Until the early 2020s, Abbas Gallyamov was integrated into the Russian power structure: he worked as a speechwriter for Vladimir Putin when he was prime minister, as a political consultant in regional elections, and as deputy head of the administration of the president of Bashkortostan. But after the Russian invasion of Ukraine began, Gallyamov left for Israel, was labeled a foreign agent by the Russian Ministry of Justice, and last year was sentenced in absentia to eight years for «discrediting the Russian army.» We spoke with Abbas about the changing world order after Trump’s election, the prospects of a Russian invasion of an EU neighbor, and how friends of Putin’s younger daughter are quietly preparing to take power into their own hands.

#AbbasGallyamov #authoritarianism #WarinUkraine #Hitler #EuropeanUnion #interview #resultsfor2025 #KaterinaTikhonova #Lithuania #Moldova #Mussolini #forecasts #Putin #Russia #Trump #WorldWarIII #futurology #Economy #Estonia

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Near Lesnaya metro station in St. Petersburg, at 61 Lesnoy Prospekt, stands a building with columns. This is the «house of specialists,» built in the 1930s in the style of Stalinist neoclassicism. Creative and scientific intelligentsia lived here, including artist Nathan Altman, radio engineer Mikhail Bonch-Bruevich, and writer Alexander Kuprin. It was from here that many were taken during the «Great Terror.» Now, plaques of the «Last Address» project are installed on the house for former residents who became victims of political repression in the USSR. The last two names appeared on the facade on Sunday, December 14 — on the day of remembrance for academician Andrei Sakharov. A «Most» correspondent attended the ceremony for installing the memorial signs.

#WarinUkraine #lifeinRussia #historicalmemory #cultureofmemory #society #Petersburg #Thelastedge #Putin #reportage #repressions #Stalin

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How can political émigrés who end up in American immigration jails be saved from extradition to Russia? What do FSB psychologists ask passengers on deportation flights during interrogations? And why don’t Western governments help Russian antiwar refugees? A wide-ranging conversation with Dmitry Valuev, president of the human rights organization Russian America for Democracy in Russia (RADR).

#refugees #bigtalk #WarinUkraine #state #deportation #interview #personalexperience #Bulk #opposition #rightandleft #Putin #USA #Trump #Emigration

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The fewer economic, cultural, and simply human ties between Russia and European countries, the more conflict stories there are, the easier it will be to turn toward a possible military clash. No one in Europe wants such a development, but a peaceful Russian-Ukrainian agreement as imposed by the American administration looks like a respite for the aggressor. Therefore, Europe and Ukraine need to build a new structure to deter Russia together, without wasting time.

#Analytics #security #WarinUkraine #weapons #Germany #EuropeanUnion #NATO #truce #Putin #Russia #USA #Trump #Athreat #France

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After Donald Trump returned to power, many Russian political emigrants found themselves facing the threat of deportation from the US. In the summer of 2025, one of them, Leonid Melekhin, was denied political asylum and deported to Perm, where he was detained right at the airport. For six months now, he has been awaiting trial in a local pre-trial detention center on criminal charges of justifying terrorism. Under Russian law, Melekhin faces two to five years in prison. To prevent more cases like this, «Most.Media» launched a petition to the US authorities in late July, which has been signed by more than 31,000 people. Among them are many political activists who, if deported from the US, face repression in Russia. We are beginning to publish their stories.

#America #state #deportation #personalexperience #Bulk #politicalrepressions #Putin #repressions #Russia #Trump #Emigration

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«15 months of work and a thousand hours of audio recordings. The activities of a high-level criminal organization have been documented. Its members built a large-scale corruption scheme influencing strategic state-sector enterprises, particularly JSC »National Nuclear Energy Generating Company «Energoatom».« Last week, this press release from Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) about the results of Operation »Midas« was quoted worldwide. Tomorrow, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine is scheduled to vote on the dismissal of Justice Minister Herman Halushchenko and Energy Minister Svetlana Hrynchuk, who were involved in corruption schemes. Investigators from NABU also proved that a close friend of Ukraine’s president, Timur Mindich, participated in these schemes. How they managed this is explained by anti-money laundering expert and board member of Transparency International Russia, Ilya Shumanov.

#Zelensky #corruption #NABU #oligarchy #Putin #Russia #Ukraine #expertise #Yanukovych

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Moscow's persistent attempts to demonstrate the unshakable nature of its partnership with Astana are the best evidence that, in reality, many things are changing there.

#Analytics #WarinUkraine #Kazakhstan #aftertheUSSR #Putin #Russia #Tokayev #Trump #CentralAsia

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The European Commission's decision to stop issuing Schengen multiple-entry visas to Russian citizens caused a lot of noise and once again divided the opposition. It would be good to calmly look at what happened and why. And the main question is — what happens next. Even a complete ban on Russians visiting Europe will not stop the war in Ukraine

#visas #WarinUkraine #EuropeanUnion #personalexperience #opposition #Putin #Russia #sanctions #Trump #Schengenarea

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Centuries changed, but the old pattern remained. It was not so much dangerous criminals who ended up with the executioners, but rather random people and disgraced members of the elite.

