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The Russian authorities are planning to use the canned food producer Glavprodukt — which was owned by an American investor until Moscow seized it in October — to supply food to the Russian army, Reuters reports, citing a letter from the company’s new management to the Prosecutor General’s Office. According to the letter, the seizure was necessary to maintain stable production, including for future contracts with the National Guard and the Defense Ministry. The letter also states that after Glavprodukt was transferred to Russia’s Federal Property Management Agency, a new CEO was appointed at the request of the food producer Druzhba Narodov. A 2018 press release shows that Druzhba Narodov was the sole supplier to the National Guard in 2019–2020. Reuters notes that Glavprodukt had not previously supplied the Russian military. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said the company’s nationalization will be among the issues raised in any talks to reset U.S.–Russia relations.…

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Russia has arrested the Kursk region's ex-governor. He oversaw the construction of anti-tank barriers — which later crumbled from rain and snow.

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Former Kursk Governor Alexey Smirnov in court in Moscow. April 16, 2025. The Russian authorities have arrested Alexey Smirnov, the former head of the country’s embattled Kursk region. Smirnov stands accused of embezzling at least one billion rubles ($12.2 million) from state funds allocated for building border fortifications. According to investigators, he and his deputy demanded kickbacks of at least 15 percent from contractors during his less than three-month tenure. Here’s what we know about the case. Alexey Smirnov, the former governor of Russia’s Kursk region, has been arrested on charges of embezzling at least one billion rubles ($12.2 million) from the regional budget. He was detained on April 15 by police with support from Federal Security Service (FSB) officers and brought to Moscow. According to Kommersant , Smirnov was taken into custody from a penthouse in Krasnogorsk, just outside the capital. However, an RBC source claims he was arrested in Moscow. On April 16, a Moscow district court ordered Smirnov to remain in pretrial detention until June 15. His lawyers had requested house arrest instead, citing a heart condition. A spokesperson said the decision would be appealed. Also detained in connection with the case was the region’s former first deputy governor, Alexey Dedov. He was arrested in Kursk and transferred to Moscow. A court will decide on his pretrial restrictions on April 17. Smirnov and Dedov have been formally charged with large-scale fraud committed by an organized group using official positions — an offense that carries up to 10 years in prison, according to Interior Ministry spokesperson Irina Volk. Russia's border vulnerabilities Russia spends billions on protecting its border. So why is it so easy to break through? Investigators allege that Smirnov and Dedov led a scheme involving executives from the Kursk Region Development Corporation to embezzle more than one billion rubles in public funds. The money had been allocated for building defense fortifications on Russia’s border with Ukraine, with the corporation acting as the general contractor for the project. Both Smirnov and Dedov deny any wrongdoing. Smirnov reportedly refused to testify during questioning, saying he needed more time to review the charges and prepare a statement, Kommersant reports. Earlier, three top managers from the Kursk Region Development Corporation were also arrested: former general director Vladimir Lukin and his deputies, Igor Grabin and Snezhana Martyanova. According to the Interior Ministry, law enforcement has also detained executives from companies that received government contracts but failed to fulfill the construction work. All suspects are currently in pretrial detention. The bitter truth is that events in Russia affect your life, too. Help Meduza continue to bring news from Russia to readers around the world by setting up a monthly donation . The investigation was reportedly triggered by the poor quality of “dragon’s teeth” — large concrete barriers meant to stop armored vehicles. Following inspections of these fortifications built under Smirnov's leadership, federal authorities launched multiple criminal cases. According to RBC, some of the completed structures failed to meet the approved specifications. Initially, the case comprised five specific episodes, mostly related to defenses against potential attacks from Ukraine, Kommersant reports. The one involving the “dragon’s teeth” resulted in estimated damages of 156 million rubles ($1.9 million). Instead of the required M500-grade industrial concrete, contractors used the weaker M200 grade, intended for non-industrial, domestic-level construction. As a result, the structures crumbled in rain and snow — and failed to stop Ukrainian armored vehicles during their cross-border offensive starting in August 2024. Investigators also uncovered numerous instances in which regional officials overpaid contractors and suppliers. A familiar story Safety theater As Russia’s Belgorod faces near constant attacks, local authorities say they’re working to protect residents. Their spending says otherwise. Top executives at the Kursk Region Development Corporation have testified against Smirnov and Dedov, according to a law enforcement source cited by Kommersant . Lukin and several other suspects reportedly told investigators that the two officials orchestrated the embezzlement scheme. Kommersant also writes that Smirnov and Dedov only awarded contracts to companies willing to pay kickbacks of at least 15 percent. Some of the first defendants in the case are reportedly pursuing plea deals and providing information about the scheme’s organizers to the authorities. Investigators are now considering more serious charges under Article 210 of the Criminal Code — creating a criminal organization — which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years. A source cited by TASS said the authorities monitored Smirnov for several months after gathering evidence of his involvement. While the current damage estimate stands at over one billion rubles, Kommersant reports that the figure may grow significantly as investigators examine additional contracts. An RBC source suggested the total embezzled funds could reach 4.5 billion rubles ($54.8 million) The federal government had allocated 19.4 billion rubles ($236.2 million) for fortification construction in the Kursk region, including bunkers, firing positions, anti-tank barriers, and trenches. In early 2025, the Prosecutor General’s Office filed a lawsuit in a Kursk district court demanding that Vladimir Lukin repay more than 3.2 billion rubles ($39 million), which prosecutors say were misappropriated from this budget. Smirnov’s gubernatorial career was brief. He began working in regional administration in the late 1990s, held various posts in the Moscow Region starting in 2011, and returned to Kursk in 2018 as deputy governor. He was promoted to first deputy governor in 2021 and became head of the regional government in 2022. In May 2024, following then-Governor Roman Starovoit’s appointment as Transport Minister, Smirnov became acting governor. Despite active fighting in the region, gubernatorial elections were held in September 2024. According to the regional election commission, Smirnov won with 65.28 percent of the vote. However, on December 5 — just 88 days after Smirnov's election — President Vladimir Putin accepted his resignation, which was officially described as voluntary. RBC sources said the Kremlin had decided to remove him due to poor communication with the public, including with refugees from areas overrun by Ukrainian forces. Following the governor's departure, other members of his team began leaving the administration. Dedov stepped down on December 27. Around the same time, law enforcement began arresting executives from the Kursk Region Development Corporation. Smirnov was called in for questioning in December, according to the Telegram channel Mash, and Dedov was questioned in January. The region’s new governor, Alexander Khinshtein, has repeatedly criticized the Kursk Region Development Corporation, sometimes referring to it as the “Corporation of Embezzlement,” TASS reported in March. The construction of border fortifications in the Kursk region began under Roman Starovoit, but a source close to the Putin administration told RBC that he's not currently suspected of any wrongdoing. Governor Khinshtein has said the regional authorities are cooperating with investigators. Smirnov's successor ‘It’s half-reward, half-trial’ Why Putin appointed a veteran politician to take over as governor of Russia’s partially occupied Kursk region…

