In late 2022, Russia established a top-secret unit of elite intelligence agents with a sweeping mandate to carry out assassinations, abductions, and sabotage abroad. But according to a new investigation by The Insider, one officer has exposed the entire group by using Google Translate.
The United States has temporarily eased sanctions on Russian oil that is currently at sea. The exemptions, issued by the Treasury Department on Thursday, will remain in effect until April 11.
Karabash used to be called “the most polluted city in the world,” but then, in 2025, it achieved fame thanks instead to the documentary film Mr. Nobody against Putin. Now the film is up for an Oscar. The film’s co-director, 34-year-old school events coordinator Pavel Talankin, filmed patriotic school events in Karabash and then left Russia, taking the footage with him. As soon as the film was released in the West, Russian media labeled it “anti-patriotic,” and called Talankin a traitor to the...
Six people were killed and at least 42 others injured in a missile strike on the Russian city of Bryansk on Tuesday, according to local authorities.
A Moscow court has sentenced Meduza military analyst Dmitry Kuznets to 2.5 years in prison in absentia on charges of participating in the activities of an “undesirable organization.”
The dismissal of Russia’s longtime Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu in May 2024 was followed by an unprecedented purge of his deputies. Several high-ranking Russian military officials were arrested on corruption charges, while Shoigu himself was reappointed as Security Council secretary. Now, Shoigu’s closest associate, former First Deputy Defense Minister Ruslan Tsalikov, has been placed under house arrest on charges of establishing a criminal organization, money laundering, embezzlement, and ...
In early 2026, “The Wizard of the Kremlin” — the long-anticipated film about Vladimir Putin and his inner circle — hit theaters. Directed by French filmmaker Olivier Assayas, the drama revolves around the Russian president and a fictional political strategist named Vadim Baranov, based on the former Kremlin ideologue Vladislav Surkov. Jude Law plays Putin, and Paul Dano plays Baranov. Shot in Latvia, the film sparked major backlash from film critics and government officials, who accused the p...
The United States has asked Ukraine for help fending off Iranian Shahed drones in the Middle East, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday.
In Russia’s Republic of Tatarstan, the Alabuga Special Economic Zone and its Alabuga Polytechnic vocational school have launched an ad campaign featuring teenagers who describe how they earn money assembling Shahed kamikaze drones.
Founded in the days immediately after Moscow’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, the Russian Antiwar Committee sought to unite those who opposed the war. Now, it’s officially considered a “terrorist organization” in Russia.
The escalating conflict in the Middle East has cast doubt on the time and place of planned peace talks between Ukraine, Russia, and the United States, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Monday.
A Moscow court has ordered the pretrial detention of Alexey Kostylev, founder of the pro-war news outlet Readovka. According to reports from the hearing, Kostylev is suspected of large-scale fraud involving a Defense Ministry contract for the supply of military drones. Investigators allege that he embezzled one billion rubles (nearly $13 million). RBC’s sources said Kostylev was detained on Wednesday, February 25, in connection with a criminal investigation launched against unnamed suspects l...
In mid-February, detectives from Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) apprehended former Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko as he attempted to cross the border on a Warsaw-bound train. Now facing charges of money laundering and involvement in a criminal network, Halushchenko is the latest high-profile official ensnared in the corruption scandal known as “Mindichgate.” According to NABU, the scheme’s architect was Timur Mindich, a former business partner of President Volodymyr Zel...
The Russian authorities plan to permanently block the messaging app Telegram in early April, the news outlet RBC reported, citing a source familiar with discussions in the relevant government agencies.
Among the more than 20,000 names on Rosfinmonitoring’s list of “terrorists and extremists,” Meduza found around 100 people who have already died. One of them is the late opposition politician Alexey Navalny. Two years after Russian authorities killed him in prison, his family still hasn’t been able to get his name struck from the registry — despite the law clearly stating that documented confirmation of death is grounds for removal. Here’s what we know about the dead stuck in Russia’s extremi...
As Russia’s war against Ukraine enters its fifth year, a new generation of Russians is coming of age. Despite state pressure and propaganda, not all of them support the ongoing invasion. Meduza asked four young Russians with anti-war views to explain how the past four years have shaped their sense of self, their country, and their hopes for the future. The following is a translation of their accounts, abridged for length and clarity. All names have been changed for security reasons.
