The battle in Ukraine
- 🪖 What’s your life price, soldier? Moscow residents are set to obtain a one-time cost of 1.9 million rubles ($21,777) upon signing a contract with the navy, bringing the overall first-year funds for brand new recruits to five.2 million rubles (nearly $60,000)
- 🪖 Military commanders may get new energy to implement self-discipline: Federal lawmakers have proposed amendments that might enable navy commanders to position troopers in particular confinement for utilizing smartphones or posting about their navy service on-line. This conduct is already categorized as a “critical disciplinary offense” for which servicemen will be arrested, however detentions are topic to navy court docket orders. The laws’s sponsors within the State Duma say transporting offenders to court docket requires an excessive amount of time and sources, making it an ineffective technique of imposing navy self-discipline.
- ⚖️ Courtroom overturns Russia’s first jail sentence for spreading ‘pretend’ information about troops, however defendant stays jailed: The Moscow Metropolis Courtroom overturned the seven-year sentence issued to a former Moscow police captain in March 2022 for spreading supposedly “false data” about Russian atrocities in Bucha throughout a non-public cellphone name with a good friend. Prosecutors argued that the cellphone name was public as a result of a state investigator was listening to the dialog by way of wiretap, as a part of a separate case. (The case is now despatched again to prosecutors, however the defendant stays jailed.)
🪖 Former high commander Valerii Zaluzhnyi on how the Russia-Ukraine battle is redefining trendy warfare (4-min learn)
On Monday, former Ukrainian Armed Forces commander-in-chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi delivered his first public handle since assuming his new position as Ukraine’s ambassador to the UK. Talking on the Royal United Providers Institute (RUSI) Land Warfare Convention in London, Zaluzhnyi urged democratic nations to “get up” and resolve easy methods to defend their residents and advised that society have to be ready to sacrifice some freedoms in instances of battle. He additionally asserted that technological developments made throughout Russia’s battle towards Ukraine will form “the artwork of battle within the twenty first century.” Meduza shares key moments from his speech.
Regulation, order, and the courts
- 💉 Russia escalates its battle on ‘drug propaganda’: Federal lawmakers adopted the third and closing studying of laws imposing felony legal responsibility for “propagating medicine,” punishable by as much as two years in jail. The regulation makes exceptions for art work and literature launched earlier than August 1, 1990 (when the USSR lifted its ban on so-called “drug propaganda”), and gained’t apply to content material the place medicine represent an “integral a part of the creative idea” when “justified by the style.” (In recent times, Russian state censors have repeatedly fined widespread musicians for the misdemeanor offense of “drug propaganda.”)
- 🩺 Police get entry to extra medical data: Efficient March 2025, new laws in Russia will grant police departments the precise to acquire confidential affected person details about mentally sick individuals beneath commentary attributable to their tendency to have interaction in socially harmful conduct. The expanded knowledge entry consists of people formally identified with alcoholism. (In recent times, Russian lawmakers have expanded police businesses’ entry to confidential medical data. For instance, in December 2022, the Well being Ministry required medical doctors at psychiatric dispensaries to work with the police.)
- ⚖️ Zygar will get lengthy jail sentence (in absentia) for Bucha feedback: A Moscow court docket sentenced creator Mikhail Zygar in absentia to eight.5 years for disseminating supposedly false details about the Russian navy’s atrocities in Bucha. Within the trial, the decide refused to debate the veracity of Zygar’s remarks, telling his protection lawyer, “We’re not investigating the occasions in Bucha.” Zygar hasn’t lived in Russia for a number of years.
- ⚖️ A category motion lawsuit follows the Moscow live performance corridor assault: A gaggle of victims and family members of these killed within the March 22 terrorist assault on Crocus Metropolis Corridor, outdoors Moscow, are suing Ingosstrakh to demand that the insurance coverage firm formally set up the prevalence of an insured occasion to allow them to obtain funds beneath the civil legal responsibility contract with the live performance venue, which was almost destroyed within the terrorist assault that triggered 10–12 billion rubles (roughly $122 million) in property harm. In Might 2024, Ingosstrakh mentioned it nonetheless hadn’t reached a choice on the Crocus Metropolis Corridor insurance coverage case. (One other group of victims within the terrorist assault has petitioned federal investigators to cost the live performance corridor’s homeowners with offering unsafe public providers. No less than two staff have been charged with felony negligence.)