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'I've done my job no worse than other deputies'. This Russian municipal lawmaker has been working remotely for four years — from Dnipro, Ukraine

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Dnipro, 2023 A municipal deputy from Russia’s far-eastern Zabaykalsky Krai has been performing his official duties remotely for four years while living in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro. His story was first reported by the regional news outlet Zab.ru, which found a discussion of it in the minutes of a recent meeting by the district council’s ethics committee. Meduza outlines his explanation of the unlikely situation — and how his fellow lawmakers have reacted. Mikhail Nosik was elected to the Kalar District Council in Russia’s Zabaykalsky Krai in 2020. According to the records of the council’s ethics committee, he moved to Ukraine in 2021 and has since participated in council sessions exclusively via video calls, casting votes remotely through a messaging app. At a meeting last month, members of the ethics commission questioned him about his prolonged stay in the country. Nosik explained that he relocated to Dnipro to be closer to relatives and to undergo cancer treatment, which he said was more accessible there than at home. He claimed that after the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, he tried to leave the country but was unable to do so due to lacking the proper local documents. He said he contacted Russia’s Foreign Ministry and even reached out to the Russian Embassy in Turkey but was told that his only real option was to enter into a sham marriage to resolve his legal status. Despite his circumstances, Nosik has continued to participate in council meetings online and vote on local decisions. He also claimed to hold remote consultations with constituents via VPN and argued that he has performed his job “no worse than other deputies.” In March 2022, he said, Ukrainian security forces raided his home after being tipped off by relatives. They confiscated 800 euros ($900), 50,000–80,000 rubles ($600–$975), and his car documents. According to Nosik, he managed to bribe them with two bottles of cognac and later moved to another address in Dnipro. Nosik said he receives no salary for his council work and lives on a monthly pension of 27,000 rubles ($330). Because direct money transfers are unavailable, he has to convert the rubles into bitcoin and then into hryvnia, losing up to 30 percent of the amount in the process. He also stated that he does not hold Ukrainian citizenship or own property in the country. The deputy made it clear that he does not intend to resign before the end of his term, which runs until December 2025: I don’t want to step down because, formally, my departure wouldn’t change anything. Besides, being a deputy makes me more valuable here and might help me if I’m detained — maybe even make me a candidate for a prisoner swap. I believe I’ve done my job no worse than other deputies. The head of the Kalar District Council, Arkady Gromov, confirmed to the local news site Chita.ru that Mikhail Nosik is currently in Ukraine and unable to return to Russia. He’s found himself in a difficult situation. He went to Ukraine — the country he was born in — a day before the start of the special military operation . It’s important to remember that he’s a respected man: a disabled Chernobyl cleanup worker and a former officer. He just had the bad luck of being born in Ukraine and deciding to visit. And that visit backfired. He holds a Russian passport, is registered in the Kalarsky District, receives his pension and all due benefits, and was elected on the LDPR party list. The ethics commission concluded that “the forced residence of a municipal deputy in a foreign country currently in conflict with the Russian Federation poses a risk to his personal safety, prevents him from fully carrying out his duties, and raises questions about his ability to represent constituents objectively and impartially.” As a result, the commission initiated the process to terminate Nosik’s mandate early, citing his inability to perform core duties such as holding in-person meetings with voters.…

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My house is your house. A new investigation suggests that Moscow’s political and economic favors fuel Serbia’s fast-tracked citizenship for well-connected Russians

