The Real Russia. Today. Moscow might ban CNN and other U.S. media outlets; Russia's transgender community gets some good news; and Roskomnadzor creates a new department to fight Internet anonymizers

Story of the day: Russia might ban CNN and more

The Russian government is reportedly entertaining the idea of banning several American media outlets, sources tell the news agency Interfax. It’s still unknown exactly which outlets the Attorney General’s Office might declare to be “undesirable organizations.” The Russian government currently bans 11 such organizations. Read the full story in English.

• If the Attorney General’s Office decides that a particular foreign or international organization threatens Russia’s national security, it can declare that group to be “undesirable.” Cooperating in any way with an undesirable organization carries stiff criminal penalties, and the organizations themselves are prohibited from disseminating information inside Russia, including on the Internet.
• In May 2017, members of United Russia, the country’s ruling political party, charged the American media with trying to influence Russia’s domestic politics, particularly during the last State Duma elections in 2016. Party members singled out the U.S.-government funded publications Golos Ameriki (Voice of America) and Radio Svoboda (Radio Freedom), as well as CNN.

🇷🇺 and the 🌏

The bomb threats that have swept Russia since September, causing mass evacuations and enormous financial losses, are the work of four Russian citizens living abroad, according to a statement on Thursday by Alexander Bortnikov, the head of Russia’s Federal Security Service. Bortnikov also noted that his agency hasn’t cut off all contact with American intelligence agencies, despite the decline in U.S.-Russian relations. “We haven’t severed our contacts with our American partners, despite the problems that exist. There are direct contacts between the heads of intelligence services, primarily with the CIA. This relates not just to issues with Syria, but more generally to anti-terrorist matters,” he explained.

• Beginning on September 10, anonymous bomb threats have caused evacuations in cities across Russia. In most cases, the callers claim there is a bomb planted in a local government office, a shopping center, a school, or a train station. Every time, it’s been a hoax, but precautionary evacuations have affected tens of thousands of people, causing more than 300 million rubles ($5.2 million) in just the first few days alone, according to the FSB.

Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted Saudi Arabia’s King Salman for talks at the Kremlin on Thursday, cementing a relationship that is pivotal for world oil prices and could decide the outcome of the conflict in Syria. Saudi Arabia said it had signed a memorandum of understanding on the purchase from Russia of S-400 air defense systems. That marked a shift for the kingdom, which buys most of its military kit from the United States and Britain. Story by Reuters.

🇷🇺 and 🇸🇾

ISIS militants have executed both of the Russian citizens they recently captured in Syria, according to State Duma deputy Viktor Vodolatssky, who says Roman Zabolotnyi and Grigory Tsurkanu were killed for refusing to ”recant their Orthodox faith, renounce their country, convert to Islam, and join ISIS.” “They were faithful to Orthodoxy and the Motherland to the very end, and they were killed for it by these bandits,” Vodolatssky said.

• Open-source investigators believe Zabolotnyi traveled to Syria to fight in the “Wagner group,” a private military contractor staffed by mercenaries from Russia and Ukraine. The organization has possible financial ties to the Kremlin-connected entrepreneur Evgeny Prigozhin, and its commanders have received awards from the Russian government.

Moscow says a Russian Mi-28 military helicopter made an emergency landing on October 6 in the Syrian province of Hama due to a technical malfunction. No one was reportedly injured in the incident. An ISIS media outlet previously claimed that Islamic State militants shot down a helicopter outside Hama.

Good news for Russia's transgender community 🏳️‍🌈

Russian Health Ministry officials have drafted an official form for sex reassignment surgery. The form, which would be issued by a medical commission and record that the surgery occurred, could then be submitted to a government registration office in order to change an individual’s birth certificate. The commissions would consist of a psychiatrist, a sexologist, and a psychologist. People would only be able to appeal to these commissions, however, after at least 18 months of observation by a psychiatrist.

• While Russian law contains provisions allowing for individuals to change the sex registered on their passports, the Health Ministry has never issued an official form to enable this process. As a result, most registration officials refuse to re-register people, who have sometimes resorted to lawsuits.

More 💪 for Russia's government censor

Roskomnadzor, Russia’s federal censor, has created a new department that will study ways to block different Internet anonymizers, the agency’s head, Alexander Zharov, told the newspaper Izvestia on Friday. “They’re training to block all online resources that must be blocked, if they break the law,” Zharov said.

• Russia’s ban on Internet anonymizers takes effect on November 1, 2017, allowing the Federal Security Service and Interior Ministry to identify websites and online services that offer access to banned content in Russia. If the Internet resources continue circumventing Russian censorship after being warned formally, they, too, will be blocked in Russia.

Keep an eye on the weekend 🗓🎂

Saturday, October 7: Opposition politician Alexey Navalny, currently running for president from inside a Moscow jail cell, is calling for nationwide protests on Saturday, which happens to be Vladimir Putin’s 65th birthday.