Meduza’s latest daily newsletter: Wednesday, July 24, 2024 Andrey Turchak’s political afterlife, police grab another military official on bribery charges, and changes are coming to Russia’s video games

The war in Ukraine

🪖 Inside the Russian military unit that’s lost so many soldiers it’s known as the ‘Bermuda Triangle’ (14-min read)

Around 120,000 Russian soldiers have died fighting in Ukraine since Moscow began its full-scale invasion in February 2022. Analysts estimate that Russia loses 200–250 troops every day, and casualties have increased significantly in recent months. After capturing the city of Avdiivka in February, Russian forces launched a massive offensive all along the front line and opened a new front in the Kharkiv region. The independent journalism cooperative Bereg set out to investigate the cost of this offensive for one brigade known for its particularly high death tolls and the cruelty with which its commanders, who hail from the so-called “Donetsk People’s Republic,” treat their Russian recruits. Journalist Lilia Yapparova also learned about how senior officers extort these soldiers, capturing large sums of money (including the very benefits offered as incitements to serve) in exchange for safer assignments and access to promised compensation.

💥 Moscow car explosion reportedly injures Russian intelligence officer. Russia says it’s investigating ‘a Ukrainian connection,’ while Kyiv denies any involvement. (3-min read)

On the morning of July 24, a car allegedly belonging to a Russian military officer exploded in the north of Moscow, severely injuring two people. Some sources claim that one of the victims was Andrey Torgashov, the deputy head of a military satellite communications center in the Moscow region, while others assert it was another military man with the same name. Russian media outlets have reported that due to the “identity of the injured person,” police believe Ukraine might be involved and that Russian law enforcement is investigating a “Ukrainian connection.” Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials say they have nothing to do with the incident and have suggested that “faulty equipment” might be to blame.

🎭 The Kremlin’s new cultural policy puts the war against Ukraine front and center in Russian art (6-min read)

Since the start of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine, the Kremlin has increasingly cracked down on artists, musicians, and writers unwilling to follow the party line. Now, according to a cultural policy document obtained by the Dossier Center, Moscow aims to make the war an integral part of all new Russian art. To achieve this, the Russian authorities need to fully consolidate their control over the arts in Russia — and they plan to bring back Soviet-era methods to do so.

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Russian domestic politics and policymaking

🗳️ Fallen from grace, Andrey Turchak tries to rebuild his political career, more than 2,000 miles from Moscow

Meduza special correspondent Andrey Pertsev reports that Andrey Turchak, who recently lost senior positions in the country’s ruling political party and the Parliament’s upper house, is now devoting himself to gubernatorial work in the Altai Republic. Following his presidential appointment, Turchak will be up for election in September, and Perstev’s sources say he is taking the campaign seriously after some initial pouting about falling from grace in Moscow. (Meduza’s sources argue that Turchak’s demotion to a regional job was “punishment” for maintaining a close relationship with mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, who led a brief but shocking mutiny against the Russian military.)

Pertsev describes how one of Turchak’s first political moves as acting governor was a “serious mistake”: his team reportedly hinted that he would unite the Altai Republic with Altai Krai — a merger that is not on the Kremlin’s agenda, forcing Turchak to issue an embarrassing denial.

Despite this rough start, sources told Meduza that Turchak’s election chances are good. He’s reportedly campaigning with unusual energy, “as if he were running for governor of some major U.S. state against a strong opponent,” one source said. Turchak has appealed directly to local state officials and ordinary voters, even promising new utility equipment in the capital as a “gift from nonbudgetary sources.” (One of Meduza’s sources compared this gesture to Roman Abramovich’s work as the governor of the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug when the billionaire spent some of his own wealth to bring “gifts” to the region.) Additionally, Turchak benefits from having pushed out an unpopular predecessor, Governor Oleg Khorokhordin, whom regional lawmakers actually tried to impeach. 

A source close to the Kremlin told Meduza that Turchak is running his campaign without hiring political consultants, but he is supposedly getting help from former and current party functionaries in United Russia, including Anastasia Kostikova and State Duma deputy Viktor Ignatov. Meduza’s sources all agreed that Turchak will drop his “soft and fluffy” act after the election in September and pack the Altai Republic’s government with loyal outsider politicians. However, Turchak faces an uphill battle trying to recruit allies to join him in the region, far from Moscow and Russia’s halls of power.

🪖 Another corruption case rocks Russia’s Defense Ministry

Police in Moscow have arrested another military official on suspicion of corruption. Andrey Belkov — the current CEO of the Military Construction Company, or “VSK” (a wholly owned subsidiary of Russia’s Defense Ministry) — is reportedly charged with abusing his previous office at the Main Military Construction Department (GVSU) by supervising the purchase of medical equipment at inflated prices. The case is also potentially linked to the prosecution of former Deputy Defense Minister Timur Ivanov, who oversaw Belkov at VSK before being arrested in April for allegedly accepting 1.2 billion rubles ($13.3 million) in bribes for non-competitive military contracts. The newspaper Kommersant reports that Belkov’s work at VSK, personal earnings, and personal connections are all “under a microscope,” given his past relationship with Ivanov.

🕹️ Censorship and bigger profits loom in Russia’s video game industry

A confluence of anti-Western policymaking and fighting over market share makes it more likely that future regulations on some video games in Russia will expand censorship and raise prices. Russia’s existing ratings for video games are more basic and less informative than markings placed on games in Europe and the U.S., but expanded notices proposed by Alexander Malakhov, the head of the Center for Strategic Research’s Digital Development division, would warn buyers (and parents) when games contain violence, obscene language, in-game purchases, sexual content, and more.

Amid discussions about reforming Russia’s video game ratings, Russian Association of Video Game Distributors and Importers President Yasha Haddaji (who’s also the former head of the Russian division of Nintendo) advocated the creation of a registry of video games imported to Russia, supposedly to help combat “gray importers” (distributors who bring in products without paying the necessary customs duties and taxes).

The registry proposed by Haddaji would give regulators another tool to promote “approved” content in video games while also driving some smaller distributors out of business by erecting bureaucratic obstacles that raise operating costs and prices on games sold as physical media.

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