How does a pro-war businessman end up a ‘foreign agent’? The rise, fall, and resurrection of a Russian shoe magnate.

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...