The Real Russia. Today. The Bolshoi Theater may have canceled the greatest ballet of the century; The Moscow Times’ former chief editor takes issue with the “new editorial line”; and behold the opposition’s diabolic plot

Transportation titans unite. Uber and Yandex.Taxi have agreed to merge their services in Russia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, and Kazakhstan. According to a statement by Yandex.Taxi general director Tigran Khudaverdyan, sent to Meduza by Yandex’s press office, Khudaverdyan will head the new unified company. Uber has agreed to invest $225 million in the new company, and Yandex.Taxi will invest another $100 million. The combined company will be worth an estimated $3.7 billion. Story in English

Cancelled: the “greatest ballet of the century.” On July 11, a new ballet directed by Kirill Serebrennikov was scheduled to premiere at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow. Three days before Opening Day, however, the theater’s management announced that the premiere was being delayed a full year, claiming that the performance wasn’t yet ready. Sources in the theater industry suspect that the decision to postpone “Nureyev” was made under pressure from Russia’s Culture Ministry, and possibly because Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky personally objected to the ballet’s supposed “gay propaganda.” The show’s final dress rehearsal was on July 8, and it was captured on video. Five fragments of this footage later leaked onto the Internet, as has footage from an earlier rehearsal on July 6. Tatyana Kuznetsova, a theater critic for the newspaper Kommersant, watched these videos and concluded that “Nureyev” appears to have been the best ballet produced by any theater in the world, so far this century. Meduza summarizes her review. Summary in English

The Moscow Times’ “new editorial line”? Mikhail Fishman, until recently the chief editor of The Moscow Times, is criticizing the newspaper’s new “editorial line,” since it moved to a charitable foundation headed by Dutch businessman Derk Sauer and Russian entrepreneur Demyan Kudryavtsev. “We were assured that the editorial line would remain intact,” Fishman wrote on Facebook this Thursday, drawing attention to an op-ed that appeared on July 12 by theater critic Alexander Kolesnikov defending the Bolshoi Theater’s controversial decision to cancel a ballet about Rudolf Nureyev. In the text, Kolesnikov takes wide aim at “liberal journalists” in Russia, saying many of them “are prepared to believe anything but the truth.” Story in English

A Russian Internet crackdown inspired by the Germans. Russian lawmakers want to force social networks to delete all “illegal content” identified by users. How would that work? Meduza answers 12 basic questions about legislation modeled on Germany’s controversial new crackdown on Internet hate speech. Story in English

The opposition’s most diabolical plot yet. The Russian state-owned television network Rossiya 24 aired a news segment last month about the supposed connection between the sudden popularity of “fidget spinners” and the actions of Russia’s anti-Kremlin political opposition. Titled “Spinners: Stress Relief, a Get-Rich Scheme, and an Oppositionist Toy,” the report claims that opposition activists are using the toys to raise funds and seduce young people. Story in English

Alexey Navalny has supposedly grounded the prime minister’s campaigning plans this summer. Reportedly against the expectations of his own political party, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, the leader of United Russia, hasn’t joined regional campaign efforts this summer, avoiding trips to the regions where gubernatorial races will take place this September. Instead, President Putin has been visiting United Russia’s regional candidates. According to the newspaper Vedomosti, Medvedev’s diminished public role is likely tied to corruption allegations by Alexey Navalny, whose nationwide protest movement has damaged the prime minister’s political reputation. Medvedev’s spokesperson has denied this rumor. Story in English