The Real Russia. Today. Russian officials and pro-Kremlin activists renew the assault on Alexey Navalny’s presidential campaign; a Russian hacker is locked up; and Moscow bans a popular nationalist website

Russia at home

The renewed crackdown on Alexey Navalny’s presidential campaign. On July 5, police in Novosibirsk announced that they had reason to believe a bomb had been planted in Alexey Navalny’s local campaign headquarters. Officers promptly smashed in the door to the building and detained three people inside, including two campaign volunteers. Earlier that day, police spent the morning trying to use another excuse to enter the building, where Navalny’s staff was storing thousands of campaign newspapers for distribution throughout Siberia and eastern Russia. The police ultimately confiscated some of these materials, but the campaign managed to sneak most of them out a back window. The day before, on July 4, Navalny’s local campaign headquarters in Krasnodar was ransacked. In other cities across the country, the state authorities have refused to allow members of Navalny’s team to conduct any public campaigning. Meduza summarizes this latest nationwide crackdown on Alexey Navalny’s presidential campaign. Story in English

New firings and hiring by the president. Vladimir Putin signed an executive order on Thursday making several personnel changes in Russian law enforcement. According to the document, published online, the president dismissed eight generals, a major-general in the Federal Emergency Management Agency, a lieutenant-general in the Federal Penitentiary Service, the district attorney of Buryatia, and the first deputy head of the Federal Bailiff Service. Putin appointed new public prosecutors in the Tyva, Novgorod, and Kostroma regions. Story in Russian

Lawmakers back down from surrogate motherhood ban. A State Duma committee on family issues has refused to endorse draft legislation that would have banned surrogate motherhood. Lawmakers haven’t yet offered any explanation for why they aren’t recommending adoption of the bill. In late March, Senator Anton Belyakov introduced the legislation, arguing that “numerous scientific students” show surrogate motherhood exposes children to serious psychological risks. Story in Russian

A Russian hacker boss is sent to the slammer. A Moscow court has sentenced Vladimir Anikeev, the former leader of the hacktivist group “Anonymous International,” to two years in prison for unlawfully accessing private information. Anikeev pled guilty and his trial was classified and held behind closed doors. Prosecutors say he led “Anonymous International,” which stole and auctioned off private correspondence belonging state officials and entrepreneurs. Story in English

They’re are making a cartoon based on “Zhdun,” that armless, Dutch-created meme abomination. The Russian company “CD Land” has purchased the rights to use the “Zhdun” brand created by Dutch sculptor Margriet van Breevoort. The company’s president, Yuri Tseitlin, says he plans to resell the brand to major companies that will in turn manufacture toys, tableware, and office supplies — all based on the lumpy, legless creature created by Breevoort. Margriet van Breevoort sculpted “Homunculus Loxodontus” in the spring of 2016. The following January, images of the bizarre sculpture — seemingly half-seal, half-elephant — exploded on the Russian Internet, birthing the name “Zhdun,” which means roughly “he who waits.” According to Google, the meme hit peak trendiness in February 2017. Story in English

Russia and the world

Takeaways from the July 4 meeting between Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping. Ahead of the G20 summit in Hamburg, where Vladimir Putin will meet with President Donald Trump for the first time, the Russian president held a meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Meduza summarizes the rather interesting results of this encounter. Story in English

More problems for Russian border troops who “lost their way” into Ukraine. The Federal Security Service in Kiev has launched a criminal case against two Russian border guards detained last month in Ukraine’s Kherson region. The two men being accused of encroaching on the inviolability of Ukraine’s territorial integrity. Russia’s Federal Security Service in Crimea says the two border guards merely got lost during training exercises near the Russian-Ukrainian border. Story in Russian

Russia blocks the country’s most prominent Russian nationalist website. Russia’s Attorney General has ordered the federal censor to begin blocking the Russian nationalist website Sputnik & Pogrom, arguing that the political blog “propagates ethnic and religious hatred, forming a public security threat and inciting extremism.” The website started out as a community on Vkontakte by the same name, created by Egor Prosvirnin in 2012. In 2014, Sputnik & Pogrom became known for openly crowdfunding an armored personnel carrier for pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine. Story in English