Meduza’s latest daily newsletter: Friday, August 2, 2024 Jailed antiwar activist dies following hunger strike, Google says it’s not to blame for Russia’s YouTube slowdown, a sitting Federation Council member is arrested

News you may have missed during the prisoner swap

• 🕯️ Another dissident dies in custody: Thirty-nine-year-old activist and pianist Pavel Kushnir, was who jailed for publishing anti-government materials, including four videos on a YouTube channel with only five followers, has reportedly died in prison after a hunger strike. Kushnir died while in pretrial detention, awaiting felony prosecution for supposedly “inciting terrorist activities.”
• 🇾🇪 Moscow’s aborted Houthi aid: In late July, a last-minute, behind-the-scenes intervention by U.S. and Saudi officials averted the “imminent transfer” of missiles and other military equipment from Russia to Houthi rebels in Yemen, reports CNN. The White House reportedly recruited Saudi Arabia “to help convince Moscow not to pursue the effort.”
• 🎓 Affirmative action, sir! Ahead of classes this fall, Russia’s top-18 universities admitted more than 2,000 applicants without entrance exams under special quotas to accommodate Ukraine war veterans and their children, reports iStories. (This group has been allocated a tenth of the available state-funded spaces at Russian universities.) Most of the students admitted under this privileged system would not have been competitive applicants without the quotas, says iStories. In total, universities admitted 75 percent more of these applicants in 2024 than a year earlier, when the program was first instituted.
• 👮 To the ends of the Earth: State Duma deputies have drafted legislation that would allow the General Prosecutor to share criminal case files with foreign governments when the suspect in question is living beyond the reach of Russian law enforcement. The bill’s sponsors describe it as a measure against emigres who conduct “anti-Russian actions,” suggesting that lawmakers hope it can facilitate more extraditions of dissidents and draft dodgers who flee to countries that sometimes arrest and repatriate Russian nationals.
• 📺 Google says its equipment isn’t to blame for throttled YouTube speeds in Russia: On Thursday, Google representatives rejected the Russian government’s claims that supposedly aging Global Cache equipment is to blame for Russia’s massive, nationwide slowdowns in YouTube access. Spokespeople for the Internet giant told the newspaper Kommersant, “This is not the result of any technical problems or actions on our end.”

🪖 The battlefield options, advantages, and disadvantages for Russia and Ukraine in the months ahead (17-min read)

Russia’s latest large-scale offensive in Ukraine has been underway for 10 months now. On the one hand, it has not led to the collapse of Ukrainian defenses, and the Kremlin’s territorial gains fall well short of the campaign’s desired aims. On the other hand, during all this time, the Ukrainian Armed Forces (UAF) have not even tried to seize the initiative, relying instead on passive defense and slow retreat. UAF Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi explained this strategy in late winter: Kyiv’s forces intend to exhaust the Russian army, inflicting as many losses as possible, before forming new units and then going on the offensive. This has been Ukraine’s playbook twice before: in 2022 (successfully) and in 2023 (unsuccessfully). Meduza reviews Kyiv’s odds in 2024 and analyzes the possibility of another Ukrainian offensive in the foreseeable future.

⚖️ Sitting Russian senator is stripped of immunity and arrested on charges of ordering business partner’s murder

Police arrested politician Dmitry Savelyev outside the Federal Council building on Friday after the upper chamber’s lawmakers agreed to lift his senatorial immunity at the General Prosecutor’s request. Savelyev is suspected of ordering an “acquaintance” to kill a businessman in August 2023 for reasons of “personal animosity.” Savelyev allegedly offered $100,000 for the murder. His intermediary reportedly offered the contract to a former guard in Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service, but that man reported the plot to the Federal Security Service. Officials then staged the killing, and Savelyev paid the reward, believing the murder was successful. The newspaper Kommersant reports that Savelyev’s target was a business partner named Ionov who allegedly embezzled money from their company. Savelyev maintains his innocence and says the charges against him are “fabricated.” 

We got The Beet. Don’t miss Meduza’s weekly newsletter (separate from the one you’re reading here)!

A day after the historic swap

Kremlin spokesman admits hitman Krasikov is FSB agent and says children of spies returned in prisoner swap didn’t know they’re Russian (2-min read)

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday that Vadim Krasikov, the ex-FSB officer who was serving prison time in Germany for the assassination of a former Chechen field commander before he was released as part of Thursday’s historic prisoner swap, is part of the FSB’s Alpha special forces unit. It was the first time the Kremlin has acknowledged that the convicted murderer is a Russian intelligence agent.

Photos from the hospital where Vladimir Kara-Murza, Ilya Yashin, and other political prisoners released by Moscow were sent after arriving in Germany

On August 1, 2024, Russia and multiple Western countries carried out the largest prisoner swap of its kind since the end of the Cold War. Thirteen of the political prisoners freed by Moscow were flown to Germany, where they were immediately sent to a military hospital in the city of Koblenz for medical evaluations. The former inmates were issued hospital wear, though it didn’t fit everybody, so some of them stayed in their prison uniforms. Meduza photographer Evgeny Feldman went to the hospital to document his compatriots’ first hours of freedom.

Newly freed Russian opposition politicians Vladimir Kara-Murza, Ilya Yashin, and Andrei Pivovarov hold first press conference since their release (5-min read)

On August 1, 2024, Russia and multiple Western countries carried out a historic prisoner swap that saw Moscow release 16 political prisoners. On Friday, newly freed Russian opposition politicians Vladimir Kara-Murza, Ilya Yashin, and Andrei Pivovarov held their first post-exchange press conference in Bonn, Germany. Meduza shares key quotes from the event in English (1) on the exchange itself, (2) on Russia’s future, and (3) on Alexey Navalny.

Investigative journalist Andrei Soldatov on Russia’s ‘unprecedented’ prisoner swap with the West (5-min read)

Russia and the West conducted a historic prisoner exchange on August 1, swapping 24 people. However, the deal wasn’t just notable for its scale. For the first time, those freed included not only people involved in espionage cases but also political activists imprisoned in Russia for their anti-war stance. Meduza spoke with Andrei Soldatov, a Russian investigative journalist specializing in the country’s intelligence services, about what makes the composition of this exchange so unique, why Vladimir Putin was so intent on returning FSB hitman Vadim Krasikov from Germany, and how the deal might look for the Kremlin back home.

No country can be free without independent media. In January 2023, the Russian authorities outlawed Meduza, banning our work in the country our colleagues call home. Just supporting Meduza carries the risk of criminal prosecution for Russian nationals, which is why we’re turning to our international audience for help. Your assistance makes it possible for thousands of people in Russia to read Meduza and stay informed. Consider a small but recurring contribution to provide the most effective support. Donate here.