MEDIAZONA
July 21, 2022
The war in Ukraine has been going on for almost five months. As a result of the Russian invasion, tens of thousands of people died, millions became refugees. Mediazona tells four stories of Ukrainians who had to save not only their families, but also their pets — dozens of dogs, cats, a pig, a pony, and a wolf.
July 18, 2022
Absolutely pets. Russia is running out of vaccines needed to take pets abroad
After the full-scale invasion of Ukraine and the disruption of supply chains due to sanctions, Russia has seen a shortage of many categories of goods, among them foreign-certified vaccines for pets, which are necessary for traveling with a pet abroad. Mediazona asked market participants, few of whom agreed to answer questions, about what the consequences of this shortage might be and whether the path to emigration would really be closed to animals.
July 16, 2022
The Oktyabrsky District Court of Novorossiysk fined former activist Askhabali Alibekov 50,000 rubles in an administrative case on “discrediting” the Russian army. He spoke about this in his YouTube channel “Wild Paratrooper”.
On July 14, Judge Manolis Kerasov found Alibekov guilty under Part 1 of Article 20.3.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses. The activist did not say what exactly was the reason for drawing up the protocol. According to him, during the meeting, Kerasov “shut his lawyer’s mouth” and “refused to accept all petitions.” Alibekov called his decision “illegal”.
July 13, 2022
A resident of Pyatigorsk was fined 30 thousand rubles for damaging the sign Z on Mount Mashuk
The Pyatigorsk city court fined 29-year-old local resident Dmitry Semin 30,000 rubles for ruining the letter Z on Mount Mashuk. This is reported by the “Caucasian Knot”.
Semin was found guilty under an administrative protocol on “discrediting” the military (Part 1 of Article 20.3.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses). “I destroyed the letter Z out of my own motives, I didn’t have any thoughts of discrediting the Russian army,” Semin said after the trial.
July 8, 2022
Three Ufa hockey players will be tried in the case of giving a bribe for a deferment from the army
In Ufa, three hockey players were charged with giving a bribe for a deferment from the army. This was reported by the press service of the Leninsky district court of Ufa.
Hockey players Mikhail Vorobyov, Vladislav Lukin and Anvar Suleimanov were suspected of giving bribes on a large scale (Part 4 of Article 291 of the Criminal Code). According to RIA Novosti, the athletes are under house arrest.
July 3, 2022
Lawyer Alexei Ponomarev told TASS that hockey player Ivan Fedotov was taken away from the 1st Naval Clinical Hospital in St. Petersburg, where he was taken by ambulance from the military registration and enlistment office the day before.
“He was taken away yesterday from the territory of the hospital. Where, while it is not known exactly, we find out on this situation. Tentatively, to Severomorsk, at the place of possible service, but so far we cannot say for sure. I don’t have any information on his well-being yet,” the lawyer said.
July 2, 2022
Universal Pictures finally leaves Russia and closes the local office
The film company Universal Pictures finally leaves Russia and closes the local office. This was reported by the telegram channel “Film Distributor’s Bulletin” with reference to a source in the company.
“The parent company has decided to cease operations in the Russian Federation, as it has become impossible to conduct business due to the many difficulties faced by foreign companies,” Universal Pictures said in a letter that the company sent to several cinemas.
July 1, 2022
Russian troops surrounded Mariupol on 2 March. On March 19, they came close to the Azovstal metallurgical plant – but, despite continuous shelling and bombing, they failed to capture it in two months. The last Ukrainian military, defending the already destroyed enterprise, surrendered only on May 16. Kyiv journalist Maxim Butchenko spoke with people who saw these events from the inside – from shelters equipped in factory basements.
June 29, 2022
Until June 27, Kremenchug, a city in the Poltava region, suffered less from the war than many other cities in Ukraine. Everything changed after a Russian missile hit the Amstor shopping center – this is the most popular place in the city, where at that moment there were many visitors. About 60 people died or went missing under the rubble. Petr Ruzavin went to Kremenchug, where he visited the destroyed shopping center and spoke with the victims.
June 26, 2022
Biden announced that the G7 countries will abandon Russian gold
The G7 countries will announce the rejection of Russian gold. US President Joseph Biden announced this on Twitter .
In turn , Reuters , citing the British government , clarifies that only four countries will impose a ban on imports – the United States, Great Britain, Japan and Canada. The restriction will only affect gold mined after its introduction.
June 21, 2022
Lithuania extended the ban on transit to Kaliningrad to freight road transport
Lithuania has extended the ban on the transportation of goods to the Kaliningrad region to truck transport. This was reported to Interfax by the press service of the regional government. The same information was confirmed to the agency by several carriers.
June 20, 2022
The alleged assets of President Vladimir Putin are owned by companies linked to each other by the same domain. This is stated in the investigation ofOCCRP and Meduza.
