Meduza’s latest daily newsletter: Thursday, July 25, 2024 Russian lawmaker admits that government is throttling YouTube, Kyiv launches new cyberattacks, and a Ukrainian philosopher sees ‘two totalitarianisms’

The war in Ukraine

• 👾 Ukraine seeks digital disruption inside Russia: Ukraine’s Defense Ministry has reportedly launched cyberattacks against Russia’s largest banks, mobile operators, and other online services, a military source told the news outlet Hromadske. The attacks have allegedly targeted Alfa Bank, Sberbank, Raiffeisen Bank, VTB, Gazprombank, and T-Bank, the last of which confirmed to Interfax that it was the objective of a DDoS attack. 
• 🚨 Farion’s suspected killer apprehended: Ukrainian law enforcement has arrested an 18-year-old man named Vyacheslav Zinchenko for the murder of former lawmaker Iryna Farion. The country’s interior minister reported on Thursday that officials believe the teenager was only the triggerman, and an investigation into who may have ordered the assassination continues.
• 🪫 Rolling blackouts force hotwiring hacks: Ukrainians are stripping Tesla batteries from wrecked cars to use as backup power systems for businesses and households during the regular, extended blackouts caused by Russian attacks on the nation’s energy grid, reports The Financial Times. (In the scramble for electricity, people are also utilizing diesel generators and solar panels.)
• 🇹🇷 Car bomber extradited to Moscow: The man whom Ukrainian intelligence agents allegedly recruited to execute a car bombing targeting Russian military officers is now jailed in Moscow. Turkish police arrested Evgeny Serebryakov within hours of the bombing. An interrogation video released by RIA Novosti shows Serebryakov confessing that he contacted Ukrainian agents over social media and agreed to “eliminate” a Russian military officer in exchange for Ukrainian citizenship and $10,000–20,000.

🧠 A war between totalitarians: How philosopher Andrii Baumeister views the Russia-Ukraine war

Meduza special correspondent Elizaveta Antonova interviewed Ukrainian philosopher Andrii Baumeister, who’s built a large audience on YouTube, where he lectures on his work and comments extensively on Russia’s invasion, often harshly criticizing the Zelensky administration. Baumeister told Meduza that he believes Ukraine cannot win the war on the battlefield and must eventually accept territorial losses (though he argues that Russia’s gains will be pyrrhic). Ukraine needs to keep what it can of its population and focus on strategic thinking to rebuild the country, he stressed. 

Baumeister’s comments are loaded with contentious claims that would likely upset many of Meduza’s readers. For example, he says Kyiv failed to uphold its commitments under the Minsk Accords (which froze early fighting in the Donbas in 2015), walked away from possibly promising negotiations with Moscow in the spring of 2022, and flirted with “militaristic rhetoric” as the country drew closer to its Western partners, especially NATO members. “It’s true, of course, to say that Putin can’t be trusted, but what about the opposite: Can the Ukrainians be trusted?” Baumeister asks. He describes the war as a “catalyst for hatred, which nationalist groups instrumentalize,” and also criticizes the U.S. for its “ugly role” in the international relations that preceded the war.

That said, he denounces Russia’s invasion as an inexcusable crime of aggression. When asked what might drive Vladimir Putin to end the invasion, Baumeister said it will likely take pressure from Moscow’s remaining friends (for example, India) and actions by “big players” like the United States under its next president.

He also warns that Ukraine risks an “intra-civil, paramilitary conflict” once the war ends and Zelensky loses the emergency powers he’s used to “persecute dissidents and attack businesses and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.” Baumeister argues that multiple corruption scandals and “absurd decisions” by the government during the war show that Ukraine’s current leaders are incapable of “strategic thought.” He says the Ukrainian justice system mimics its Russian counterpart, for example, by prosecuting senior citizens for supposed enemy collaborationism when they’ve only blogged on social media. Baumeister also contests the government’s right to continue a war for which it must mobilize so many men against their will, asking the “philosophical question”: Are 21st-century states entitled to “the bodies and souls of their subjects”?

In another controversial statement, Baumeister said the war started off as a fight between freedom and tyranny — “a democracy versus a totalitarian regime” — but it’s now a battle between two totalitarian systems. Ukraine’s is “chaotic” and “unpredictable,” he told Meduza, while the Putin regime is “vertical, rigid, bureaucratic, and reminiscent of the Soviet Union but on a different level.” Baumeister reasons that Ukraine would be stronger against Russia if its officials respected fundamental freedoms, individuality, and human dignity.

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Human rights and the law

• ⚖️ Next steps in the Russian Defense Ministry’s criminal cleanup: A Moscow court formally jailed Andrey Belkov, pending trial for abuse of office. Belkov is the current CEO of the Military Construction Company, or “VSK” (a wholly owned subsidiary of Russia’s Defense Ministry). The current charges against Belkov concern his previous position at the Main Military Construction Department, but the newspaper Kommersant reports that the case could grow to involve Belkov’s supervisor at VSK, jailed former Deputy Defense Minister Timur Ivanov, who faces bribery his own charges.

🇧🇾 Belarus sentenced a German citizen to death. Is it part of a deal with Moscow to pressure Berlin into a prisoner swap? (5-min read)

During a closed hearing in late June, a Belarusian court sentenced 29-year-old German citizen Rico Krieger to death after finding him guilty of multiple crimes, including terrorism, extremism, and mercenary activities. The Belarusian authorities claim that Krieger blew up a railway station outside of Minsk that serves as a transport hub for Russian military equipment and personnel. Nobody was injured in the explosion and according to the state railway company’s own estimate, the incident only caused about $500 of damage. Meanwhile, at least one Belarusian opposition politician has suggested that the sentence is part of an effort by Moscow to free ex-FSB officer Vadim Krasikov in a prisoner swap with Germany. Here’s what we know about the case.

Russian politics and policymaking

• 🥇 Pledge allegiance and play ball: Want to compete with Russia’s national sports teams? State Duma deputies have proposed new federal legislation that would require such athletes to take an “oath of loyalty to their country.” The draft bill’s explanatory note says the measure is necessary due to “politically motivated international pressure” and discrimination against Russian athletes and teams. Human rights lawyer Evgenia Smirnova told the news outlet The Insider that the authorities likely hope to use the oath to force athletes to refuse participation in competitions where Russia isn’t allowed to compete officially.
• 📺 Admitting to the throttle: YouTube will load up to 40 percent more slowly on desktop computers in Russia by the end of this week and up to 70 percent slower by the end of next week, according to lawmaker Alexander Khinshtein, who heads the State Duma's Information Policy Committee
• ☦️ Another church misconduct scandal: The Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church has temporarily suspended Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev) of Budapest and Hungary following harassment allegations by a former assistant, who also accused the clergyman of owning multimillion-dollar real estate outside Budapest. Hilarion denies the charges and says he plans to file a defamation lawsuit, claiming that his assistant’s family hopes to extort him.

☦️ Maria Lvova-Belova, the Russian children’s rights commissioner accused of war crimes, leaves her husband for ‘Orthodox oligarch’ Konstantin Malofeev (4-min read)

Russian Children’s Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova, whom the International Criminal Court charged with war crimes for her alleged role in the illegal deportations of children from Ukraine to Russia, is in a romantic relationship with Orthodox media tycoon Konstantin Malofeev, according to new reporting from the outlet Verstka. Lvova-Belova has not announced a divorce from her husband, Orthodox priest Pavel Kogelman (with whom she’s raising 10 children), and her relationship with Malofeev has reportedly exacerbated existing tensions between the ultraconservative billionaire and Russian Orthodox Church head Patriarch Kirill. Here’s what we know. 

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