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Vladimir Putin and Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vulin at the 2024 BRICS Summit in Kazan, Russia. October 23, 2024. Since early 2022, the Serbian government has bestowed citizenship “in the interest of the republic” on more than 330 people, including 204 Russian nationals, according to a new joint investigation by iStories and the Crime and Corruption Reporting Network (KRIK). A Serbian passport grants entry into the European Union and roughly a hundred countries around the world, making it especially coveted among influential Russians who have had to navigate a web of travel restrictions since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The investigation by iStories and KRIK shows how an initiative in Belgrade — issued under Article 19 of Serbia’s citizenship law, distinct from other nations’ “golden passport” programs in exchange for large investments — has preserved indirect access to the E.U. for many of Russia’s elites, particularly those connected to the occupation of Ukraine and the intelligence sector. Meduza summarizes the journalists’ findings. Occupation profiteers One of Serbia’s recently naturalized Russians is Ivan Sibiryev , the former head of Stroytransneftegaz, a company owned by billionaire Gennady Timchenko. iStories previously discovered that Sibiryev became co-owner of a construction firm called R-Stroy after February 2022, when the business won lucrative reconstruction contracts in the occupied cities of Mariupol and Sievierodonetsk. The E.U. imposed sanctions on R-Stroy only last year. Sibiryev also co-owns the restaurant Wine & Crab with Svetlana Kuznetsova, the stepdaughter of Gazprom CEO Alexey Miller and the daughter of Putin’s former secretary, Marina Yentaltseva. Serbian citizenship has also been granted to Russian national Svetlana Perevalova , whose husband, Viktor, founded the company High-Quality Automotive Roads (VAD), which has large construction contracts in Crimea. In 2020 alone, the company reported revenue exceeding 85 billion rubles (roughly $1.15 billion at the time). This firm built the road over the Kerch Strait bridge, the Tavrida highway, and the road connecting Simferopol to Crimea’s western coast, resulting in E.U. and U.S. sanctions in 2018. According to leaked tax and police records reviewed by iStories, Svetlana Perevalova worked as a manager at VAD until 2018, if not longer. Kirill Krattli Among Russia’s new Serbian citizens, iStories and KRIK journalists also identified Kirill Krattli , the husband of Anastasia Tkacheva, State Duma deputy Alexey Tkachev’s daughter. The family (which includes Alexey Tkachev’s brother, former Krasnodar Governor and ex-Agriculture Minister Alexander Tkachev) is a major player in Russia’s new agriculture market on occupied Ukrainian territory. While the two Tkachev brothers are under E.U. sanctions, Kirill Krattli heads the Krasnodar-Saratov-based company Mirtekh , which supplies agricultural machinery. Mirtekh works with Agrokompleks, one of Russia’s largest agribusinesses, owned by the Tkachev family. (Journalists at Protokol previously established this connection.) In December 2022, The Wall Street Journal reported extensively on the Tkachevs’ seizure of 400,000 acres of Ukrainian farmland. Krattli’s firm Mirtekh imports machinery and parts from Europe, Canada, Turkey, and South Korea and sells them to Agrokompleks and various sanctioned Russian companies, including subsidiaries of Sberbank, VTB, and Gazprom, as shown in financial documents obtained by Protokol. Journalists estimate that the 4 million tons of grain and other produce harvested in Ukraine’s occupied regions and exported abroad have generated roughly $800 million in revenue. The investigation also found a Serbian passport issued to Dmitry Sergeyev , a longtime associate of Russian Deputy Prime Minister and former Agriculture Minister Dmitry Patrushev, the son of General Nikolai Patrushev — an ex-FSB director, former Security Council secretary, and longtime Putin adviser. Patrushev Sr. also has a longstanding relationship with Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vulin. The two former intelligence bosses have coordinated “anti-color-revolution” surveillance that included spying on Russian opposition activists Andrey Pivovarov and Vladimir Kara-Murza in Belgrade. Sergeyev has worked closely with Patrushev Jr. for years. Today, he is CEO of both the United Grain Company and the Russian Grain Exporters Union — two major organizations responsible for agricultural exports from farmlands under Russian control. Help from Russia’s secret police Ilya Shumanov, an anti-corruption researcher and head of the NGO Arktida, believes that Serbian officials’ decision to naturalize so many Russians with ties to the Kremlin and Russia’s defense industry could be part of a political arrangement between Moscow and Belgrade. In this scenario, Serbia would be risking its shot at joining the European Union in exchange for tools from Russia to control domestic unrest (particularly amid the mass anti-government protests that have persisted since early 2024). The explosion in connected Russians getting Serbian citizenship coincides with anti-government protests sweeping Belgrade. Last year, 86 of Serbia’s 137 new “merit-based” passports went to Russians, 30 of whom are tied directly or indirectly to the Kremlin or major Russian corporations. Throughout this process, Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vulin visited Russia multiple times , meeting with the heads of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service and Federal Security Service, with Nikolai Patrushev, with then-Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, and other top officials. In March 2025, Vulin even openly credited Russia’s intelligence community with helping him suppress Serbia’s protests. An anti-government protest in Kraljevo, Serbia. April 16, 2025. Shumanov told iStories that he suspects Russia has provided Serbia with “informal financial support, loans, and credit lines to sustain the regime,” as well as favorable contracts with Russian firms. Moscow can also offer various tools, such as online surveillance technology and bot farms, to bolster the Serbian authorities’ authoritarian response to protests. According to Russian-Serbian political analyst Aleksandar Djokic, the Serbian government is technically required to state an official reason for recommending any foreigner for Serbian citizenship “on merit,” and the Internal Affairs Ministry is required to vet these candidates for threats to national security. Despite the government’s apparent noncompliance with these rules and the fact that this initiative opens the door to the E.U. for many well-connected Russian nationals, Djokic said only mass migration from the Balkans really worries officials in Brussels. “A scandal involving, say, an FSB agent could be a problem, but issuing passports to billionaires and oligarchs might not be — money always finds a loophole,” Djokic told journalists. iStories said it will share response statements by the European Commission, the Serbian government, and the Russian nationals mentioned in its report if anyone in these groups answers the questions journalists mailed out before their investigation was published.…

