Electoral procedures in autocracies are a special process. Here, what matters is not so much the official results themselves, but whether the system can first organize them without unnecessary noise and then sell them both inside the country and beyond its borders. And it seems that the current administration of Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has managed this quite well. A report by «Most» from Astana.

#elections #Kazakhstan #parliament #policy #reportage #CentralAsia

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Beloozersk is one of the oldest cities of the Russian North. The small town in Vologda Oblast, which can be walked across in an hour, has more than 50 cultural monuments, and its pearl — Lake Beloye — attracts tourists from all over the European part of Russia. But this summer the residents of Belozerye, which can be reached only by road transport, are having a hard time: because of the fuel crisis, five fill-ups of a passenger car cost locals an average monthly salary. A report from «Most».

#WarinUkraine #lifeinRussia #society #Regions #reportage #fuelcrisis

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To celebrate the Night of Ivan Kupala according to the customs of the ancestors, you need to call the phone number listed in one of the thematic Telegram channels in advance. Get instructions. On the appointed day, put on a simple light dress, take the commuter train at Kursky Station, and about two hours later get off at a sparsely populated station in the Vladimir region. Every year on the eve of the Summer Solstice Day, pagan Rodnovers gather here and celebrate their main holiday for a full day, symbolizing the peak of nature’s bloom and fertility. Journalist from «Most.Media» spent this day with them.

#WarinUkraine #lifeinRussia #Myths #society #Orthodoxy #religion #reportage #Slavs #ultraright #paganism

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Užupis is one of the strangest places in Europe. This city district has its own Constitution, president, ministry of foreign affairs, currency, anthem, and more than five hundred ambassadors around the world. All of this is not entirely serious—it's a game, an art performance, a collective joke that has become part of the city’s identity. But it’s not just a joke, either.

#theartists #Vilnius #lifeinEurope #art #JonasMekas #Lithuania #reportage #republic #freedom #sentimentaltravel #Užupis #philosophy #artists

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Forty years ago, the fourth reactor of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant exploded. Belarus, which bore the brunt of the disaster, still lives with its consequences. Over the years, the annual «Chernobyl Way» rally has transformed from a mournful procession into a form of civic protest: first against the suppression of the truth, then against the construction of a new nuclear plant, and now — against a system where people's voices mean nothing.

#nuclearenergy #Belarus #catastrophe #Lithuania #society #protests #reportage #ChernobylNuclearPowerPlant #Emigration #nuclearexplosion

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Last week, few people remembered Vladimir Ulyanov’s (Lenin’s) birthday. Among those who did mark the date was the Turgenev Library in Paris: on April 22, the complete 55-volume collected works of the leader of the Russian Revolution were ceremoniously carried out from its shelves. In the past 30 years, not a single reader of the Turgenev Library had requested Lenin’s works—so the staff of the oldest Russian émigré library decided to bid a cheerful farewell to the Soviet past, making room for new books. Parisian supporters of Lenin tried to intervene in the process.

#Twoleggedbelt #europe #historicalmemory #lenin #society #Paris #aftertheUSSR #protests #reportage #Russia #TheTurgenevLibraryinParis #Emigration

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In April 2026, in Vilnius, on the right bank of the Neris, next to the National Art Gallery, the cherry blossoms bloomed once again. Two hundred Japanese cherry trees, planted here a quarter of a century ago in the Chiune Sugihara Park, turned the riverbank into a cloud of white and pink. The name of the Japanese diplomat inscribed on a stone at the park entrance connects the history of this small Baltic country with the history of a Jewish community that was almost entirely destroyed. And it is also the story of a man who saved thousands of desperate people, defying bureaucratic orders.

#Vilnius #WorldWarII #diplomacy #Jews #Israel #History #Lithuania #reportage #sakura #resistance #theUSSR #holocaust #ChiuneSugihara

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Khovanskoye Cemetery, January 27, two o'clock in the afternoon. A group of four people stands by a black minivan. They are dressed in identical black jackets and hats. Next to them, on metal trestles, is a four-sided coffin with no handles. People in work uniforms are nailing the base of the coffin. About 5 meters from the coffin—just one grave away—stand several gravediggers, ready to take the coffin in their hands and lower it into the grave. We only need to cover those 5 meters. But three out of the four people in black take turns falling, bumping the bottoms of the coffin into the grave fences. Only the fourth one managed to stay on his feet. That was me.

