Russian activists are not always safe even after emigrating. Persecution can continue beyond Russia’s borders—including at the hands of informal groups acting in line with Russian propaganda. This is what sex educator and LGBTQ+ activist Sasha Kazantseva faced in Lithuania: last summer, she began receiving threats, and people associated with a homophobic group targeting queer teens and activists came to her home. Since then, Kazantseva has been seeking a response from Lithuanian authorities so that such cases do not go unpunished. In an interview with «Most,» Sasha Kazantseva explains how this pressure works, why it’s not an isolated case, and what is happening to queer people from Russia—both inside the country and abroad.

#bigtalk #homophobia #discrimination #europe #interview #LGBT #Lithuania #violence #police #repressions #SashaKazantseva #And #ultraright #Emigration

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Borders between Russia and Europe are closing, and censorship is intensifying — how can bridges be built between those who left and those who stayed? Musicians, artists, activists, and journalists who left Russia after the invasion of Ukraine discussed this in Vilnius. We publish their conversation.

#WarinUkraine #EastandWest #discussion #europe #Lithuania #Naoko #repressions #RussianantiwarAMY #SashaKazantseva #freedom #Emigration

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There are women in the country ready to change politics and society. But mostly, only those who do not challenge the system make it into power. Dissenters are pushed out of politics or subjected to repression.

#activizi #AnnaPolitkovskaya #ValentinaMatvienko #ValentinaTereshkova #power #state #democracy #dictatorship #Europeanvalues #women #patriarchy #Putin #repressions #Russia #feminism #essay

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Today marks two years since the death of Alexei Navalny. On the eve of the anniversary, five countries (the United Kingdom, Sweden, France, Germany, and the Netherlands) issued an official statement that several independent laboratories had confirmed his poisoning with an extremely toxic substance—in essence, a chemical weapon. Only the Russian authorities had both the means and the motive to use it in the polar colony. On the anniversary of Navalny’s murder, the editorial team of «Most.Media» publishes a polemical essay by our reader I.B. from Russia. The anonymity requested by the author is necessary: the Russian authorities continue political repression against Navalny’s supporters even after his death.

#democracy #dictatorship #discussion #historicalmemory #Bulk #opposition #aftertheUSSR #BeautifulRussiaoftheFuture #Putin #householdtype #repressions #Russia #Sakharov #freedom #thick #themurderofAlexeiNavalny #FBK #Christianity #essay

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«It's not like I'm hiding — if the immigration court wants to find me, they can do it anywhere, if they want to,» Vladislav Krasnov told «Most» in an interview at the end of last year. A US federal court denied the active supporter of Alexei Navalny political asylum in March 2025, after he had already spent 444 days in American immigration detention centers in conditions close to torture. Now Vladislav is set to be deported to Russia, where he faces arrest.

#antiwaractivists #deportation #Bulk #Putin #repressions #Russia #USA #Trump #Emigration

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Unprecedented mass anti-government protests continue in Iran—something never before seen in the history of the Islamic Republic. While Donald Trump makes vague promises to help the protesters and progressive Western public opinion remains silent, the number of Iranians killed by the regime may already be in the hundreds. Reliable information about the situation in the country is scarce: in Iran, it’s «tradition» to shut down the internet in such cases. Iran expert, Telegram channel author, and writer of «All Iran» Nikita Smagin (the Russian Ministry of Justice considers him a foreign agent) explains why the Islamic Revolution has erupted in mass protest, what the ayatollahs fear, and what lessons the Kremlin might draw from the situation in this eastern country.

#bigtalk #state #dictatorship #interview #Iran #IslamicRevolutionof1979 #NikitaSmagin #society #Internetshutdown #protests #repressions #Russia #sanctions #USA #Khamenei #censorship

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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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Teachers are being fired, students expelled from universities, schoolchildren interrogated by the FSB, and criminal cases are being opened against their parents. Since February 2022, all this has been happening thanks to informing within educational institutions. The scale of today’s persecutions cannot be compared to Stalin-era purges: millions suffered then, while now it’s hundreds and thousands. But the logic of today’s repressions in Russia increasingly resembles that of the 1930s and 1940s in the USSR.