June 19, 2022
The head of the Crimean parliament, Vladimir Konstantinov, told RIA Novosti that the regional authorities decided to demolish a car service in the Krasnogvardeisky district, which refused to repair a military truck with the letter Z.
June 18, 2022
Rain water, solar panels and a boat crossing – what happens to the civilians of Severodonetsk, who took refuge at the Azot plant, and why they do not leave the territory of the enterprise.
June 16, 2022
The court in Petrozavodsk sent 57-year-old art teacher Irina Bystrov to a compulsory in-patient psychiatric examination. Due to several posts on VKontakte, she is accused of spreading fake news about the Russian army and justifying terrorism. If Irina is sent to a psychiatric clinic, she will be left with a bedridden 83-year-old mother at home with no one to look after her. The teacher is trying to challenge the court-approved petition of the investigator and says that her mother otherwise “will simply die.”
June 14, 2022
Annunciator Vladislav Nikitenko has been provoking Russian courts and law enforcement agencies for decades. He is a self-taught lawyer, for the sake of complaints to various authorities, he spares neither his time nor the nerves of civil servants. Barely released after five and a half years in prison, he became the first to be prosecuted under a new article of the Criminal Code on “discrediting” the army. Before the next arrest, he managed to talk to Mediazona and tell why he was doing all this.
June 11, 2022
The Kherson region is almost completely controlled by the Russian army – and in Russia, more and more frankly, they are talking about its annexation “according to the Crimean scenario.” Kherson is the only captured regional center of Ukraine. But the main population of the region is rural, many had to flee from the occupation. Refugees from the north of the region ended up in neighboring Krivoy Rog. Peter Ruzavin went there to find out how they survived the invasion in the villages.
June 10, 2022
Harvest battle. Why the lack of Ukrainian grain has put the world on the brink of starvation
On June 8, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov flew to Ankara for talks with his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu. The parties discussed the war in Ukraine – and the issue of Ukrainian grain exports, which had become especially relevant in the fourth month of fighting, was actually blocked by the Russian invasion. As the protracted artillery duel in the Donbass continues, international food markets are in a fever, grain already harvested is rotting in elevators, and the countries of the global south fear starvation. “Mediazona” tells how the attack of one grain supplier on another brought down the world food system.
June 8, 2022
In St. Petersburg, the Kalininsky District Court arrested former priest Ioann Kurmoyarov in the case of spreading “fake news” about the army (Part 2 of Article 207.3 of the Criminal Code). This is reported by the joint press service of the courts of the region.
As Baza writes without specifying the source, the reason for initiating the case was the video “Who will be in hell and who will be in heaven?”, In which Kurmoyarov criticizes Russia’s military aggression in Ukraine from the point of view of Christian doctrine. The experts who conducted the examination decided that the video contains “deliberately false information” about the Russian army.
June 5, 2022
Roskomnadzor, at the request of the Prosecutor General’s Office, for the first time blocked the website of the Ukrainian publication Grati and mirrors of Radio Liberty projects. This follows from the data of Roskomsvoboda.
The United24 website for collecting charitable donations in support of Ukraine, created on the initiative of President Volodymyr Zelensky, and Ukrainian media Root Nation , Svoi Krivoy Rog, Merezha Novin, Strana.UA, AllNews were also blocked .
June 3, 2022
By the 100th day of the war, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation continue their offensive in the Donbass, and the Moscow-appointed authorities of the occupied regions of Ukraine are talking about joining Russia. The flow of refugees to the EU is declining: Ukrainians are starting to return home.
June 2, 2022
Users in Russia had problems connecting to the Proton VPN service , the company suggested that they began to block it. This is reported on the ProtonMail website .
“We are currently investigating the issue, but it is not caused by any changes on our part. It is likely that local ISPs and authorities are interfering with VPN connections, in which case we will not be able to resolve such issues. Some servers may continue to work. We continue to try to bypass the lock. Thank you for your patience and understanding,” the company said.
May 31, 2022
Navalny was charged with creating an extremist community
Politician Alexei Navalny, who is in the Vladimir colony, was charged with creating an extremist community. This was reported on the opposition’s Twitter.
“It turns out that I created an extremist group to incite hatred towards officials and oligarchs. And when I was imprisoned, I dared to be this dissatisfied (really, that it was me) and called for rallies. For this, I am supposed to throw up to 15 years, ”his associates quote Navalny as saying.
May 28, 2022
The Leninsky District Court of Ivanovo fined Olga Nazarenko, an associate professor at the local medical academy and activist, 40,000 rubles for a quote by Ukrainian poetess Lina Kostenko on a poster. Her lawyer Oscar Cherdzhiev told about this to Mediazona.
