows that top-rated values include collectivism, service to the fatherland, and the unity of peoples, with rights and freedoms rated much lower. Kharichev also outlined five “polar vectors” (e.g., rationalism–idealism, individualism–collectivism, negative vs “positive” freedom) and linked policy responses to perceived threats ranging from “childfree” ideas and distrust of institutions to consumerism, virtual retreat, and transhumanism. According to him, the vision of an ideal Russia has five options: Great, Comfortable, Just, Modern, and Land of opportunity, which the administration hopes to unite into one vision, where a citizen is a proactive participant.

22nd January, Port Media

Russians have become the fifth-largest diaspora in the world.

The UN has published global migration data for 2024. According to the organisation, over 9.1 million Russian citizens were living outside of Russia in 2024. Also in the top are Ukraine (9.769 million emigrants), Mexico (11.596 million), China (11.701 million), and India (18.533 million). The 2022 report had 10.65 million Russians emigres and was ranked third. A clear indicator that sanctions and other restrictions did not cause ‘brain drain’ and instead buttressed the Russian Federation.

20th January, Meduza

A schoolgirl who posted a photo of RVC fighters on a school bulletin board was sentenced to four years in prison.

The First Western District Military Court in St. Petersburg sentenced 17-year-old schoolgirl Eva Bagrova to four years in prison for posting photographs of members of the Russian Volunteer Corps at school. The verdict was handed down in October 2025 but was previously unknown. Bagrova was found guilty of justifying terrorism (Article 205.2 of the Russian Criminal Code) and aiding terrorist activity (Article 205.1 of the Russian Criminal Code).

19th January, RBC

Patriarch Kirill called Putin an Orthodox leader.

Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia called Russian President Vladimir Putin an Orthodox leader. He made the statement during his Epiphany sermon at the Epiphany Cathedral in Moscow. “We have reached a time when the head of our state is a truly Orthodox leader, not, as they say, by protocol, but by conviction, Vladimir Vladimirovich [Putin],” the patriarch said after the liturgy. According to him, this indicates that “through the prayers of the holy saints” a “miracle of God” occurred.

15th January, Kommersant

Deputies will not let Russia “cheburakh” (tumble)

The State Duma Committee on Culture decided to hold a meeting on the state of Russian cinema. sparked by a bill that would give the Ministry of Culture the power to set “priority themes” for films seeking state funding. At the committee session, MPs complained about the alleged insider distribution of subsidies and “undesirable” filmmakers, criticised commercially successful fairy-tale franchises like Cheburashka and The Bremen Town Musicians for lacking the right message and values. They even floated the idea of letting the ministry intervene directly in the creative process. They are starting to intervene in non-political art, in a step from authoritarian to totalitarian.

15th January, Novaya Gazeta Europe

A political prisoner from the Omsk region died in a colony almost a year ago. The Federal Penitentiary Service reported this to an activist who was in correspondence with him

Roman Tyurin, a political prisoner from the Omsk region, who was convicted four times for posts on social networks, died in a colony almost a year ago, on February 17, 2025, Memorial reported. Human rights activists managed to find out about the death of the political prisoner when the activist, who was in correspondence with Tyurin, returned an unopened envelope with her letter. In February 2024, Tyurin was sentenced to four years in prison in a terrorism case (Article 205.2 of the Criminal Code). In the same month, the full namesake of the political prisoner was included in the register of extremists and terrorists of the Federal Financial Monitoring Service. In May of the same year, the term was increased to six years after the second sentence, in the case of military "fakes". In October 2024, the political prisoner was found guilty under the article on repeated discrediting of the Russian army (Article 280.3 of the Criminal Code), and in November, under the articles on calls for activities against the security of Russia (Article 280.4 of the Criminal Code) and repeated demonstration of prohibited symbols (Article 282.4 of the Criminal Code).On the aggregate of four sentences, the term of imprisonment for Tyurin reached six and a half years. Who else among political prisoners in Russia is already dead?