#Rhombus #WarinUkraine #state #childrenandparents #lifeinRussia #education #society #repressions #specialservices #theUSSR #Stalinism #school

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Two years ago, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation declared the «international LGBT social movement» an extremist organization. Since then, simply having a certain sexual orientation or gender identity can be used as grounds to accuse anyone who draws the state’s attention of extremism. LGBT people are afraid to go to the police or court, even if they themselves are the victims of crimes. Here are the stories of three people who have gone through such experiences.

#state #lifeinRussia #LGBT #personalexperience #violence #intolerance #society #humanrights #thatone #repressions

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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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On the Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Repression, we analyze the most dangerous stereotypes about Stalin’s crimes

#20thcentury #historicalmemory #History #Myths #aftertheUSSR #repressions #Russia #Stalin #Stalinism

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The brief period of the rise of Ukrainian literature and art in the 1920s-30s is called the «Executed Renaissance.» The intellectual and creative atmosphere of those years was so enticing that emigrants fleeing the Civil War began moving to Ukraine. But the golden age ended as abruptly as it began. «Most.Media» recalls the tragic biographies of the participants in this movement.

#20thcentury #Holodomor #CivilWar #dictatorship #historicalmemory #History #literature #poetry #repressions #Sandarmokh #freedom #theUSSR #Stalinism #Ukraine #Kharkov #Emigration #language

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Dictatorships have a tendency to completely distort the phenomenon of patriotism. Natural human sympathies for the nature and culture of their country are replaced by demands for unconditional loyalty to the ruling regime. Saltykov-Shchedrin already noted this, reflecting on those who confuse the concepts of «Fatherland» and «Your Excellency.» Later, a grim Soviet joke appeared: when the state needs something from its citizens, it calls itself the «Motherland.» And always with a capital letter. Under such conditions, patriotism turns into a form of Stockholm syndrome, where hostages begin to sympathize with their captors.

#AlexeiNavalny #Belarus #state #citizenship #west #IlyaYashin #society #opposition #Patriotism #politicalprisoners #aftertheUSSR #repressions #Russia #Emigration #essay

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«Most» columnist Dmitry Khmelnitsky has been trying for 50 years to reconstruct the life story of the outstanding artist Viktor Lobachev. All that is known about him so far is his name and the period of his work: the late 1930s.

#1930s #graphics #Zeitgeist #art #History #personalexperience #investigation #repressions #theUSSR #artists

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Masha Moskalyova is a girl whose fate shocked even those familiar with political repression. After the 12-year-old drew an anti-war picture at school, she endured several FSB interrogations, searches, psychological pressure, long months in a shelter, separation from her father—who was imprisoned for a couple of anti-war posts on social media—and, finally, forced emigration. We spoke with Masha about what she went through and how her life is now.

#WarinUkraine #state #interview #personalexperience #society #protests #repressions #parentsandchildren #Russia #familyandschool #Emigration

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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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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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Across the country, bookstores are undergoing searches and prosecutor inspections. Publishers send them lists of «banned» books that must be removed from sale and destroyed. All foreign agent books must be sold by the end of summer: from September 1, any educational activity by authors with this status will be prohibited. How do small bookstores in the regions survive under these conditions? A report from Rostov-on-Don, where, despite all difficulties, there are three such stores.

#business #foreignagents #Books #LGBT #youth #society #education #Regions #reportage #repressions #Russia #securityforces #south

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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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Since early 2022, thousands of opponents of the Russian invasion of Ukraine have tried to seek asylum in the US — only to face tightening immigration policies. With Donald Trump’s return to the presidency, those who hadn’t secured legal status in previous years found themselves in direct danger. Since early 2025, US authorities have deported two activists to Russia — Vladimir Mashinin and Leonid Melekhin. The first managed to escape; the second was placed in pre-trial detention last week for two months due to anti-war statements made in previous years. Julia Nikolaeva, a US immigration lawyer of Russian origin practicing in San Francisco for 15 years, confirms that the situation for asylum seekers in the States has significantly worsened, as has the overall attitude of authorities toward foreigners. We spoke with her about this.

#America #deportation #dictatorship #DonaldTrump #interview #personalexperience #society #petition #politicalasylum #protests #repressions #Russia #USA #Emigration

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