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Journalists identify Russian teen arrested for arson attacks as son of regular participant in State Duma events

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A Russian 14-year-old arrested in January for setting fire to a railway relay cabinet and throwing a Molotov cocktail into a government building has been identified as the son of a woman who frequently appears at roundtable discussions in the country's parliament. The teenager’s arrest was first reported on April 1 by Eva Merkacheva, a member of Russia's Presidential Council for Human Rights, in an article for Moskovsky Komsomolets. According to Merkacheva, the boy, Danila, was deceived by scammers posing as representatives of the Education Ministry, who invited him to register for an academic competition. They asked him to send a verification code, which they then used to access his parents’ government services account. Afterward, they began blackmailing him, claiming he was “saving the motherland” and “helping Russia.” They eventually instructed him to carry out the arson attacks, which he did. He was arrested on January 28. The independent outlet Agentstvo Media has since identified the teenager by his full name, Danila Rogozhin, and reported that his mother, 54-year-old Marina Rogozhina, regularly takes part in State Duma roundtables as the president of Russia’s National Association of Metaphysical Practices. Despite her son’s arrest, she has continued to attend public events. In April, she participated in a working group of the State Duma Committee on Family Protection. Speaking to Agentstvo, Rogozhina said she is actively working to influence the course of the case and has already succeeded in having the original investigator replaced, claiming he had a “very negative” attitude. She also criticized the investigator for limiting visitation and failing to properly consider evidence that her son had been manipulated. Rogozhina added that she is discussing with lawmakers how terrorism charges are being applied to minors and plans to send a letter to Investigative Committee head Alexander Bastrykin. On April 15, the Moscow City Court rejected an appeal to overturn Danila Rogozhin’s detention, according to his mother.…

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Russia drafts legal framework for return of Western firms, including local production and technology transfer requirements — Bloomberg

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Russia’s Finance Ministry has prepared a set of preliminary proposals aimed at bringing Western companies back to the country, Bloomberg reports , citing two Russian officials. The proposals include requirements to localize part of the firms' production and agree to technology transfers intended to boost productivity. Back in March, Vladimir Putin instructed the government to develop a procedure for approving the return of Western businesses that exited the country. According to Bloomberg, this was “the most concrete sign yet” that Moscow is preparing for sanctions to be lifted. Still, according to one Kremlin-linked source quoted by the agency, “no one is knocking on the door yet.” Chris Weafer, head of the consulting firm Macro Advisory, predicted that most Western firms won’t consider returning until a lasting peace agreement is in place. “Nobody wants to come back too soon and then have to exit again,” he said. Even in the event of a peace deal, Bloomberg writes, there would still be “formidable political and economic obstacles” to any return. Some companies’ assets have been sold to new owners, and thanks to parallel imports, Russians already have access to “everything from iPhones to Coca-Cola at about the same prices as elsewhere.” The Financial Times also reports that there’s no indication any Western company is currently planning a return to Russia. The paper notes that the Italian firm Ariston marked the first case in which Moscow lifted external administration of a seized company without selling it. At the end of March, Putin revoked a decree that had handed Ariston’s Russian assets over to Gazprom Household Systems. According to FT sources, the decision followed “intense lobbying” by Italy’s foreign ministry, the Italian embassy in Moscow, and a prominent private individual. A Western businessman who maintains regular contact with Russian officials told FT that the Russian government is trying to send a message: companies that wait too long might miss their chance. “They want to create a sense that it’s now or never,” he said.…

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He was the governor of Russia’s Kursk region when Ukraine launched a surprise incursion. Now, Alexey Smirnov is in jail facing embezzlement charges.

