The Real Russia. Today. Lawmakers plan to shatter the mass media’s legal status in Russia; Navalny targets Putin’s spokesman again; and Meduza takes a look at the ‘Synthol King’ risking his life for fame

Thursday, December 21, 2017

• Lawmakers plan a bold and worrying expansion of Russia’s laws on foreign agents and the mass media
• Check out the Tretyakov Gallery’s new cosplay flashmob
• Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation takes on Putin’s spokesman, again
• Meduza‘s special report on a young man risking life and limb (s) for a shot at fame and fortune
• Ramzan Kadyrov wants Americans to rest easy about him being blacklisted
• A Moscow university expels the students who beat up a classmate and forced him on camera to “apologize” for criticizing sexist religious traditions
• Internet activists launch a class action lawsuit against the FSB to defend Telegram

Story of the day: new amendments to Russia’s laws on foreign agents could shatter the legal status of the mass media 🗞

It was only last month that Russia amended its media laws to apply foreign-agent regulations to news organizations, and the Justice Ministry has already added nine outlets to its registry. Now the State Duma has decided to expand the law again, this time by treating individual people as entire mass media outlets. Any person or entity flagged as a foreign agent, moreover, will also be required to establish legal representation in Russia, so they can cooperate with the Justice Ministry. Meduza takes a closer look at the latest, greatest legislation to come to the State Duma.

• Read the story in English.

Russian art lovers welcome the Tretyakov’s new exhibition with a cosplay flashmob 🎨

The State Tretyakov Gallery, the foremost depository of Russian fine art in the world, announced a flashmob this week in honor of the “Someone 1917” exhibition, which features 120 paintings and sculptures from a dozen artists, including Vassily Kandinsky, Kazimir Malevich, Alexander Rodchenko, and others.

• Members of the public are welcome to take their own parody cosplay photos, staged to resemble individual works from the exhibition, and publish them on Vkontakte, Facebook, or Instagram using the hashtag #некто1917. On December 25, the gallery will announce the five best submissions, and each winner will receive two free passes and a catalogue dedicated to the exhibition.
• Check out some of the submitted photos at Meduza.

Navalny targets Putin’s spokesman in another investigative report on alleged corruption 💰

Alexey Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) has published a new investigative report targeting Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov and members of his family. The foundation says Peskov’s ex-wife, Ekaterina Solotsinskaya, and their daughter, Elizaveta, own an apartment in Paris worth 1.8 million euros ($2.1 million).

• Using French cadastral records, Navalny’s researchers say they found that the apartment is 180 square meters (1,937 square feet), located on Avenue Victor-Hugo in the city’s 16th arrondissement, and was purchased in September 2016. The property technically belongs to a French legal entity called “SIRIUS,” which is 75-percent owned by Ekaterina Solotsinskaya and quarter owned by Elizaveta. The apartment was bought with a 1.3-million-euro downpayment and a 470,000-euro mortgage, which was borrowed from a French branch of VTB Bank at a 2.7-percent annual interest rate.
• Purchase records indicate that Peskov’s ex-wife and daughter used their own money to buy the apartment, but Solotsinskaya’s past income declarations indicate that she doesn’t have this kind of money. FBK believes she acquired the money illegally.
• This isn’t the first time Navalny’s group has turned its sights on Peskov. Past FBK investigations have claimed that the president’s spokesman wears a wristwatch worth 37 million rubles ($632,300) and lives in a home worth billions of rubles. Navalny has accused Peskov of spending his honeymoon aboard a yacht that costs 26 million rubles ($444,340) to rent for a week. FBK also says one of Peskov’s sons, Nikolai Choulz, owns luxury property.

Risking life and limb (s) for a shot at fame and fortune 💪

On December 1, the Russian television network Rossiya aired a report about Kirill Tereshin, a 21-year-old man in Pyatigorsk who’s “bulked up” his arms by injecting them with a homemade mix analogous to site enhancement oil (commonly known as “synthol”), which some bodybuilders use to mimic the appearance of well-developed muscles. Tereshin’s subscribers on social media and his friends and family have expressed concern for his health, as synthol can be extremely dangerous. There are even worries that Tereshin’s continued injections could necessitate the amputation of his arms. Online and in the media, Russians have discussed the young man’s risky campaign to win fame and fortune, and the TV network Rossiya says it’s preparing follow-up news segments about his “transformation.” Meduza spoke to Tereshin to find out how life for “Mr. Synthol” has changed since he became a television star, and to learn about his plans for the future.

• Read the story in English.

Chechnya’s strongman leader welcomes new U.S. sanctions 😬

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has responded to the U.S. Treasury’s decision to add his name to the so-called “Magnitsky List” for his alleged role in what American officials have classified as “extrajudicial killing, torture, or other gross violations of internationally recognized human rights.”

• “The U.S. can rest easy,” Kadyrov wrote on Instagram, explaining, “I haven’t gotten the order yet to march on American soil. [...] I’m proud to be persona non grata to the U.S. intelligence agencies. Actually, the U.S. can’t forgive me for devoting my life to the fight against foreign terrorists, including some groups nurtured by American intelligence agencies.”

Atheist: 1, Religious traditionalists: 0 🙏

The Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA) has expelled the five students who attacked classmate Oleg Tereshchenko for criticizing sexist religious and cultural traditions in posts on social media. Murat Kodzoyev, Pyotr Rakitin, Nikolai Novosiltsev, Georgy Sarkisyan, and Rishid Khamkhoyev will not attend the university after December 25. Comments published online indicate that each young man named in the expulsion order participated in the attack on Tereshchenko, who was beaten up and forced on camera to apologize for his “insensitive” remarks about sexism in religious traditions, especially as practiced by Muslims in Russia’s North Caucasus.

• Read Meduza’s special report on this incident from December 11.

A class action effort to save Telegram in Russia ⚖️

Activists at Roskomsvoboda are encouraging Telegram users to join a class action lawsuit against Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) in defense of the instant messenger. The group has launched a website to coordinate this effort, where supporters can register their names and email addresses. Roskomsvoboda’s lawyers say they intend to take the case to every possible court (including Russia’s Constitutional and Supreme Courts and the European Human Rights Court) to fight the FSB’s demands that Telegram surrender encryption keys on all user correspondence.

• On June 28, 2017, Russian federal regulators added Telegram to the government’s registry of so-called “information-distribution organizers,” after which the FSB ordered Telegram to surrender its encryption keys. Telegram has argued that this is impossible because the app’s encryption keys are generated on users’ individual devices. A Russian court has since fined Telegram 800,000 rubles ($13,600), which establishes the legal grounds to block Telegram in Russia.