President Volodymyr Zelensky released a video address on Tuesday, February 24, marking the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Filmed inside the bunker in Kyiv where the Ukrainian president worked and lived during the first months of the war, the address reflected on how Ukraine’s resistance to Russian aggression has reshaped the country. Zelensky concluded his message by thanking the Ukrainian people and promising to secure a just peace. Meduza shares an abridged v...
Russian troops fighting in Ukraine have been advised to stop using Max — the Kremlin-backed “national messenger” app designed to replace Telegram — because it is not secure enough, the independent outlet Mediazona reports. The guidance comes as federal authorities have been throttling Telegram since summer 2025, triggering a backlash from pro-war commentators who say the app remains soldiers’ most reliable means of frontline communication. The Federal Security Service (FSB) has warned separat...
Two Russian satellites have spent years quietly maneuvering along Earth’s geostationary belt — the ring of orbits 36,000 kilometers (roughly 22,370 miles) above the equator, where satellites appear stationary relative to the planet. There, they park alongside Western commercial spacecraft and, by most expert assessments, intercept their transmissions. An investigation by the Financial Times in early February 2026 revealed that European military officials now fear the satellites could do more ...
Jeffrey Epstein’s interest in Vladimir Putin is well documented in the files released by the U.S. Justice Department in late January. Now, Meduza has uncovered another curious connection between the convicted sex offender and the Russian president: in previously undisclosed emails with Epstein, former Microsoft executive Nathan Myhrvold said that he hosted Putin’s wife and daughter aboard his boat in 2010. The billionaire technologist, who has denied having a personal relationship with Epstei...
On March 10, the Russian border city of Bryansk suffered its deadliest attack since the start of the full-scale war against Ukraine. Ukrainian forces struck the Kremniy El microelectronics plant, also damaging a nearby technical college and several residential buildings. According to the latest reports, seven residents were killed and 42 people were injured, 29 of whom were hospitalized. To understand how the attack unfolded on the ground, the independent journalists’ cooperative Bereg review...
On March 15, the Oscars will be held in Los Angeles. One of the nominees for Best Documentary Feature is “Mr. Nobody Against Putin,” a film about wartime propaganda targeting schoolchildren in the central Russian town of Karabash. The movie has already won a Special Jury Prize at Sundance 2025 and the 2026 BAFTA for Best Documentary. But the more awards the film collects, the more criticism its creators face — none more than Pavel Talankin, its cameraman, narrator, central character, and co-d...
For the first time since the 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia plans to reopen its national pavilion at the Venice Biennale. The Kremlin’s delegate for international cultural cooperation, Mikhail Shvydkov, confirmed to ARTNews that Russia will put on an exhibition starting in May for the 2026 event. Shvydov claimed that Russia “never left” the Biennale, despite its decision to rent out its pavilion instead of organizing national exhibitions. While the Biennale’s organizers never for...
“All of the disconnections and communications restrictions are taking place in strict accordance with current legislation,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday.
The United States has delayed the next round of trilateral talks with Ukraine and Russia due to the escalating war in the Middle East, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Tuesday.
Ukraine has sent interceptor drones and a team of experts to U.S. military bases in Jordan to counter Iranian attack drones, President Volodymyr Zelensky told The New York Times in an interview published on Monday.
Authorities in Moscow arrested between 20 and 45 Iranian citizens for allegedly holding an unauthorized rally in support of U.S. and Israeli actions in the Middle East, according to the Russian Telegram channel Ostorozhno, Novosti.
In the span of just two months, U.S. President Donald Trump has overseen the forcible removal of two sitting foreign leaders: Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Both men were long-standing autocrats who cultivated anti-Western agendas and opposed U.S. influence abroad. Vladimir Putin has at times employed similar tactics, raising obvious questions for the Russian leader: Is he at risk of the same fate? And what the new war mean for a Kremlin that’s in...
After the U.S. and Israel launched strikes against Iran on Saturday, igniting a major new war in the Middle East, airports across the Persian Gulf suspended operations. Even Dubai International Airport, the world’s busiest international hub, ground to a halt. Flights began to resume on Monday, but only partially; thousands of passengers remain stuck, unable to leave. Meduza spoke with a Russian woman stranded in the UAE and gathered accounts from other travelers still trying to get home.
Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin turned 60 this week. His ascent — from head of the Federal Tax Service to prime minister — was swift and largely unforeseen. With a single promotion, Mishustin effectively skipped two rungs of the bureaucratic ladder and landed in Russia’s second-highest office. Meduza special correspondent Andrey Pertsev recounts Mishustin’s rise and explains how he’s managed to stay in the role for years, against all expectations.
