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Derk Sauer, founder of Vedomosti and The Moscow Times, dies PRO Members Public
Derk Sauer, the Dutch media manager, who spearheaded independent media in Russia, has died at the age of 72. Sauer arrived in Russia in the dying days of the Soviet Union, and in the 1990s became renowned as one of the founding fathers of the post-Soviet media market. He created
Internet outages and airport disruption threaten Putin’s deal with Russia’s middle classes PRO Members Public
While Russians living in Moscow and other cities away from the border have suffered nothing like the kind of deadly attacks Ukrainians in Kyiv have been put through — with Vladimir Putin deploying hundreds of drones and missiles in escalating nightly barrages — the cost of the war is starting to become
Russia legalizes the Taliban PRO Members Public
The Taliban, banned as a “terrorist organization” in Russia for more than 20 years, has been legalized and had the label expunged by Russia’s Supreme Court, in another sign of warming ties between Russia and the Islamist group. The development is not surprising. Over recent years, the Russian authorities
More than five years in jail for being a journalist PRO Members Public
Journalism continues to be a dangerous profession in Russia. Last week, a Moscow court sentenced four journalists to five and a half years in prison on charges of collaborating with the Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK), an organisation founded by Alexei Navalny and outlawed as “extremist” in Russia. * The journalists — Antonina Favorskaya,
Soaring ruble set to come back down to earth PRO Members Public
To the surprise of many, the first four months of 2025 have turned out to be one of the best periods for the Russian currency in recent years. The ruble, which ended 2024 with its worst performance since 2022, has suddenly started to strengthen, boosted by a host of factors.
Russian pro-war bloggers blame Ukrainian civilians after deadly missile strike PRO Members Public
A Russian strike on the Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih on Friday killed 20 people, among them nine children. Images of the aftermath of the strike and details of the devastation triggered anger around the world, more than three years after Moscow's invasion. In Russia, pro-war military bloggers
More trouble for Putin’s former aide Chubais PRO Members Public
Russian law enforcement agencies have stepped up their targeting of Rusnano, a state company that invested in promising tech projects. For the first time, Anatoly Chubais, one of the architects of Moscow’s 1990s economic reforms and long-time Rusnano chief, is himself coming under direct threat. Until recently, Chubais – who
Propagandists revel in US tariffs, ignoring peril to Russian economy PRO Members Public
Russian officials and propagandists rushed to portray the United States’ new tariffs as a blow against Europe – completely ignoring the potential consequences it could have on Russia’s domestic economy. The main message on state media has been that the tariffs have divided the EU, while U.S. President Donald
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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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