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On Wednesday, a Moscow court jailed former Kursk Governor Alexey Smirnov on charges of embezzling funds allocated to the region’s defenses on the border with Ukraine. According to Internal Affairs Ministry spokesperson Irina Volk, Smirnov and his former deputy, Alexey Dedov, are both suspected of large-scale fraud while in office. Smirnov reportedly maintains his innocence. Smirnov and Dedov have been charged with embezzling more than 1 billion rubles ($12.1 million) in public funds allocated to the Kursk Region Development Corporation for constructing fortifications along the border with Ukraine, said Volk. The two regional officials allegedly colluded with development corporation executives to steal the public funds. Police had already arrested three executives from the development corporation and the heads of several companies that received funds without performing the contracted work. Smirnov served as governor of the Kursk region from May to December 2024, after previously serving as the region’s deputy governor. He succeeded Roman Starovoit, who was promoted to head Russia’s Transportation Ministry. During Smirnov’s tenure, the Ukrainian Armed Forces invaded Kursk in August 2024 and occupied part of the region. According to sources cited by the newspaper Vedomosti and multiple anonymous Telegram channels, Vladimir Lukin, the former CEO of the Kursk Region Development Corporation, testified against Smirnov while in police custody. (Police arrested Lukin in December 2024 on related embezzlement charges.) Construction of fortified defense lines in the Kursk region began more than two years ago. In October 2022, then-Governor Roman Starovoit reported that two defense lines had been completed and promised the third would be ready by November 5. “We are prepared to repel any incursions on our territory,” Starovoit’s administration declared . How Kursk officials failed to prepare for Ukraine’s incursion ‘No one touched us. They were reasonable guys.’ Two Sudzha residents describe seven months under Ukrainian occupation…

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Putin meets with Russians freed by Hamas, expresses gratitude for ‘humanitarian act’

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On Wednesday, Vladimir Putin met with several Russian citizens who had been freed from captivity by Hamas. The president welcomed to the Kremlin Alexander Trufanov — released by Hamas on February 15, 2025 — along with his mother Elena Trufanova and fiancée Sapir Cohen, who were freed in late 2023. Also present at the meeting were Russia’s chief rabbi, Berel Lazar, and the president of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia, Alexander Boroda. During the meeting, Putin thanked Hamas for releasing the hostages. “We must express our gratitude to the leadership and political wing of Hamas for cooperating with us and carrying out this humanitarian act,” he said, adding that Russia would “do everything possible to ensure such acts take place more often.” Twenty-nine-year-old Alexander Trufanov, a dual citizen of Israel and Russia, was abducted from the Nir Oz kibbutz during Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. While being abducted, Trufanov was shot in both his legs. He and two other Israeli citizens were released on February 15 as part of a deal between Hamas and Israel. In mid-January, Israel and Hamas reached an agreement on a temporary ceasefire and the release of 33 Israeli hostages in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners. Attempts to extend the agreement failed, and Israel resumed military operations in the Gaza Strip on March 18. Hamas is still holding 59 Israeli hostages. According to the Israel Defense Forces, at least 35 of them are confirmed dead. Hamas militants killed more than 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took some 250 people into captivity in Gaza in October 2023. In March 2025, Palestinian health authorities said Israel’s ground and air campaign had killed more than 50,000 people , with nearly a third of the dead under the age of 18. Two months earlier, a peer-reviewed statistical analysis published in The Lancet journal concluded that the official Palestinian tally of direct deaths likely undercounted the number of casualties by around 40 percent in the first nine months of the war.…

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‘The platform where bot farms are still effective’. How Russia is leveraging TikTok's algorithm to try to warp public opinion in Ukraine

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Russia has created thousands of TikTok accounts in an effort to influence public opinion in Ukraine, according to Ukrainska Pravda. The strategy takes advantage of TikTok’s algorithm, which allows even new accounts with no followers to go viral — making it the most effective platform in Ukraine for bot farms to spread pro-Kremlin propaganda. Meduza shares an English-language summary of Ukrainska Pravda’s report. Data from the research firm DataReportal shows that TikTok has 17 million users in Ukraine — more than both Instagram (12 million) and Facebook (13.9 million). In April 2024, Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation reported blocking several dozen TikTok channels spreading what it referred to as “enemy propaganda.” Among them were pages linked to anti-vaccine activist Ostap Stakhiv, pro-Russian journalist Diana Panchenko, and lawmaker Oleksandr Dubinsky , who is currently in jail awaiting trial on treason charges. But according to the center’s head, Andriy Kovalenko, taking down individual accounts is like “treating symptoms, not the disease.” He said the platform itself should be able to distinguish between disinformation and legitimate content. Ukrainska Pravda highlights the case of former Ukrainian parliament member Ihor Mosiychuk as an example. His previous TikTok account had 300,000 followers, and some of his videos racked up nearly a million views. The Center for Countering Disinformation flagged his page as a source of Russian propaganda, and it was eventually taken down. But Mosiychuk kept making new ones — by September 2024, he was already on his ninth account. The report says Russian propaganda takes advantage of TikTok’s algorithm, which allows brand new accounts with no followers to reach hundreds of thousands of viewers. Ukrainska Pravda outlines Russia’s playbook: first, a “bot farm,” a network of accounts with minimal information or followers, is set up. Then, an “emotional video” is created using either real footage or AI. The same video is posted across hundreds of these accounts within a day, and bots swarm in to like, comment, and “watch” the video all the way through to boost engagement. TikTok’s algorithm interprets this as genuine popularity and starts pushing the video to more users. “Of all the major social platforms popular in Ukraine, TikTok remains the one where bot farms are still highly effective, making it a powerful tool for shaping the information environment,” the report says. The bitter truth is that events in Russia affect your life, too. Help Meduza continue to bring news from Russia to readers around the world by setting up a monthly donation . AI and deepfake technology have also made it possible for Russia to create fake TikTok accounts posing as Ukrainian soldiers. In late March 2025 — during the withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from the Kursk region and amid statements by U.S. President Donald Trump about thousands of Ukrainian troops being surrounded — videos began appearing on TikTok that appeared to show Ukrainian soldiers recording their “last words.” The AI-generated men in the clips claimed that their commanders had abandoned them and that they were expecting to die there. According to Ukrainska Pravda, these videos racked up millions of views. The article also discusses real Ukrainian bloggers, some of whom — “knowingly or not” — end up amplifying Russian information campaigns. These bloggers rely on viewer donations and focus on portraying the lives of “ordinary people,” avoiding the glossy, curated style typical of Instagram. Some gain an audience by presenting their own “analysis,” Ukrainska Pravda notes. A typical video involves a blogger driving a car while delivering takes on international politics, offering advice to Ukraine’s commander-in-chief, or sharing “insider info” from a friend “whose cousin works in intelligence.” Their content is driven by current events and their emotional reactions to them — exactly the kind of material TikTok’s algorithm tends to amplify. One popular theme is criticism of Ukraine’s military enlistment offices. In June 2024 alone, videos tagged with this topic drew 470 million views on Ukrainian TikTok. “Russia first invests in getting a specific topic to trend, and then Ukrainian users start generating the content themselves in search of views. In recent years, TikTok has become one of the key tools in Russian information operations,” Ukrainska Pravda writes. A mid-2024 survey by the Ukrainian NGO Opora found that 27 percent of Ukrainians get their news from TikTok. However, if you search “Ukraine News” in English or Ukrainian on the app, only a handful of the results are from legitimate media outlets — most are from anonymous accounts. To boost credibility, these anonymous channels often use logos from well-known brands. For example, the anonymous aggregator “Ukraine Online” uses videos featuring well-known Ukrainian journalist Vadym Karpiak and the logo of the popular Telegram channel Trukha. But the link on the account's profile leads to a Telegram channel with only 900 subscribers. The Russian ghost in the machine Russian disinformation network flooded training data to manipulate Western AI chatbots, study finds…

