The Real Russia. Today. Russian TV takes on American sleeper agents; a prickly and alarming outburst by the Investigative Committee chief; and wow, that's a lot of corruption cases in one week

Story of the day: Russian 📺 takes on American sleeper agents

There’s a new series on Russian network television called “Sleepers.” On the show, American “sleeper” agents “activate” during an international crisis, in order to orchestrate a “color revolution” in Russia. The premiere prompted a wave of accusations that “Sleepers” amounts to Kremlin propaganda, as well as criticisms that it relies on genre cliches and stilted dialogue. Egor Moskvitin took a closer look at the show and discovered that it’s actually not half bad. Read his review in English.

Is this supposed to inspire confidence in federal investigators?

“Then I invite you to take up the vacant post of Investigative Committee branch chief in Chechnya. You can start tomorrow. Go ahead and put your ideas into practice. I’m ready to appoint you to work under Ramzan Akhmatovich [Kadyrov] tomorrow. We’ll see what you can do.”

This was Russian Investigative Committee head Alexander Bastrykin’s prickly response when asked at Moscow State University on Friday to explain his agency’s abuses of power and policing failures.

• The branch chief position in Chechnya has been formally vacant since 2013, when acting director Sergey Sokolov was appointed. His predecessor, Sergey Bobrov, spent just seven months on the job, before resigning “voluntarily.” According to the newspaper Novaya Gazeta, Bobrov stepped down after trying to investigate several unsolved crimes, which opened a feud with Magomed Daudov, then Ramzan Kadyrov’s chief of staff.

Wow, where'd all these corrupt officials come from?

A court has released on her own recognizance a fourth suspect in the fraud case against officials from Roskomnadzor, Russia’s federal censor, according to the newspaper Kommersant. Anastasia Zvyagintseva, who heads one of Roskomnadzor’s private contractors, allegedly organized a criminal scheme wherein her company billed the government for fictitious staff, and then handed the money over to corrupt Roskomnadzor officials.

• Investigators say one of the people collecting this embezzled money from the start of the scam was Roskomnadzor press secretary Vadim Ampelonsky, who’s been placed under house arrest. The suspects in the case say any extra money they earned at Roskomnadzor was payment for “irregular work.”

A military court in Moscow has sentenced Dmitry Pravikov, a deputy director in the Federal Security Service’s Information Security Center, to three years probation for abusing his authority. Pravikov has already filed an appeal with the Supreme Court. The details of the case have not been made public.

• In an unrelated case, Sergey Mikhailov (another Information Security Center deputy head) is currently charged with treason. The former FSB cybercrimes chief also reportedly led the hacktivist group “Anonymous International,” known for leaking private correspondence among Kremlin-connected public figures.

Russia’s Interior Ministry has opened a criminal investigation into large-scale fraud involving rations deliveries to the Defense Ministry and National Guard. More than 10 individuals are reportedly named in the case, though sources have refused to reveal their names. The investigation centers on two fraudulent deliveries, apparently costing the government more than 220 million rubles ($3.8 million).

Russia objects to expanded U.S. missile defense, but you might not hear about that at the UN, thanks to a visa holdup 🚀

The Kremlin has objected to the United States’ refusal to grant visas to a Russian Defense Ministry delegation seeking to participate in an upcoming UN briefing where officials will discuss issues surrounding the deployment of U.S. missile-defense systems.

• Defense Ministry spokesman Alexander Emelyanov says the U.S. will have deployed a thousand components in its missile-defense program by the year 2022, exceeding the number of Russian intercontinental ballistic missiles, thereby undermining Moscow’s deterrence potential.
• In September 2017, in a speech to the UN Security Council, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson accused Russia of “violating its own obligations under the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, flouting the security assurances it made at the end of the Cold War, impeding efforts to build on the legacy of past international efforts on nuclear security, and seeking to weaken the International Atomic Energy Agency’s independence in investigating clandestine nuclear programs.”

Moscow wins 🇰🇵's coveted support in Crimea

Russia's embassy in North Korea announced a major diplomatic coup: Pyongyang has agreed to recognize Russian sovereignty over Crimea, the peninsula Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014. Russian officials say they reached out to Pyongyang for clarification after the North Korean government released an updated world atlas that depicts Crimea as Russian territory.

Gett says Yandex is spying on customers to undercut the competition 🚕💰

The ride-sharing service Gett has filed an antitrust lawsuit in Russia against competitor Yandex.Taxi, accusing the company of spying on other mobile apps installed on its customers’ phones. Earlier this month, a Russian publicist claimed that the Yandex.Taxi app searches for competing ride-sharing service apps installed on users’ phones. If it finds one, Yandex.Taxi supposedly lowers its rates, to be more competitive. Gett says it ordered an independent study that allegedly confirmed these allegations. Yandex, meanwhile, denies the charges.

Bueller, Bueller, Bueller... You have the right to remain silent.

Police in Novosibirsk walked into a university classroom on Thursday and detained one of the students on charges of staging an unsanctioned public demonstration. Daniil Bebekin is a volunteer in Alexey Navalny’s presidential campaign. Officers reportedly hoped to knab another Navalny supporter in the same classroom, but Vladislav Kuzevanov was nowhere to be found: he stayed home to nap. Kuzevanov says he won’t hide from police, if they come looking for him again.

• On October 7, Navalny supporters staged nationwide protests, calling for his access to next year’s presidential election. Police in Novosibirsk detained no one at the rally, but they did detain local campaign chief Sergey Boiko and several activists afterwards, charging them with misdemeanor offenses.
• A court in Ufa, meanwhile, sentenced Navalny’s local campaign coordinator to 40 hours of community service for organizing the city’s October 7 rally. The campaign says it will appeal the ruling.
• Want to know more about the October 7 rallies? Meduza published a whole mess of photos from across Russia. Check them out here.