Putin talks to ‘soldiers’ mothers’ in staged Kremlin meeting PRO Members Public
Putin last week took part in a meeting with the mothers of soldiers killed in the war in Ukraine. The title “soldiers’ mother” carries a lot of influence in Russia — and Putin was famously humiliated by a group of soldiers’ relatives in his early years as president. Unsurprisingly, Friday’s
Russian start-ups skating on thin ice in the West PRO Members Public
Immigram, a U.K. project with Russian roots, won a competition for start-ups at the prominent Slush conference in Helsinki earlier this month. However, within a few days, the company opted out of the award and the organizers withdrew the €1 million prize. This happened because of criticism on social
Kudrin leaves public office to take top role at new look Yandex PRO Members Public
Former Finance Minister Aleksei Kudrin, once a leading liberal in President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle, is leaving public service to go into business. He is set to take charge of Yandex, Russia’s leading IT company. The transformation of a senior official into a businessman appears to be one
Kudrin & Yandex PRO Members Public
Hello! This week our top story is about former Finance Minister Aleksei Kudrin’s role in getting Kremlin approval to break up Yandex — and his decision to take a top role at the company. We also look at the fuss over Immigram when it had a prestigious European prize rescinded
How foreigners are disposing of their Russian assets PRO Members Public
After war broke out, there was a stampede of Western companies out of Russia. But, in early March, the government slowed that process: all transactions between Russian companies and citizens or businesses in countries designated as “unfriendly” must now be approved by a special commission. The Bell looked at how
Russia ignores the killing of an ex-convict turned soldier in Ukraine PRO Members Public
Yevgeny Nuzhin was serving a prison sentence for murder in Russia, but was recruited by Wagner to go and fight in Ukraine. There, Nuzhin was captured. But he was somehow returned to Russia and, soon afterwards, a video was circulated on social media showing him being bludgeoned to death with
Unmasking Russia’s influential pro-war ‘Rybar’ Telegram channel PRO Members Public
The war in Ukraine has created an influential new Russian media space with an audience of tens of millions — channels on messaging app Telegram that specialize in war reporting and analysis. One of the most significant among them is the anonymous channel Rybar with 1.1 million followers. Rybar publishes
Pro-war media PRO Members Public
Hello! This week our top story is an investigation into one of Russia’s biggest pro-war Telegram channels, which has been anonymous until now. We also look at how Russia ignored the extra-judicial killing of an ex-convict recruited to fight in Ukraine and the ways foreign companies are trying to
Kherson retreat PRO Members Public
Hello! This week we devote the whole of our newsletter to the Russian army’s latest defeat in Ukraine: the evacuation of the right bank of the Dnipro River and the abandonment of the city of Kherson, the only regional capital captured by Russia in eight months of war. The
Anti-war tycoon pledges to sue his ex-bank for using his name in branding PRO Members Public
Oleg Tinkov, the former billionaire best known for founding Tinkoff Bank, one of the biggest in Russia, was forced to sell his business to billionaire Vladimir Potanin for just 3% of its market value earlier this year. In an interview published last week with The Bell’s founder, Elizaveta Osetinksaya,
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The Bell was founded in 2017 by journalists Elizaveta Osetinskaya, Irina Malkova and Peter Mironenko as a news outlet independent from the Russian authorities, after its founders have been sacked as top editors at the largest Russian news website RBC because of pressure from the Kremlin.
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