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Russia adds 69-year-old father of Navalny ally Leonid Volkov to list of 'extremists and terrorists'

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Russia’s Federal Financial Monitoring Service has added Mikhail Volkov, the 69-year-old father of opposition politician Leonid Volkov, to its official list of “extremists and terrorists.” His name appears without an asterisk, indicating that he is not being investigated on terrorism charges. On the morning of April 3, law enforcement raided Mikhail Volkov’s apartment in Yekaterinburg. Shortly afterward, pro-Kremlin Telegram channels reported that he had been detained and was under investigation for allegedly financing an “extremist organization” by transferring money to Alexey Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, which Leonid Volkov led until 2023. Leonid Volkov later denied reports of his father’s arrest. That evening, Mikhail Volkov was released after being questioned by the Federal Security Service (FSB) and placed under a travel ban. He remains a suspect in a criminal case, though the exact charges have not been disclosed. Read more about the charges against Mikhail Volkov The criminal case taking shape against opposition politician Leonid Volkov’s father…

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Russia asks U.S. to let it us frozen assets to buy Boeing planes — Bloomberg

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Russia has asked the U.S. to allow it to use frozen state assets to purchase Boeing aircraft once a ceasefire is reached in Ukraine, Bloomberg reports, citing a source in Moscow. According to the source, the request is not a precondition for agreeing to a ceasefire, but Russia understands that the funds cannot be used for such purchases while the conflict continues. A deal allowing the purchase of U.S.-made planes could become part of a broader easing of sanctions if hostilities end, the outlet notes. In a comment to Bloomberg, National Security Council spokesperson Bryan Hughes said the U.S. “will not discuss any economic commitments until a ceasefire is in place.” Plane problems Russian airline S7 cuts Moscow staff amid aircraft repair challenges due to sanctions Unable to service engines due to sanctions, Russian airlines have reportedly now grounded half of their Airbus Neo planes Russian airlines resolve dual registration issue for over 300 aircraft, clearing them for international flights Aeroflot has reportedly ordered flight attendants not to record plane malfunctions before consulting pilot…

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School discos, cafe vouchers, and car lotteries. How to solve a population crisis, according to Russian officials

