Sobchak on the run, Putin’s nuke drills, RT host cancelled
Horrible News with Kirill Martynov
Vladimir Putin has had a busy week. The president oversaw another round of nuclear drills and then made a “historic speech” at the session of the Valdai Discussion Club.
Russian media personality Ksenia Sobchak was forced to flee Russia after searches at her home and the arrest of her commercial director. Propagandist Anton Krasovsky was suspended from his job at Russia Today, while the Russian State Duma approved the first reading of the new “LGBT propaganda” law.
The Moscow State University’s Faculty of Journalism is ready to train new military correspondents in case Russia runs out of them. And Chechnya’s Kadyrov has declared jihad on Ukraine. It was announced a couple of days ago that over 20 fighters associated with Kadyrov were killed in Ukraine’s strike on their base in the occupied Kherson region.
Every Saturday, Kirill Martynov, editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta Europe, gives his take on what happened in Russia and outside of it over the past week.
Catch and release
Some of Belarus’s most prominent opposition figures react to their surprise return to freedom
Academic rigour
How Kremlin-backed super-app MAX is gradually being made obligatory in Russian schools
Pounds of flesh
In a gross miscarriage of justice, eight innocent people have been given life sentences for the Crimean Bridge bombing
A voice from the kill zone
One Ukrainian sergeant tells Novaya Europe he is prepared to defend Donbas from Russian forces for as long as it takes
The Old Man and the Sea
How realistic are Putin’s threats to impose a naval blockade on Ukraine?
A cure for wellness
Described as torture by the UN, gay conversion therapy is nevertheless thriving in contemporary Russia
The last party
The Kremlin is taking aim at Russia’s sole remaining legal opposition movement
Influencer operation
A cohort of pro-Kremlin content creators is shamelessly portraying the Russian occupation of Mariupol in a positive light
Special military obligation
How Belarusian political prisoners are being forced to support the Russian war effort in Ukraine