#1937 #state #dictatorship #Empire #History #worldwideisolation #monarchy #society #executionersandvictims #PetertheGreat #Putin #torture #repressions #Russia #MiddleAges #theUSSR #Stalin

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The law establishing the national messenger was signed by Putin at the end of June 2025. Since yesterday, it has been fully operational in Moscow and three other regions: schoolchildren and first-year university students are required to switch to Max.

#state #dictatorship #theInternet #China #instantmessengers #Moscow #society #Orwell #Putin #Russia #freedom #Stalin #censorship #digitalsurveillance

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From a rational point of view, China should be interested in preserving Europe as that part of the Western world that does not claim a global role but remains one of its economic centers. For Beijing, it would be preferable to deal not with one, represented by the USA, but with two versions of the West. If these considerations are valid, Chairman Xi is unlikely to advise President Putin to attack Estonia and promise him his support—in fact, it can be assumed that the China factor will contribute to containing the Russian threat to Europe rather than strengthening it.

#Analytics #Brussels #Washington #war #weapons #diplomacy #europe #China #odd #Macron #Moscow #Beijing #Putin #Russia #USA #Taiwan #Trump #Ukraine #espionage

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The Woody Allen case, who participated online in a certain Moscow film week and gave a video interview to Fyodor Bondarchuk, once again raised the question of moral and immoral behavior during a military and humanitarian catastrophe, about detachment from events and involvement in them, about toxicity—or, on the contrary, the necessity of cultural and interpersonal contacts.

#America #WarinUkraine #East #WoodyAllen #ironcurtain #west #Insulation #movie #Putin #Russia #Stalin #Trump #FyodorBondarchuk

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Yesterday, the human rights project «No to Gulag» reported, citing its sources, about the deportation of several dozen Russians from the USA to Russia via Cairo, among whom were political asylum seekers. Anna Shumova, an activist of the American nonprofit organization Russian Seattle for Freedom, is aware of the stories of several passengers on this flight. We spoke with her.

#America #state #deportation #immigrationzone #interview #society #politicalconclusions #Putin #repressions #Russia #Trump

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The twenty-fifth anniversary of the tragedy of the nuclear submarine cruiser K-141 Kursk in the Barents Sea passed unnoticed. No memorial ceremonies, solemn speeches, monument unveilings, or film premieres. On the anniversary of the explosion on the Kursk (August 12), if one believes his official website, the head of state only spoke by phone with Kim Jong Un and held a meeting on economic issues. The censored segment of Runet got away with a few concise publications, and some authors described what happened in August 2000 as an «accident».

#Berezovsky #Beslan #WarinUkraine #state #money #west #historicalmemory #catastrophe #NTV #society #ort #Pavlovsky #politicaltechnologies #aftertheUSSR #Putin #Russia #Kursk

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Ukraine — despite all the difficulties and the undeniable overall war fatigue — does not at all look like a side on the brink of collapse that must agree to peace at any cost.

#WarinUkraine #diplomacy #EuropeanUnion #Zelensky #Macron #Putin #USA #Trump

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So, the meeting between Donald Trump and turned out to be brief, meaningless, and strange. There will be no ceasefire on the Russian-Ukrainian front; the war will continue. Until a peace agreement is reached or indefinitely – it’s anyone’s guess. But even if Russia has enough soldiers and weapons to keep fighting, will it have enough resources to maintain economic stability for as long?

#Alaska #WarinUkraine #militaryindustrialcomplex #India #China #Taxation #oil #Putin #Russia #sanctions #USA #shadowfleet #Trump #finance

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The announcement of the August 15 meeting between Donald Trump and in Alaska shocked the entire world without exaggeration. Even seasoned observers needed several days to realize — this was not a guess, a prank, or a hoax. The range of assessments and forecasts for the upcoming summit was enormous: from hopes that the war would end very soon to skepticism about whether everything might fall apart at the last moment. Let’s try to understand the position both sides approached this rendezvous from and what might follow afterward.

#Alaska #WarinUkraine #diplomacy #historicalanalogies #Putin #Russia #USA #Trump

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The forested Sandarmokh tract seems to threaten the Russian authorities by its very existence. From their point of view, since people do not forget about it, their memory must be reformatted—by any means and at any cost.

#thecaseofYuriDmitriev #dictatorship #historicalmemory #Karelia #NKVD #Putin #repressions #Sandarmokh #theUSSR #Stalin #FSB

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The problem of Russia's return to peace is multi-layered. One layer is the reverse structural restructuring, partial or complete. The second is the preservation and lifting of sanctions and other restrictions. The third is the social consequences, related not only to the absorption by the labor market of more than half a million former fighters but also to disruptions in business groups tied to the war.

#Analytics #militaryindustrialcomplex #war #investments #world #Putin #Russia #sanctions #USA #Trump #Ukraine #Economy

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Today, many representatives of national-regional movements in political exile have a clear disappointment in the Russian federal project, since it has repeatedly (both after 1918 and after 1991) led only to yet another revival of a centralist empire. Therefore, they find no common ground even with the new liberal opposition, which in its dreams of a beautiful future Russia sometimes oddly repeats Kremlin unitarist ideas.

#future #decoloniality #Yeltsin #Empire #History #nation #society #aftertheUSSR #protests #Putin #republics #Russia #federalism #language

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