Nazarenko was found guilty of “discrediting” the Russian army (Part 1 of Article 20.3.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses). On the poster, the activist wrote: “If you don’t tell anyone there, we’ll overcome the evil and the truth!”.
May 27, 2022
President Vladimir Putin signed a decree imposing restrictions on settlements with “unfriendly” copyright holders and copyright holders from “unfriendly” countries. The decree is published on the official website of legal information.
The decree comes into force on May 27.
May 26, 2022
After the story with the mass sending of parcels from the Belarusian Mozyr, Mediazona continued to monitor how the Russian military uses the services of the CDEK company. Our monitoring included 13 cities along the border of Ukraine with Russia and Belarus. We found not only an anomalous increase in shipments , which coincided with the outbreak of the war, but also unusual connections between cities, confirming the version of wholesale looting. And in one case, the Russian military used the SDEK to transport a military drone – and, possibly, robbed not only Ukrainians, but also their own army.
May 25, 2022
Tatarstan citizen fined for spitting at a banner with the letter Z framed by the St. George ribbon
The Yelabuga City Court fined a Tatar citizen 15,000 rubles under the article on “discrediting” the Russian army (Article 20.3.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses) because of spitting at a poster with the letter Z. This is reported by the “Kazan Reporter” with reference to the press service of the court.
According to the publication, the protocol says that the man saw the letter Z on the poster framed by the St. George ribbon and spat into it to express his anti-war position.
May 23, 2022
Boris Bondarev, an employee of the Russian permanent mission to the UN in Geneva, announced his resignation due to the war with Ukraine. The diplomat’s letter was published by Hillel Neuer, an international lawyer at the UN.
“I have never been as ashamed of my country as on February 24 this year. The aggressive war against Ukraine, and in fact – against the entire West, unleashed by Putin, is not only a crime against the Ukrainian people, but also, perhaps, the most serious crime against the Russians themselves, whose hopes for life in a prosperous free society were crossed out by the letter Z ” – said Bondarev.
May 22, 2022
During the line dedicated to the last call, at the Dagestan school, the graduate spoke out against the war in Ukraine. The video with her speech was published by the Atypical Makhachkala group on VKontakte.
May 21, 2022
Announcing a “special military operation” against Ukraine, Vladimir Putin called its main goal “the protection of people who have been subjected to bullying and genocide by the Kiev regime for eight years.” By phone and through social networks, Mediazona contacted residents of the self-proclaimed republics to find out what had changed for them since the start of the war.
May 20, 2022
Losses of Russia in the war with Ukraine. Mediazone summary
Mediazona, together with the BBC and a team of volunteers, continues to collect data on Russian soldiers killed in the war with Ukraine. This number does not reflect the real level of casualties: we only see public reports of deaths. These include posts by relatives, news in regional media, and reports from local authorities. In addition, the number of missing and captured is unknown.
May 19, 2022
Since the first days of the invasion of Ukraine, Russian propaganda has been in search of a symbol that can unite those who approve of the war. For three months, in this capacity, they managed to try out the Latin letters Z and V , which were applied to army equipment, images of a pensioner Anna Ivanova, who met Ukrainian soldiers with a Soviet flag, and most recently, the image of a boy Alyosha from the Belgorod region, who runs to see off the tanks leaving for the war . Mediazona spoke with three academics about why the authorities are so obsessed with symbols and what impact they have on the minds of Russians.
May 18, 2022
Ukraine. The first trial of the Russian military
In Kyiv, the trial of 21-year-old Russian military Vadim Shishimarin began – he is accused of killing a civilian in the Sumy region. Under the article on violation of the laws and customs of war (Part 2 of Article 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine), he faces a term of up to life. A correspondent of the Ukrainian edition is in the Solomensky District Court”Grati”, which leads online . With the permission of his colleagues, Mediazon promptly transmits their messages from the court to Russian readers.
May 16, 2022
49-year-old teacher Alexander Boburov taught physics for 10 years at the private school “President” near Moscow, where the children of officials and businessmen study. In February, he told his students about the beginning of the war and compared Vladimir Putin to Adolf Hitler. For this, Boburov was suspended from work, and then fired, considering his act “immoral.”
“As I heard, many woke up that morning and for some reason reached for their gadgets for information. So I also took the phone and learned with horror that the Russian Federation had invaded the borders of sovereign Ukraine, ”recalls Alexander Boburov on the morning of February 24.
May 15, 2022
Denis Grekov, a lecturer in the Critical Thinking course at the RANEPA, was asked to write a letter of resignation of his own free will after a complaint from university professor Natalia Tanshina about his post about a “shameful war.” Grekov told Mediazone about this.
