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Top Russian officials named in Pandora Papers Members Public

Offshore assets belonging to Russian officials and top executives at state-owned companies featured prominently in material published last week by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). The main revelations concerning Russia included: * Konstantin Ernst, the head of state-owned Channel One who is often described as President Vladimir Putin’s

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Nobel arguments Members Public

Hello! Our top story this week is about the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov — and why the decision has divided public opinion. We also look at Russia’s decision to send an actor and director to the International Space Station to shoot the first

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Group-IB’s Ilya Sachkov arrested on treason charge Members Public

Ilya Sachkov, founder of one of Russia’s biggest IT companies, was arrested Wednesday in Moscow. The 35-year-old businessman is accused of treason, which carries a potential 20-year prison term. As the case is classified, there is little public information and several theories are circulating about why such a prominent

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Navalny faces new criminal charges that will add years to jail time Members Public

Opposition figure Alexei Navalny’s prison sentence is due to end in mid-2023, but this week it emerged there are plans to keep him behind bars for far longer. The powerful Investigative Committee launched Thursday a case against Navalny and the other directors of his Anti-Corruption Fund (designated an extremist

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Will Russia ban YouTube? Members Public

When YouTube blocked state-owned media outlet RT’s German-language channels Tuesday, accusing them of spreading fake news about coronavirus, the Russian authorities promised “retaliatory measures”. These could include the complete shuttering of YouTube in Russia — the Kremlin has more than one way of doing this. * YouTube deleted two of RT’

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Cyber-CEO arrested Members Public

Hello! This week our top story is the arrest of prominent cyber-executive Ilya Sachkov on treason charges. We also look at what’s at stake in the new criminal case against jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny, why YouTube could be banned, record COVID-19 deaths, a large batch of ‘foreign agents’

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How United Russia won the State Duma elections Members Public

Online voting turned out to be the biggest issue at last week’s parliamentary elections. But there are different opinions about its effect: some experts are certain it was used to carry out mass electoral fraud; others believe it just meant state-sector employees voted online for the ruling United Russia

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What to ban after fatal high school shooting in Perm? Members Public

An 18-year-old student at Perm State University brought an automatic weapon onto campus Monday and opened fire, leaving six people dead and 43 injured. * The 20-minute killing spree was carried out by freshman Timur Bekmansurov. Among the pieces of harrowing footage to subsequently appear online was a video showing terrified

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