Last year, the Russian authorities enacted a slew of new laws that would take effect on March 1, 2026. Meduza shares a quick guide to the rules and regulations that came into force yesterday, and explains how they will change everyday life in Russia.
The Russian Orthodox Church’s exarchate in Africa is involved in a scheme recruiting Kenyan citizens to fight in Ukraine, according to journalist Ksenia Luchenko, who covers the Russian Orthodox Church, and the independent investigative outlet iStories, which highlighted a mid-February report by Religion News Service.
Vladimir Putin has established a presidential commission on the development of AI technology, according to an executive order published online on Thursday.
In the mid-1980s, a giant fiberglass sphere appeared deep in the forests of Russia’s Tver region. No one could quite explain where it came from or what it was for. Over the next four decades, the abandoned dome became a pilgrimage site for off-road drivers, hikers, musicians, hippies, and conspiracy theorists. Then one day, in 2021, it finally collapsed, leaving only shards on the forest floor. The independent outlet Takie Dela spoke with locals to learn more about the mystique surrounding th...
On the surface, the fourth year of Russia’s war in Ukraine offered little new: the same slow advances through the Donbas, the same failed diplomacy, the same lack of a Ukrainian counteroffensive. But 2025 was a year of real, if quiet, transformation — in the technology of killing, in the logic of negotiation, and in both sides’ understanding of what winning actually looks like. Meduza examines what changed, what didn’t, and what the fifth year of the war is likely to bring. The short answer: ...
Mediazona and BBC News Russian have identified more than 200,000 Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine, the outlets reported on February 24, the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion.
Russia is still trying to drag Belarus further into its war against Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky warned in his first interview with Belarusian media since the start of the full-scale invasion. Speaking to Zerkalo, an independent outlet operating in exile, Zelensky discussed his views on Alexander Lukashenko’s regime, Belarusian involvement in the war, and building ties with exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya. Meduza shares key excerpts from the interview, translated an...
Russia has reportedly issued a “stop-list” to military recruiters, banning citizens from as many as 43 countries from enlisting to fight in Ukraine, according to the independent media outlet iStories.
It’s no secret that Russia relies on high salaries and sign-on bonuses to recruit more soldiers to fight in Ukraine. Despite staggering battlefield losses, an estimated 30,000 men still enlist every month. But after four years of full-scale war, the cost of finding volunteers is only rising steadily, and the burden is falling on Russia’s regions. On a recent episode of The Naked Pravda, deputy editor Eilish Hart explored the big questions behind Russia’s ongoing recruitment numbers with Dr. J...
On February 13, Russia’s Justice Ministry removed Andrey Pavlov, the founder of the shoe retailer Zenden, from its register of “foreign agents.” He’d been added to the list in the summer of 2024 — despite praising Vladimir Putin, backing the war against Ukraine, and being among the first Russian businessmen to invest in occupied Crimea after the 2014 annexation. How did a self-styled patriot with those credentials end up labeled a “foreign agent” — and how did he manage to get himself off the...
The Russian Justice Ministry has designated scholar Nina Khrushcheva a “foreign agent,” according to an update published on Friday. A professor of international affairs at The New School in New York City, Khrushcheva is the great-granddaughter of Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev.
On March 22, 2024, a group of terrorists stormed the Crocus City Hall entertainment complex outside Moscow, opened fire on the crowd, and then set fire to the building. At least 150 people were killed, making this the deadliest terrorist attack in modern Russian history since the 2004 Beslan school siege. The four gunmen stood trial alongside 15 alleged accomplices, and on March 12, 2026, a Moscow court sentenced nearly all the defendants to life in prison. Meduza looks back on how the closed...
Kazakhstan’s intelligence agency has opened a major criminal case targeting Russians living in the country. Dozens of draft-age Russian men have already been called in for questioning, and human rights defenders warn the investigation could be cover for a large-scale deportation campaign coordinated with Moscow. The crackdown comes amid a narrowing of emigration options for Russians who fled their country after Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. To learn more about the challenges facing Russi...
When the U.S. and Israel launched a war against Iran in late February, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that the new conflict could make it harder for Kyiv to obtain the missiles and other weapons it needs to defend its skies. At the same time, Ukraine itself is playing a role in the region: Kyiv has sent drone-defense experts to the Middle East to help U.S. allies in the Gulf protect themselves from Iranian strikes. To discuss how the two wars are connected, Meduza spoke with se...
Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump held an hour-long phone call on Monday, according to Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov. The call, initiated by Trump, was their first this year.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has sent his congratulations to Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, following his selection to succeed his father, the recently killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
On February 25, 1956, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev delivered what would become known as the “Secret Speech.” This denunciation of Joseph Stalin and his “cult of personality” at the 20th Party Congress marked the first time top Soviet officials publicly described state terror as the result of abuses of power and violations of “socialist legality.” However, the condemnation remained selective. The terror’s true scale and the Communist Party’s complicity were never openly addressed, and much ...
Ukrainian and U.S. officials have discussed the possibility of relocating and postponing the next round of peace talks with Russia due to the war in the Middle East, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday.
Amid the war in the Middle East, Iran has been targeting key energy infrastructure across the region. Tehran is also threatening energy exporters, warning that tankers entering the Strait of Hormuz — a narrow, near-irreplaceable artery for Middle Eastern supplies — will come under attack. The strategy of sowing disruption appears to be working: oil and gas prices have surged, major facilities have shut down temporarily after drone strikes, and the Strait of Hormuz has become a “dead zone” for...
Employees of Rosatom have lost contact with the leadership of Iran’s nuclear industry amid the war in the Middle East, the head of the Russian state-owned atomic energy corporation, Alexey Likhachev, said Tuesday.
Like our earlier reports on the combat situation in Ukraine, this article reviews recent battlefield developments based on open-source information. Meduza has condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine from the outset, and our military analyses reflect our commitment to objective reporting on a war we firmly oppose.
Lawmakers in Russia’s State Duma have approved in the first reading a bill introducing amendments to the Criminal Code that would establish criminal liability for:
The company that financed the construction of Vladimir Putin’s infamous Black Sea mansion ended the project with a 6.5-billion ruble surplus (approximately $84 million today). This “change” was transferred to Putin’s longtime rumored partner, Alina Kabaeva, according to a new investigation by the Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK).
The same Moscow-based research center linked to Alexey Navalny’s 2020 poisoning — SC Signal — also played a role in synthesizing the toxin that killed the opposition leader, according to the investigative outlet Agentstvo.
Given the battlefield stalemate in Ukraine, Kyiv’s best remaining hope is attrition — inflicting losses on the Russian army heavy enough to persuade the Kremlin that continuing the war is pointless. In recent weeks, Ukrainian politicians and military commanders have been explicit about this goal. President Zelensky has even put a number on it: 50,000 Russian soldiers killed per month. At first glance, the data seem to suggest that Ukraine is closing in on that target: obituary databases and o...
Four years ago today, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, unleashing a vast and ongoing humanitarian disaster. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers have died, thousands of civilians have been killed, and Ukrainian cities have been reduced to rubble. This destructiveness has seeped into people’s daily lives, affecting even those far from the front line. Every day, readers of our Russian-language site write to Meduza about the war, sharing a wide range of experiences and opinions. Be...
Russia has opened a criminal investigation into Telegram founder Pavel Durov on charges of facilitating terrorist activity, according to articles published February 24 in the nation’s newspaper of record, Rossiyskaya Gazeta, and the tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda.
On February 5, reports emerged that Russia had arrested Ivan Semenikhin, an operative with the Interior Ministry’s criminal investigations department, and charged him with treason. The details of the case haven’t been made public; treason prosecutions in Russia are classified and heard behind closed doors.
Russia is turning one of its last major spaces for confronting Soviet-era repression into a showcase for state-sanctioned patriotism. The Gulag History Museum in Moscow — long a rare institutional refuge for the memory of Stalin’s victims — is becoming a “Museum of Memory” dedicated to what the Kremlin calls the “genocide of the Soviet people” at the hands of Nazi Germany. The transformation encapsulates a broader Kremlin project: not the suppression of historical memory, but its replacement ...
With Russia’s parliamentary elections less than a year away, the Kremlin has begun fine-tuning its information strategy. According to sources in major online newsrooms, officials are instructing loyal media outlets to flood the news cycle with positive coverage of United Russia’s social initiatives — an effort to blunt the ruling party’s falling ratings as rising prices erode public support. Meduza special correspondent Andrey Pertsev spoke with media employees and a political consultant for ...