According to the teacher, he was summoned to the dean’s office on May 11, where he wrote a letter of resignation from May 6. “I was offered to write of my own free will, I agreed. <…> You probably heard about Sergei Zuev. In general, in order not to create an additional reason for persecuting my university, I quite calmly wrote a statement, ”Grekov added. He has already been removed from the list of teachers on the RANEPA website.
May 13, 2022
At the entrance to the ecopark near Kharkov, a monument to its fallen workers will appear, its founder promised the other day – since the beginning of the war, six employees and volunteers have already been killed there. All of them tried to save animals from shelling and starvation, like hundreds of other Ukrainians and volunteers from all over the world. Mediazona tells how domestic and wild animals that have become victims of the war are being rescued in Ukraine.
May 12, 2022
The Vyborgsky District Court of St. Petersburg dismissed both administrative cases against Tatyana Levicheva, who was detained because of a green ribbon tied in a park. This was reported by the joint press service of the courts of the city.
The reason for the termination of cases was the “lack of composition.” Earlier, two protocols were drawn up against the activist under articles on “discrediting” the army (part 1 of article 20.3.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses) and petty hooliganism (part 1 of article 20.1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses).
May 10, 2022
In Ukraine, 22-year-old special forces soldier Artur Epifantsev, who served in the 23rd special forces detachment “Obereg”, died.
Information about this was published by several publics dedicated to special forces and the war in Ukraine. Reports specify that Epifantsev “died in action” on 13 April.
May 9, 2022
May 9. Anti-war actions and detentions throughout Russia
On May 9, Victory parades and the procession of the Immortal Regiment are held in the cities of Russia. Those who go to these actions with anti-war slogans are detained. A protocol on “discrediting” the Russian army (Part 1 of Article 20.3.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses) has already been drawn up against a Novosibirsk citizen for the poster “We defeated that fascism, we will defeat this one”, and the local deputy Svetlana Kaverzina, who offered to lay flowers at the memorial separately from the procession on May 9, was arrested for seven days (Part 2 of Article 20.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses).
May 8, 2022
Now the ashes lie alone. In the Krasnoyarsk Territory, entire villages burned down in half a day
A state of emergency has been declared in the Krasnoyarsk Territory: on Saturday, May 7, settlements burned there in more than ten districts, there are dead. To people who have lost everything, the local authorities promise to restore their houses “as soon as possible” and allocate 15,000 rubles each. Mediazona spoke with local residents about why they had to fight the fire mostly on their own.
May 7, 2022
Sota.Vision journalist detained at the exit from the house in Moscow
In Moscow , Anna Loiko, a journalist from Sota.Vision , was detained at the exit from her house , the editorial office of the publication reported .
Loiko at about 15:00 Moscow time managed to tell her colleagues about the detention and stopped answering calls.
May 6, 2022
In Kaluga, paint was poured over the car of a Pentecostal bishop who opposes the war
In Kaluga, the car of the bishop of the Word of Life Pentecostal Church, Albert Ratkin, was doused with paint and covered with V and Z signs, he himself announced this in a video on his YouTube channel.
May 5, 2022
France arrested a villa that journalists associate with the family of businessman Mikhail Fridman
In France, the Copab villa , allegedly owned by the family of the Russian oligarch and head of Alfa Bank Mikhail Fridman, was arrested, information about this appeared on the website of the French Ministry of Economy and Finance. The update drew the attention of The Insider.
Earlier, journalists from the Ukrainian project “Schemes” reported that this villa belongs to Fridman’s daughters and wife.
May 4, 2022
The international database of scientific citation Web of Science became unavailable in Russia
One of the international databases Web of Science became unavailable in Russia . Attention to this was drawn by the Russian research telegram channel, the information was confirmed by the vice-president of the Russian Academy of Sciences Alexei Khokhlov.
“According to numerous testimonies of colleagues, Clarivate Analytics services have become unavailable in Russia. Clarivate maintains one of the two leading international scientometric databases Web of Science (it allows you to track article citations, journal ratings, organization statistics, etc.),” the telegram channel reports.
May 3, 2022
Activist and journalist Irina Danilovich disappeared in Crimea
Irina Danilovich, an activist of the trade union movement of doctors and a citizen journalist, disappeared in Crimea. Her lawyer Ayder Azamatov told Krym.Realii about this .
At 6 am on April 29, Danilovich was returning home from work from Koktebel to the village of Vladislavovka. She was allegedly stopped by the police along the way. At 10 am, OMON officers searched the home of the activist’s parents, Azamatov said.
May 2, 2022
Kherson is the only regional center that Russian troops have managed to occupy since the beginning of their invasion of Ukraine. The city with a population of almost 300 thousand people has been under the control of Russian troops for two months. Two days ago, mobile communications and the Internet disappeared in the region: relatives of Kherson residents fear that right now the Russian authorities will hold a referendum in the city on the creation of a “Kherson People’s Republic” modeled on the DPR and LPR.