13th January, RBC

The court fined comedian Gudkov for the parody song "I am narrow"

A court in Krasnogorsk punished comedian Alexander Gudkov with a fine for parodying a song by singer Yaroslav Dronov (SHAMAN). Gudkov was found guilty under Article 20.3.1 of the Code of Administrative Offences - incitement to hatred or enmity, as well as humiliation of human dignity and was sentenced to an administrative fine of 11 thousand Rubles. "The court found that Gudkov A.V. posted a video on the social network "VKontakte" with the name "Alexander Gudkov - I am narrow", using the arrangement of the song "I am Russian", performed by the singer under the pseudonym SHAMAN, changed the lyrics of the song, using the phrase "I am narrow," the press service of the courts of general jurisdiction of the Moscow region said in a statement. (In the Russian language, words ‘narrow’ and ‘Russian’ do rhyme, hence the song parody) A psychological and linguistic study showed that the video recording contains actions aimed at humiliating the dignity of "a person and a group of persons based on origin." Since the video recording is available to an unlimited number of people, these actions are also public on the Internet. Seems that SHAMAN has become a protected image now, not allowed of parody.

12th January, Current Time

Gazprom-Media has invested hundreds of millions of Rubles in a system for searching for LGBT "propaganda" and drugs in films and TV series

Gazprom-Media Holding has invested several hundred million Rubles in the Predicto Platform module complex, one of the systems of which is designed to automatically check video content for the presence of "undesirable elements" - "propaganda" of drugs, alcohol, smoking, and LGBT people. After processing the video in this program, it returns a file with colour marking for the presence or absence of "signs" of smoking, alcohol, drugs, and LGBT people. The platform itself consists of 12 modules. In addition to the content verification module, as noted, it includes modules for content personalisation, user activity analysis, a recommendation system, search, and analytical systems. With more extremist monitoring being assigned to the AI, human personnel are focusing on a wider share of the population.

12th January, Kommersant

Gazprom's supplies to China exceeded exports to Europe for the first time in 2025

According to preliminary data, 38.8 billion cubic meters of gas were exported to China through the Power of Siberia gas pipeline, 24.8% increase compared to 2024. At the same time, Gazprom continued to supply to the near abroad. In 2025, exports to Central Asia and Transcaucasia increased: Russian gas supplies to Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan increased by 22.2%, and to Georgia by 40.4%. Another milestone in the economic shift.

11th January, URA.ru

Rossiyane/Russovians can lose their property after owing just 3,000 Rubles.

Bailiffs can seize property if the debt exceeds three thousand Rubles, Vladimir Gureev, chairman of the public council of the Federal Bailiff Service of Russia, has announced. "Current enforcement legislation allows for the seizure of a debtor's property for debts exceeding 3,000 Rubles (£28/€32/$38). Accordingly, foreclosure, generally, is possible starting from this amount," he said. Gureev noted that the debtor retains the opportunity to repay the debt voluntarily at any time, and if the seized property has not been sold within the framework of enforcement proceedings by that time, it will be returned to the debtor. A convenient method to take away the property of ‘foreign agents’ and those with frozen bank accounts.

8th January, Novaya Gazeta

The body of Russian journalist Yevgeny Safronov was found near Paris. Police are investigating the suicide, and media reports claim he may have received death threats.

On the morning of January 6, a 38-year-old Russian journalist was found dead in a Paris suburb, Le Figaro reports, citing a police source. The man's body was discovered beneath the windows of his apartment. Safronov left Russia before 2022, after the media outlet he worked for was designated a "foreign agent." At the end of 2024, Safronov "experienced a difficult and, as he claimed, unfair dismissal."  Yevgeny was reported to have been very depressed a week before the body was found, being crestfallen by the hacking of his accounts a week prior.  "During our last call, we were discussing the hacking of his accounts, and he still couldn't quite tell me what happened or how it happened. He was really depressed, totally on edge, and said he wanted to hang himself. "

7th January, TASS

Patriarch Kirill explained who is considered a traitor to the Motherland.

Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus' called those who fall outside the public consensus traitors to the Motherland. According to the patriarch, there must be a public consensus around the idea of ​​the state's existence. "If someone falls outside this consensus, then there is the definition: 'traitor to the homeland, with all the legal consequences that entail ', " the cleric said. Regarding the issues that citizens should focus on, he cited spiritual and moral aspects and security, “inherent in human moral nature.”

6th January, Delfi

Volkov regrets writing a message about Kapustin, the RVC, and Ukrainian officials. 

After controversial statements about Ukrainian officials made by Lithuania-based Russian opposition figure Leonid Volkov surfaced publicly, he admitted that he regretted his words. “I regret writing that message. It was a stupid, incorrect, and harshly emotional message that should not have been written,” Volkov told the portal on Tuesday.

“I was deeply outraged by the story of many Russians glorifying D. Kapustin as a hero. Someone wrote, ‘All hope is lost.’ ‘This is the real Russian opposition.’ ‘He’s fighting the right way, and everyone else is fighting the wrong way.’ This offends me. I do not like neo-Nazis. I believe that supporting them or collaborating with them is wrong, because they are evil, and fighting evil with evil is not the best idea,” he explained.

In late December, following reports of the alleged death of Denis Kapustin—the leader of the Russian Volunteer Corps—Volkov called him a Nazi in a letter and celebrated his “denazification.” On Monday evening, Volkov confirmed his words but clarified that the letter was personal and therefore emotional. After learning of Volkov’s letter, the Migration Department intends to decide whether he will be allowed to continue residing in Lithuania. Following a strong statement from Lithuania’s prime minister, Volkov may have to change his country of residence. This may signal a shift in the balance of power within the Russian opposition.

5th January, Mediazona

Hopping from one Wi-Fi hotspot to the next: Regions with internet "white lists"

Since May 2025, mass mobile internet shutdowns have been sweeping across Russia. The authorities claim this is necessary to defend against Ukrainian drones, yet the restrictions affect regions far from the front lines. In early August, the Kremlin announced that during these mobile blackouts, only specific, state-approved services would remain accessible. They are included in the so-called “whitelists.” Mobile internet shutdowns leave people unable to use everyday services like taxis, navigation, messaging, and many payment systems, forcing them to hunt for Wi-Fi and carry cash. Authorities and operators increasingly rely on “whitelists,” where only selected, approved apps keep working, pushing people toward those platforms, and narrowing what information and services remain accessible. The outages also raise personal safety risks and anxiety because people cannot reliably contact others or get help when they need it.

2nd January, RBC

Russia's richest businessmen earned nearly $32.8 billion in 2025.

The total fortune of the richest Russian businessmen increased by $32.8 billion in 2025, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. As of Friday, January 2, 20 Russians were included in the billionaire ranking. According to the ranking, Alisher Usmanov, the founder of the USM holding, showed the greatest growth among Russian businessmen. His fortune increased by $6.04 billion to $19.3 billion, followed by the founder of the Ural Mining and Metallurgical Company (UMMC), Iskander Makhmudov, whose fortune increased by $4.75 billion to $7.88 billion. A reminder that, if one of the sanctions goals was to put elites against the state, that goal has failed.

1st January, Novaya Gazeta

RDK leader Denis Kapustin is alive.

Denis Kapustin, the founder of the Russian Volunteer Corps, was not killed, as previously reported. This information was disseminated to cover up a Ukrainian intelligence operation to save his life. This was reported by Ukrainian intelligence agencies. According to the Main Intelligence Directorate, the murder of Denis Kapustin was ordered by Russian intelligence agencies, and half a million dollars was allocated for its implementation.28th April, Gazeta.ru