On February 27, 2015, politician Boris Nemtsov was shot dead in the center of Moscow. Since then, Russia has changed radically—not only politically, but morally as well. This crime became the point after which the authorities realized: nothing will happen for killing an opponent.

#BorisNemtsov #VladimirPutin #power #WarinUkraine #warinChechnya #violence #Nemtsovka #memory #policy #criminalpunishmentandpunishment #Russia #securityforces #murder #essay

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In the four years since the start of the Special Military Operation, military funerals in Russia have become entirely routine. Funeral brigade workers do not openly condemn the war, but their negative attitude toward what is happening becomes clear in conversation.

#WarinUkraine #lifeinRussia #everydayculture #personalexperience #MinistryofDefense #society #thefuneral #deathinRussia

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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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At the end of January, the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) published updated data on casualties in the Russia-Ukraine war. According to analysts’ estimates, the total number of killed, wounded, and missing amounts to 1.8 million people. Of these, 1.2 million are Russian losses, and 600,000 are Ukrainian losses.

#Analytics #warinAfghanistan #WarinUkraine #Zelensky #aftertheUSSR #every #Putin #Russia #statistics #Ukraine

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Last week, the «Russian Volunteer Corps» finally published its program and ideological doctrine. «Finally»—because this nationalist formation, which switched sides to Ukraine in February 2022, has long called on the Russian opposition to unite. Of course, by default—under the banners of the RVC. In short, hopes for a proper evolution of Russian nationalists have not come true.

#WarinUkraine #demography #democracy #discussion #Institute #ideology #Nazism #new #opposition #rightandleft #reformsofthe1990s #Russia #Russiannationalists #Russianmilitarycorps #ThirdReich #LaborandCapital #fascism

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In early January 2026, Russian journalist and emigrant Evgeny Safronov tragically died near Paris. This story exposed the problem of vulnerability among people experiencing prolonged stress and social isolation, which many emigrants face. We spoke with staff from the Reforum Help psychological support service about the signs of psychological distress and how to help yourself and others during such times.

#Helpontheforum #WarinUkraine #psychology #Russia #suicide #France #Emigration

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Old New Year has passed, the Christmas holidays are over, and 2026 has fully come into its own. The wild start to the new calendar stretch—Nicolás Maduro’s nighttime flight, the resurgence of piracy in the Atlantic Ocean, and blood-soaked Iran—may have pushed into the background the fact that we have now been living for four years in the largest war in Europe in the last 80 years.

#Analytics #WarinUkraine #state #europe #Zelensky #violence #society #forecasts #Putin #Russia #USA #Trump

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First came the nighttime abduction of the friendly Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, then the boarding of two «shadow» tankers in the Atlantic, and now the announcement of «bone-crushing» sanctions that Congress had postponed all of last year. It seems incredible that less than two weeks ago, pro-government media in Russia were seriously anticipating a rapprochement between Moscow and Washington and predicting diplomatic isolation for Kyiv. The «spirit of Anchorage,» which Kremlin propaganda so eagerly inhaled last autumn, has completely dissipated by winter.

#Analytics #Venezuela #VladimirPutin #WarinUkraine #DonaldTrump #acrisis #NicolasMaduro #Russia #USA #shadowfleet

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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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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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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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Sociologist Lev Gudkov has been studying public attitudes in Russia since the time of Perestroika. In the late 1980s, he worked at the All-Union Center for the Study of Public Opinion, from which he left in the early 2000s along with Yuri Levada’s team. From 2006 to 2021, Gudkov headed the Levada Center—the largest independent organization conducting sociological surveys in Russia—and then became its scientific director. Both the Levada Center and Gudkov himself have been designated as foreign agents by the Russian Ministry of Justice. Drawing on years of sociological surveys of post-Soviet society and the historical experience of countries that went through fascism in the 20th century, we spoke with the renowned researcher about the most likely scenario for Russia’s future.

#future #WarinUkraine #state #degradation #democracy #dictatorship #europe #lifeintheUSSR #west #interview #LevadaCenter #society #afterPutin #forecast #reforms #Russia #socialsphere #sociology #futurology #Economy

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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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On December 5, 1994, Ukraine signed the Budapest Memorandum with three nuclear powers who guaranteed its security and independence in exchange for giving up its stockpile of nuclear weapons. This agreement was supposed to prevent any conflict between Ukraine and Russia. But it turned out to be a useless piece of paper.

#America #BillClinton #BorisYeltsin #BudapestMemorandum #UnitedKingdom #WarinUkraine #diplomacy #west #Crimea #LeonidKuchma #MikhailGorbachev #Independence #aftertheUSSR #Russia #sovereignty #USA #Ukraine #Economy #nuclearweapons

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The Russian regime can only voluntarily end such a large-scale conflict as the war in Ukraine with a victory. But what exactly counts as a victory—capturing another Donbas district center, reaching the borders of the «new regions,» or the public execution of Zelensky—after almost 1,400 days of carnage, the Kremlin and Ostankino still haven’t decided.

#Analytics #VladimirZelensky #WarinUkraine #diplomacy #DonaldTrump #KirillDmitriev #collectivePutin #scandal #SteveWitkoff

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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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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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