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The Real Russia. Today. How to make an anonymous donation to Meduza

Source: Meduza

Monday, May 10, 2021

  • After seven years of renovations, one of Russia’s oldest cinemas reopens in Moscow
  • Want to donate money to Meduza without anyone ever knowing about it? Here’s how.
  • New podcast episode: ‘Foreign agents’ in Russia and the United States
  • News briefs: A doctor reemerges, the Czechs want $47 million, and Apple sues in Russia

Feature stories

📽️ Inside the Khudozhestvenny (2,760 words)

Olga Alekseenko for Meduza

In April, Moscow’s Khudozhestvenny Cinema, one of the oldest movie theaters in Russia, reopened after seven years of renovations. This was far from the first remodeling in the cinema’s history, which spans more than 100 years. In the early 20th century, it was rebuilt by Fyodor Schechtel, the well-known architect behind Moscow’s Yaroslavsky Railway Station. While some elements Schechtel’s design survived the latest overhaul, there’s a lot about the cinema that’s entirely brand new. At Meduza’s request, architectural journalist Asya Zolnikova looks into what has been preserved and what was changed inside the Khudozhestvenny Cinema — and examines why the new interiors have some drawing parallels to old Hollywood but have left others saying that the renovation wasn’t the most successful.

💱 Cryptocurrency and supporting Meduza (835 words)

Meduza is crowdfunding to compensate for lost advertising revenue, following the Russian Justice Ministry’s decision to designate us as a “foreign agent.” Many readers are asking if it’s possible to donate to Meduza completely anonymously — some of you have even offered to mail us cash. Unfortunately, we cannot accept cash. 

To help support Meduza’s survival, there are several donation options: debit payments (in rubles, euros, or U.S. dollars), PayPal, and cryptocurrency transfers (Bitcoin, Etherium, BNB, Smart Chain, Monero, and Zcash).

Each of these payment options is perfectly legal — even Russian citizens have the right to send money to Meduza or any other declared “foreign agent.” The only anonymous donations we can accept, however, are in cryptocurrency. So let’s break down how to make a donation in cryptocurrency. If you’ve never used something like Bitcoin before, don’t worry. We’ll explain how it works here.

🎧 ‘The Naked Pravda’: Life as a foreign agent (36 minutes)

What does it mean to be a “foreign agent” in Russia? How does it change life and daily business for individuals, NGOs, and media outlets? Russian lawmakers argue that these regulations are Moscow’s response to similar rules and restrictions in the United States, but does that comparison stand up to scrutiny?

To answer these questions and more, “The Naked Pravda” turned to Middlesex University London Associate Lecturer in Journalism Dr. Sasha Raspopina, Higher School of Economics Associate Professor Dr. Dmitry Dubrovsky, “Memorial” Human Rights Center lawyer Marina Agaltsova, and journalist Casey Michel, whose forthcoming book, “American Kleptocracy,” is due out this November.

News briefs

💥 Tomorrow in history: 21 years ago tomorrow, on May 11, 2000, separatist militants loyal to Shamil Basayev, led by the Ingush terrorist Ruslan Khuchbarov attacked and destroyed a convoy of the Russian Interior Ministry paramilitary forces in the Republic of Ingushetia, killing at least 18 Russian soldiers. The incident was the first major act of violence linked to the Second Chechen War in Ingushetia and the first major rebel raid outside the neighboring Chechnya since war began in 1999.

Yours, Meduza