- 🕵️ Lawmakers transfer ahead with ‘undesirable’ standing for some home organizations: State Duma deputies have adopted the third and closing studying of laws that expands the definition of “undesirable organizations” to entities the place overseas state businesses are both cofounders or members. Final month, Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin complained that the “undesirable” designation is at the moment restricted to overseas organizations, a “regulatory hole” he mentioned must be addressed. Cooperating with “undesirable organizations” is a felony in Russia, punishable by as much as six years in jail.
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Russian politics
- 🚗 The Kremlin official behind Rolf’s nationalization: Investigative journalists at Proekt Media report that Alexey Rubezhnoi (the top of President Putin’s Safety Service) engineered the nationalization of Rolf (Russia’s largest automotive supplier) after which efficiently lobbied the Kremlin to position the corporate beneath the management of his shut good friend, Umar Kremlev (the top of the Worldwide Boxing Affiliation). In March 2024, after a St. Petersburg court docket transferred Rolf’s property to the state, the corporate’s CEO grew to become Roman Antonov, who’s listed because the director at two corporations owned by Kremlev. In keeping with Proekt, Kremlev now often meets with “key workers members” at Rolf. (Russia’s Prosecutor Normal sued to nationalize Rolf on the grounds that its founder, former State Duma deputy Sergey Petrov, mixed his parliamentary duties with managing the corporate between 2007 and 2016.)
- 🛢️ All brakes, no gasoline: The Russian authorities will resume its prohibition on gasoline exports in August. The ban was initially deliberate to final from March 1 till August 31, however officers quickly lifted it on Might 20 to alleviate Russia’s saturated home market and facilitate repairs at oil refineries broken in Ukrainian drone assaults. The coverage itself is supposed to “preserve the gas market’s stability” throughout a interval of excessive demand, the federal government mentioned. Russia’s Vitality Ministry now desires to increase the ban till October.
🤰 Do Russian politicians actually need to ban abortion? (5-min learn)
Russian lawmakers periodically float the thought of banning abortion within the nation, regardless of international tendencies towards growing abortion entry and the truth that abortion is just not a very hot-button political challenge in Russia. And regardless that official bans on abortion have but to materialize, high-level discussions concerning the subject have had an actual, chilling impact, with many personal clinics “voluntarily” deciding to cease providing abortion providers. On the identical time, abortions have little or no to do with points that Putin and his circle declare to care about, like demographic decline. So why do Putin-aligned lawmakers hold revisiting the problem? Meduza explains.
💰 Chechnya’s chief says a retail merger authorised by Putin is a ‘hostile takeover’ executed by ‘devils.’ How a household feud over the way forward for Wildberries grew to become a public scandal. (4-min learn)
The pinnacle of the Chechen authorities, Ramzan Kadyrov, shared a video on Tuesday displaying him assembly with Vladislav Bakalchuk, the husband of Tatyana Bakalchuk, Russia’s wealthiest lady and the founding father of Wildberries, the nation’s largest on-line retailer. Within the footage, Mr. Bakalchuk complains that his spouse “left house” after “getting concerned with some unusual firm that’s taking on the enterprise beneath the guise of a merger.” Listening to this, Kadyrov lambasts the corporate merging with Wildberries, calling it a “blatant and brazen hostile takeover” carried out by “devils” who’re “destroying households.”
It’s unclear why Bakalchuk determined to go to Kadyrov to complain publicly concerning the merger between Wildberries and Russ Group. In keeping with journalists Farida Rustamova and Maxim Tovkailo, the attraction to Chechnya’s governor signifies that the Bakalchuks are combating over easy methods to divide the enterprise. “On this battle, Vladislav Bakalchuk has made fairly a … daring transfer,” wrote Rustamova and Tovkailo on their Telegram channel. “Nevertheless it’s unlikely to assist him since his spouse’s acquired a lot more durable backing.”
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