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Birth rates in Russia today are among the lowest in the country’s history. In their efforts to reverse the demographic decline, authorities have turned to symbolic but largely ineffective measures — from restricting abortion access to banning “childfree propaganda” and the “LGBT movement.” And they haven't stopped there: officials and lawmakers regularly float new proposals that they believe will bring the birthrate back into the green. One such idea was put forward on April 14, 2025, when a lawmaker proposed shortening the workday for women. “We’re facing the question of how to raise the birthrate, but when is a young woman supposed to have time for a personal life, if she’s spending all day at work, and then coming home tired?” said State Duma Deputy Igor Antropenko. Meduza has compiled a list of other, equally bizarre proposals from Russian officials for solving the country's population crisis. Banning alcohol sales on Sundays ( State Duma Deputy Andrey Svintsov ) Requiring bishops to baptize the third child in every family ( Far East and Arctic Development Minister Alexey Chekunkov ) Limiting the number of one-bedroom apartments on the market ( Federation Council member Anatoly Shirikov ) Shielding women from irregular work schedules and overtime ( State Duma Deputy Natalia Poluyanova ) Requiring advertisements to show only families with three or more children ( State Duma Deputy Dmitry Gusev ) Giving parents cafe vouchers and theater tickets while sending their children on field trips and excursions ( Moscow City Duma Deputy Valery Golovchenko ) Paying women who want abortions to give birth and give over the child to state custody ( Russian State Duma Deputy Sultan Khamzayev ) Read more As Russia targets abortion and ‘childfree propaganda’ to raise birth rates, ‘Pregnant at 16’ reality show rebrands to make motherhood more appealing Russia is putting pressure on women to boost the birth rate — but demographers say the main problem is too many people dying Governor of Russia’s Vologda region wants a total ban on abortions For whom how Russia bans LGBTQ+ ‘propaganda,’ the ‘imposition of information’ about homosexuality and ‘sex reassignment.’ Here’s the law broken down. Paying pregnant school and university students 100,000 rubles ($1,200) each Bringing back school discos ( Education Ministry official Natalia Agre ) Launching a nationwide lottery to give apartments, cars, and appliances to new parents ( State Duma Deputy Speaker Boris Chernyshov ) Adding points to college aptitude scores for students who give birth within a year of applying ( Federation Council member Andrey Kutepov ) No longer encouraging girls to go to college ( Federation Council member Margarita Pavlova ) Providing free university tuition to students who give birth ( New People party ) Giving employers quotas for the number of new babies their employees must have ( State Duma Deputy Tatyana Butskaya )…

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'I have always acted within the law'. Who are the four Russian journalists jailed for their alleged work with Navalny's organization?