#WarinUkraine #lifeinRussia #everydayculture #personalexperience #Moscow #society #precariat #reportage #deathinRussia #LaborandCapital

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One of the most high-profile political assassinations in modern Russian history took place on January 19, 2009. On that day, Stanislav Markelov, a lawyer from the Moscow Human Rights Center, and Anastasia Baburova, a freelance correspondent for Novaya Gazeta, were shot dead by an activist from the far-right group BORN (Combat Organization of Russian Nationalists). They were killed because they supported the anti-fascist movement. And a recent accomplice in this crime was recently released from prison.

#2000s #antifascists #EvgeniyaKhasis #lifeinRussia #historicalmemory #leftandright #Moscow #Shuyne #NikitaTikhonov #society #reportage #ultraright

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The Ukrainian city of Sumy is located 30 km from the Russian border and 20 km from the front line. A correspondent from «Most» visited there before the New Year holidays

#WarinUkraine #lifeinUkraine #FreedomofRussiaLegion #newYear #society #celebration #reportage #Russia

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In December 2025, Moscow began to be actively decorated for the New Year as part of the «Journey to Christmas» festival. Its prototype was the Strasbourg Christmas Market on Manezhnaya Square, which in December 2012 made a splash among Muscovites and visitors to the capital. After that, city hall decided to include the city’s Christmas celebration in the ongoing mega-festival «Moscow Seasons.» By 2026, however, little remained of Strasbourg and its Christmas traditions. But an imaginary Europe, now almost out of reach, still peeks through the New Year’s tinsel—just like other realities of recent years.

#state #Moscow #newYear #society #reportage #SergeiSobyanin #escapism

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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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The smallest town in Lithuania, Panemune, is located in the west of the country. Across the river, the Russian town of Sovetsk is visible, where for several years a huge letter Z — the official symbol of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — has been displayed on the facade of one of the buildings. The two towns are connected by a pedestrian bridge — one of the few functioning crossings between Russia and the EU. Every day, the residents of Panemune look at that letter and the opposite shore.

#WarinUkraine #KaliningradOblast #Lithuania #NATO #society #aftertheUSSR #reportage #Russianthreat #Balticcountries

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On National Unity Day, a correspondent from «Most» visited Vologda for the unveiling of a monument to the most famous dictator of Russian medieval times. A monument to Stalin has long been there

#lifeinRussia #IvantheTerrible #historicalmemory #society #Regions #reportage #Stalin

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Dictatura is a settlement in the Plavsky District of the Tula Region. A correspondent from «Most» visited there and spoke with local residents about their living conditions and self-identification.

#WarinUkraine #lifeinRussia #society #Regions #reportage

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On the walls here, you can see gigantic portraits of Putin, icons, and vinyl records of Vysotsky and Okudzhava (all in one office), lower-level employees are scolded with quotes from Pasternak and Zabolotsky, and TV host Ekaterina Andreeva gives advice on how to properly cope with the anger of superiors at a «Znanie» society lecture.

#WarinUkraine #state #women #lifeinRussia #career #Crimea #Kurskregion #mincult #patriarchy #Patriotism #aftertheUSSR #propaganda #reportage #svo #Officials

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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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On August 6, a gala concert of the «SVO Ballads» festival took place in Moscow’s Zaryadye Park. It was organized by Monk Kiprian — a veteran of the Afghan war, Hero of the Soviet Union, and a fan of singer-songwriter music in civilian life. A correspondent from «Most» reports on how it all unfolded.

#WarinUkraine #cringe #Moscow #society #Patriotism #aftertheUSSR #postmodernism #reportage #Russia #church

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In the center of Moscow, near Paveletsky Station, there is a kind of ghetto. In Soviet times, workers from other regions moved here, to Derbenevskaya Street — local factories needed them. Those factories have long since closed, but the workers still live in the local dormitory and communal apartments. Here they raised children, tried to build their lives in the capital, many began to abuse alcohol, and now they are waiting to be relocated under the renovation program.

#lifeinRussia #Moscow #inequality #aftertheUSSR #reportage #LaborandCapital

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