Every Saturday, Novaya Gazeta Europe editor-in-chief Kyrill Martynov reviews the key events of the week in Russia and around the world.
Russia, it is claimed, is running out of money for the war. Putin called on the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs to chip in for the army. At the same time, according to opinion polls, Putin’s trust rating has fallen to its lowest level since the start of the war.
The Interior Ministry intends to sell Russians’ personal data and also wants to ban elderly people from receiving calls from abroad. Trial-in-absentia sentences were handed down to journalists Valeriya Ratnikova and Ksenia Luchenko. In addition, a new FSB “social experiment” has emerged: how do you first create a case and then solve it?
Continuing the Oscars-related story: Pavel Talankin was designated a foreign agent, and the film Mr. Nobody Against Putin itself was banned in Russia. At the same time, control over the distribution of foreign films in Russia is to be handed to Kovalchuk or Gazprom.
There really is an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in the Novosibirsk region, a local agricultural holding told Novaya Gazeta Europe. But why, then, are cows being burned alive?
Blocking news: there will be no rallies for internet freedom, and organizers are being summoned to the police. However, schoolchildren from the Urals still decided to stage their own protest at the doors of Roskadastr, having confused it with Roskomnadzor. The Digital Development Ministry plans to tighten blocking once the necessary equipment is purchased, and AI filtering is also being introduced in the Russian internet.
Cringe of the week: diocesan laser tag, Trump-themed gift socks, sperm tests for bathhouse visitors, and a man on a white horse inside a store in Sochi.