The Real Russia. Today. Wednesday, July 17, 2024

The war in Ukraine

💥 The Kremlin says its plan to create a ‘buffer zone’ on Ukrainian territory hasn’t failed. So why does Russia’s Belgorod region keep coming under fire? (5-min read)

Russia’s Belgorod region has been coming under fire practically since the beginning of Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine — and the shelling and drone attacks have only intensified over time. Four months ago, Vladimir Putin called for the region to be protected by a new “buffer zone” on Ukrainian territory, and in May, Russian troops began a new offensive in the Kharkiv region with the aim of seizing territory for this purpose. But the Belgorod region has continued to come under fire, and on Tuesday, its governor announced that entry to 14 border villages would be restricted — effectively creating a “buffer zone” on Russian territory. Nonetheless, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has insisted that the plan to create such a zone in Ukraine hasn’t failed and is still in progress.

Hundreds dead or missing in defense of a small riverfront town

Ukrainian journalists at Slidstvo.Info report that 788 Ukrainian soldiers have gone missing since the fall of 2023 in the defense of the small town of Krynky, located in the Ukrainian military’s small bridgehead on the eastern bank of the Dnipro River. Human rights activists say the bodies of 262 Ukrainian soldiers have also been recovered from Krynky and laid to rest. Slidstvo.Info reporters spoke to dozens of sailors and medics from brigades that have either fought in Krynky or delivered soldiers to the town. The sources described the battleground as a “one-way ticket” (though some men have been there multiple times) and said Russian soldiers take no prisoners in Krynky (though some of the Ukrainian POWs listed for possible exchanges include men who disappeared in or near the town). Russian military officials say they’ve “cleared” Krynky of the soldiers who retook it in Kyiv’s 2023 counteroffensive, but Ukrainian officials deny this claim and maintain that its troops continue to defend positions on the Dnipro’s eastern shore.

🥼 A nuclear physicist born and educated in Ukraine who worked with CERN is now designing drones for Russia’s military, a new investigation reveals (2-min read)

A Luhansk-born, Kyiv-educated nuclear physicist who worked with the European Organization for Nuclear Research (known as CERN) is now the chief designer at an organization developing drones for the Russian military. Journalists at the news outlet iStories report that nuclear physicist Alexander Makhnev heads development at the engineering bureau “Stratim,” founded by former Rostec executive Ivan Bezhanov, who worked for the accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers and the management consultancy McKinsey before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Makhnev is reluctant to discuss his role in Russia’s weapons trade, but Bezhanov uses the scientist’s CERN credentials to promote Stratim’s drones, reports iStories.

• 🪖 Eight percent of federal spending: The Russian government paid soldiers and their families between 2.75 trillion and 3 trillion rubles ($31 billion–$33.9 billion) in salaries and compensation payments between July 2023 and June 2024

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Russian domestic affairs

💸 The project Putin once proposed as a Wikipedia replacement has closed after the Russian government cut its funding (8-min read)

Last month, the editorial board of the Great Russian Encyclopedia, a comprehensive Russian-language reference work and successor to the Soviet-era Great Soviet Encyclopedia, announced its closure. In 2019, Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested that the encyclopedia could serve as an alternative to Wikipedia. But now, the encyclopedia has gone under due to the government halting funding. The outlet T-invariant explored what’s behind the cut in funding, whether the encyclopedia was ever truly intended to be a “Wikipedia killer,” and what other Russian-language resources might fill the void. Meduza shares a summary of the outlet’s findings.

⚖️ Former Moscow culture minister notorious for purging independent, anti-war figures is jailed on corruption charges (2-min read)

On Wednesday, a judge jailed former Moscow Culture Minister Alexander Kibovsky on charges of bribery and fraud after police arrested the conservative official for allegedly helping businesses win city contracts in exchange for more than 100 million rubles (about $1.1 million) in kickbacks. Kibovsky currently serves as an adviser to the Moscow Mayor’s Office on issues of cultural cooperation with the four most recently annexed regions of Ukraine. He maintains his innocence, claims he was planning to enlist in the military to fight in Ukraine, and says he suffered police brutality and intimidation in December 2023 when police previously detained him and other suspects in the case. Kibovsky managed the capital’s Culture Department from 2015 until 2023, overseeing the gradual ouster of liberal and independent officials while also administering several upgrades to libraries, parks, and other public spaces. 

In an article for Meduza, Anton Khitrov wrote that Kibovsky is best remembered for purging his office twice: once after beginning the job, when he dismissed many of the people hired under his predecessor, and again after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, when he replaced figures who criticized the war.

👋 Russia’s Interior Ministry wants to deport foreigners for participating in an ‘undesirable’ organization, ‘discrediting’ the army, and more. Here’s what that could mean. (3-min read)

On July 8, Russia’s Interior Ministry published a draft law aimed at “strengthening administrative measures for foreigners who pose a threat to public order.” The proposed legislation doubles the number of offenses for which a foreigner can be deported from Russia. Meduza asks and answers the following questions:

How is deportation defined? What offenses does the Internal Affairs Ministry want to deport people for? Can judges currently exercise discretion in deporting individuals? Will deported foreigners be permanently banned from entering Russia? Will the bill pass? How could that happen? What’s this “deportation regime”?

• ⚖️ Beating the prisoner’s dilemma: Former Deputy Defense Minister Timur Ivanov, arrested in April 2024 on charges of accepting 1.2 billion rubles ($13.2 million) in bribes in exchange for help obtaining defense contracts, reportedly refuses to plea bargain. Alexander Fomin (one of the businessmen accused of bribing Ivanov) also reportedly refuses to make an active repentance in exchange for dropping the charges against him, sources told the newspaper Kommersant.

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