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Journalists Sergei Karelin, Konstantin Gabov, Antonina Favorskaya and Artem Kriger at their court hearing in Moscow. April 15, 2025. On Tuesday, a Moscow court sentenced journalists Antonina Favorskaya, Sergey Karelin, Konstantin Gabov, and Artem Kriger to 5.5 years in prison on charges of participating in an “extremist organization.” The case stems from the defendants’ alleged participation in creating content for the YouTube channels of the late opposition politician Alexey Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK). All of them have denied collaborating with the organization. The details of the charges remain unknown, as the hearings were held behind closed doors. Here’s what you need to know about these four journalists who are headed to prison for their work. Antonina Favorskaya Antonina Favorskaya graduated in 2012 from Moscow Polytechnic University, where, in her own words , she “caught the bug for Russian politics and film.” In 2013, she joined the Most (“Bridge”) theater studio, and in 2015, she enrolled at the Russian Institute of Theater Arts. Until February 2022, she worked as an actress and stand-up comedian. After the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Favorskaya “left theater and began searching for ways to save her soul when everything inside is burning.” She spent four months working with a volunteer organization that assisted refugees from Ukraine. During the trial of opposition politician Ilya Yashin , she met a journalist who helped her start working at the Telegram channel Sotavision. As a journalist, Favorskaya covered the trials of Yashin as well as his fellow political prisoners Vladimir Kara-Murza , Oleg Orlov , Zhenya Berkovich , and Svetlana Petriychuk . She attended almost every hearing in Alexey Navalny’s lawsuits over his prison treatment in the Vladimir region. A month before the politician’s death, the journalist traveled to the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug to report on the prison where Navalny was held and the surrounding village of Kharp. She filmed the last known video of Navalny alive on February 15, 2024. On March 18, 2024, a Moscow court sentenced Favorskaya to 10 days in detention for failing to comply with police demands. On the evening of March 27, she was arrested again as she was leaving the detention center. The authorities searched both her home and her parents’ home, after which she was taken for a nighttime interrogation at the Investigative Committee building. The next day, she was charged with involvement in an extremist organization for alleged “gathering materials and producing and editing videos and publications” for the FBK. The Kremlin crushed Meduza’s business model and wiped out our ad revenue. We’ve been blocked and outlawed in Russia, where donating to us or even sharing our posts is a crime. But we’re still here — bringing independent journalism to millions of our readers inside Russia and around the world. Meduza’s survival is under threat — again. Donald Trump’s foreign aid freeze has slashed funding for international groups backing press freedom. Meduza was hurt too. It’s yet another blow in our ongoing struggle to survive. You could be our lifeline. Please, help Meduza survive with a small recurring donation. Konstantin Gabov 38-year-old Konstantin Gabov worked with Reuters and Deutsche Welle. His arrest was reported on April 27, 2024. The Moscow courts' press service stated that he had “participated in preparing photo and video materials for publication on the YouTube channel Navalny Live.” The report also referred to Gabov as a “producer for Reuters news service,” though the agency itself later said that Gabov was a freelancer “who in the past occasionally contributed to the Reuters news file” but was no longer working with it. In his closing statement on trial, Gabov said that he was being prosecuted for his professional activities. He had produced reports about activists’ trials as well as the closures of Memorial Human Rights Center, the Sakharov Center, and the Moscow Helsinki Group. According to him, Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) officers had “conducted inquiries” into his work, “from a local TV channel in Syktyvkar to the largest global media outlets like Reuters.” He also noted that his work for the RFE/RL projects Current Time and Radio Svoboda became part of the case against him. “All the accusation against me are groundless and unproven. I have always acted within the law and in accordance with the Constitution, defending everyone’s right to freedom of thought and expression. My work has been to give a voice to those who cannot be heard and to cover important events that affect society’s life. I believe that journalism is not a crime but an essential part of the democratic process,” Gabov said in his closing statement. Sergey Karelin 42-year-old cameraman Sergey Karelin was arrested on April 26, 2024, in Russia’s Murmansk region and later transferred to Moscow. He had worked as a freelancer with a range of media outlets, including the Associated Press and Deutsche Welle. Like his co-defendants, he was charged with filming videos for the FBK. Karelin began working in TV in 2004, spending his first eight years as a sound engineer at NTV before becoming a cameraman for the TV channel 360. Before his arrest, Karelin had worked since 2017 as a cameraman accredited by the Russian Foreign Ministry, collaborating with international news agencies and media. He said that after the full-scale war began, he had to take on whatever work he could find, but that it remained important to him to “preserve [his] dignity as a journalist, respect for the people in the stories and the storytelling itself, and to uphold journalistic ethics.” Around that time, he was offered a job filming street interviews for Popular Politics, a YouTube channel founded by Navalny’s associates. Karelin consulted a lawyer, and they concluded that there was nothing illegal about his working with the channel. “Of these four seemingly very decent people, I personally know one — cameraman Sergey Karelin. We worked together at NTV and did a lot of filming together. He’s a true intellectual, honest, decent, a bit shy. At first, I worried whether Russian prison would break him, but I can see he’s holding up well — beneath that quiet exterior is a core of steel,” journalist Andrei Loshak wrote about Karelin. In his final statement to the court, Karelin said he was being imprisoned “for my professional work, for an honest and impartial approach to journalism, and for love — for my family and my country.” You have to understand that if the court finds me guilty, my whole family will be punished with me — my grandfather, who, as I’ve said, is 101 years old and a veteran of the Battles of Rzhev; my elderly parents, who are doing their best to stay strong, and above all, my wonderful daughter. I never imagined my child would also become a victim of political repression — just like the children of those persecuted in the 1930s. Can you imagine something like that happening to your own children? And yes, of course, I’m just another “Dad away on a business trip,” like so many others back then — and now. I don’t know when I’ll see her again, let alone hold her… Artem Kriger A journalist with Sotavision, Artem Kriger covered court hearings and protests in Moscow. The 24-year-old is the nephew of activist Mikhail Kriger, who was part of Russia's movement back in the 1990s and began supporting political prisoners around the same time. In May 2023, Mikhail Kriger was sentenced to seven years in prison after being found guilty of “justifying terrorism” and “inciting hatred” with threats of violence. On June 18, 2024, Artem Kriger’s home was raided by law enforcement. That same day, a court ordered him into pretrial detention. Investigators claim he has ties to the FBK, but Kriger himself says that he's effectively being prosecuted for filming man-on-the-street interviews. Kriger began shooting street interview videos and uploading them to his YouTube channel while still in 11th grade. He later went to a pedagogical university, where he studied to become a physical education teacher. In the summer of 2020, during a protest in Moscow, he approached a Sotavision reporter and asked how he could join the outlet. “No one will ever convince me to believe in the madness that the prison, investigative, prosecutorial, and judicial systems are trying to impose on me — that I’m some sort of extremist or criminal, that I belong behind bars because I broke the law. I will never believe that, not until my final breath or heartbeat. I will keep telling the truth about what happened to me on June 18, 2024, the day I was detained, until the day I’m free. Let history be the judge and put the dots over all the i’s,” Kriger said in his final statement to the court. Moscow's endless campaign against Navalny ‘Navalny’s death wasn’t enough’ Colleagues of Alexey Navalny’s former lawyers comment on prison sentences for acting as his attorney Photos: AP / Scanpix / LETA; Dmitry Serebryakov / AP / Scanpix / LETA; Maxim Shemetov / Reuters / Scanpix / LETA…

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Russian state media deletes video of drone strike directed from central Moscow after angry bloggers argue it makes city a legitimate military target

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The Russian state news agency RIA Novosti has deleted a story about a remote military drone operator based in central Moscow after it drew backlash from pro-war Telegram users, who warned it could give Ukraine grounds to target the city. On Tuesday, RIA Novosti published a report on its website and Telegram channel describing how an FPV drone operator struck a Ukrainian target near Chasiv Yar in the Donetsk region. The drone was reportedly controlled using Russia’s new Orbita system, which allows drones to be operated from anywhere. In the accompanying video, the drone operator discussed the strike from a room with a view of the skyscrapers in the Moscow International Business Center, also known as Moscow City. “We are over a thousand kilometers away from the location. The operation was successful,” he said. The post was swiftly criticized by pro-war military bloggers. “Am I right in understanding that after this video, if a kamikaze drone hits the Moscow skyscrapers, the enemy will claim it was targeting the drone operators?” wrote the Telegram channel Romanov Light. “So, Moscow City has suddenly become a legitimate military target. Well done, you really showed off,” said the channel Empire of Evil. Following the backlash, RIA Novosti edited the story to remove all references to Moscow City and later deleted the video entirely. The original article is no longer available on the agency’s website.…

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'These are red lines for us': Zelensky responds to U.S. envoy's statement that potential peace deal could involve 'five territories'

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