This was Russia today, Thursday, October 3, 2024 Russia’s Federation Council gets another war-veteran senator, Zelensky comments on Ukraine’s Vuhledar withdrawal, and DOJ seizes dozens of domains used by FSB for spear-phishing
Howdy, readers! What was ole Putin up to on Oct. 3? Well, he met with the winners of national education competitions and endorsed patriotic indoctrination for preschoolers (more below).
Today’s newsletter is 1,282 words — a six-minute read.
Today’s main story: Russia’s 2025 federal budget outlines record military and ‘top secret’ spending
Nearly a third of the federal government’s proposed expenditures are hidden from public view — a record share of expenditures classified as “secret” or “top secret.” The draft budget is roughly 7,000 pages and allocates 41.5 trillion rubles ($435.7 billion) for next year alone, exceeding earlier predictions.
The gist: The authorities seem to be downplaying the budget’s strong military focus. For example, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov named social policy the top priority, though it ranks second in cash terms and still includes some military-related expenses.
Surprise, surprise: The government expects declining tax revenue from Russia’s oil and gas industry and a significant rise in turnover tax earnings, predicated on a rosy reading of “macroeconomic trends,” though some economists are skeptical. The Finance Ministry and Central Bank remain at loggerheads over the budget’s inflationary pressure.
2. More developments in Navalny’s sudden and mysterious death
There’s another leak of documents connected to Alexey Navalny’s death in prison in February. Following an investigation published earlier this week by The Insider, a Telegram channel with ties to Russia’s police community has released what it says is the complete original (unredacted) version of the authorities’ refusal to investigate Navalny’s sudden demise, which they ruled was “not criminal in nature.”
The gist: This new version of the document lists symptoms and injuries Navalny purportedly sustained before his death and during his autopsy, including vomiting, fainting, bruises, hemorrhages, and rib and tracheal fractures. There’s far more detail here than what was ultimately divulged to Navalny’s family.
- The Insider previously released the first page of this original report. The outlet consulted medical experts, who confirmed that the symptoms described therein “clearly indicate that Navalny was poisoned.”
Lest we forget, Navalny’s colleagues at the Anti-Corruption Foundation argue that Vladimir Putin personally ordered the killing of the imprisoned opposition leader. Foundation chairwoman Maria Pevchikh said in late February that the president had Navalny murdered during the final stages of negotiations that would eventually become the 2024 Ankara prisoner exchange. Putin’s supposed motive? He used Navalny to advance the talks but secretly never intended to free him.
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3. Meanwhile in Russia
🧑🧒 “Childfree propaganda” is a sore subject for censorship zealot Ekaterina Mizulina. The head of Russia’s Safe Internet League sicced the police on a local journalist in Yekaterinburg when asked why she endorses a federal ban on “the promotion of refusing to bear children” but has no kids herself. Officers questioned the reporter, recording background and identity information. (74.ru)
🎒 Lessons in patriotism for kindergarteners? Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that he supports the introduction of so-called “Conversations About Important Matters” for preschool-aged children. The president recalled the aphorism “nurtured on mother’s milk” and argued that the mandatory classroom exercises introduced in elementary schools two years ago should be adapted to teach Russia’s youngest about loving their Motherland. (The Kremlin’s Press Service)
📉 Gazprom made its first-ever appearance on Forbes Russia’s rankings of money-losing companies after its record net loss of 583.1 billion rubles ($5.8 billion) in 2023. It was Gazprom’s first nonprofitable year in history and topped the national list.
- Three other major enterprises on the list — e-commerce platform Ozon, social network VK, and the Moscow Metro — were also top loss-making companies in 2022. (Forbes Russia)
🎖️ A third war veteran joins Russia’s Federation Council with Altai Republic Governor Andrey Turchak’s decision to appoint 30-year-old Amir Argamakov to represent the region as a senator. Argamakov is a decorated soldier who’s served as a platoon commander and later a motorized rifle company commander, joining combat operations in Syria and Ukraine. (Sib EXpress)
👩⚕️ A nurse anesthetist in Moscow is headed to prison for eight years because she posted twice on social media about Russian atrocities in Ukraine. Olga Menshikh, 59, wrote on Vkontakte to her 15 subscribers about the shelling of Vinnytsia and the occupation of Bucha by Russian troops. Federal agents were reportedly investigating her even before the criminal case was opened. (Mediazona)
⚖️ Orthodox blogger Klaud Rommel won’t be jailed pending trial for raping an 11-year-old girl after a St. Petersburg court rejected investigators’ request to jail the returned Ukraine war veteran. Rommel enlisted with the military after police began investigating his actions. He admits to “massaging” the girl, with whom he reportedly shares a bed, but he denies the rape allegations.
- Russian courts have been uncharacteristically lenient with returned war veterans, routinely meting out minimum sentences and nearly always citing their military service as a “mitigating factor” in any crimes. (Fontanka)
4. The Ukraine war
🪖 The troop withdrawal from Vuhledar got its first public comments from President Volodymyr Zelensky, who said on Thursday at a press conference with NATO’s secretary general that the lives of the soldiers defending the city are more valuable to the country “than any buildings.”
- Military experts say the loss of Vuhledar doesn’t immediately threaten Ukraine’s defenses in the Donbas, but it could soon lead to serious consequences for Kyiv’s army. (RBC-Ukraine)
🧑🧒🧒 A father of 14 was killed fighting in Ukraine last month. With children between nine months and 22 years old, Avraham Melekh enlisted in the military after recruiters in his home region of Tatarstan doubled the signing bonuses for contract service to 1.05 million rubles (roughly $10,500). (Govorit NeMoskva)
🕯️ A controversial reporter and anti-war protester working in occupied Ukraine for a Kremlin-funded outlet dies in a drone strike near Vuhledar, sparking a fierce debate about wartime journalism. (Holod Media)
5. As the world turns
⚖️ Pavel Durov is back under the spotlight following a four-hour interview with Irina Bolgar, the mother of three of his children. She offered more details about her Swiss criminal complaint against the Telegram founder, including how he allegedly inflicted a concussion on his three-year-old son in Paris in November 2021.
- Bolgar also described Durov’s lavish personal spending, undermining the tech mogul’s carefully maintained “ascetic persona.” (The New York Times)
👾 Russian hackers are in Washington’s crosshairs again: The Justice Department unsealed a warrant authorizing the seizure of 41 Internet domains allegedly used by the FSB’s “Callisto Group” and its proxies for an “ongoing and sophisticated spear-phishing campaign” against American targets. In conjunction, Microsoft said it’s filing a civil action to seize 66 Internet domains also used by Callisto Group actors. (DOJ Office of Public Affairs)
🏅 The next Nobel Peace Prize will be announced on October 11, and this year’s betting line favors the late Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny to win, but that would be impossible because the Nobel Committee’s rules forbid posthumous honors. (Reuters)
🕵️♀️ Mikhail Khodorkovsky revealed on Thursday that he testified to Polish prosecutors in the investigation of allegations that his longtime friend and business associate Leonid Nevzlin ordered violent attacks and supposedly plotted at least one kidnapping of Anti-Corruption Foundation figures (namely, Leonid Volkov).
- The former Yukos oil tycoon also said he turned over correspondence between the Dossier Center, which he controls, and “the anonymous source” who identified Nevzlin in comments to the foundation and later Russia Today. (Telegram)
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