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This was Russia today, Wednesday, October 16, 2024 Zelensky presents his five-point ‘victory plan,’ police launch multi-city raids against Navalny-sympathizing doctors, and a hitman kills a GRU-connected military officer in Moscow

Source: Meduza

Howdy, readers! Putin met again with his cabinet today. The president and his ministers discussed the development of Russia’s healthcare infrastructure, preparations for winter weather, growing domestic tourism, university admissions, and a tax amnesty for small businesses.

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Today’s main story: Zelensky presents his five-point “victory plan” to Ukrainian lawmakers

After weeks of rumors and reports about Volodymyr Zelensky pitching a new “victory plan” to Kyiv’s Western allies, Ukraine’s president unveiled his policy wishlist to the Verkhovna Rada on Wednesday. 

The plan consists of five points and three secret annexes:

  1. An immediate invitation to join NATO. “Russians must feel that their tsar has lost geopolitically.”
  2. Defending Ukraine’s battlefield positions and “bringing the war to Russian territory” through expanded military operations and greater aid from allies — including permission to fire Western-supplied weapons deeper inside Russia. (This point includes a secret annex with more specifics.)
  3. A “comprehensive non-nuclear strategic deterrence package” from allies. (This point includes another secret annex already shared with the leaders of the United States, Great Britain, France, Italy, and Germany.)
  4. Expanded mining of Ukraine’s natural resources to tap the country’s “strategic economic potential” and compete against Russian production on behalf of the “democratic world.” (A secret annex to this point was shared “only with certain partners.”)
  5. Using Ukraine’s battlefield experience and military contingent to enrich NATO defenses and European security.

On Wednesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called Zelensky’s proposal “an ephemeral peace plan” that disguises what Moscow believes is the U.S. government’s “same plan from the start” to “fight to the last Ukrainian.” Peskov said the only viable path to peace requires Kyiv to recognize “the futility of the policy it is pursuing.” 

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(2) Still advancing in the Donbas, Russian forces intensify efforts in Kursk

What’s changed? After initial failures to break through Ukraine’s defenses in the Kursk region, Russian paratroopers and marines reached the towns of Zelenyi Shlyakh and Novoivanovka — key defensive positions near Sudzha — on a second attempt. Further advances in this direction could cut off the entire northwestern section of Ukraine’s foothold in the region.

Will Kyiv order a retreat? Despite the mounting risks, there’s no indication that Ukrainian military commanders plan to withdraw their forces away from the threat of encirclement.

Meanwhile, in the Donbas, Russian forces have raised flags over two of the Ukrainian army’s “fortresses” — Hryhorivka and Verkhniokamianske, suggesting that Ukrainian forces may soon have to abandon their key stronghold in the area: the heights near Bilohorivka, outside Lysychansk. Additionally, it seems likely that the city of Vovchansk in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region will suffer the same fate as Marinka, a major district center outside Donetsk that was completely destroyed after months of urban fighting and bombing from both sides.

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(3) Meanwhile, in Russia

🚫 Russia’s federal censor blocked the web domain used by organizers of the “Returning of the Names” annual ceremonies in cities across the country to commemorate victims of Soviet political repressions. Earlier this month, for the fifth time since 2020, Moscow officials refused to permit the event in Lubyanka Square, citing pandemic restrictions on public assemblies. (Roskomsvoboda, Telegram)

🚨 An apparently professional killing outside Moscow claimed the life of a military officer home on leave from Ukraine. Journalists say 44-year-old Nikita Klenkov served as the deputy commander of a Special Operations Forces Training Center and was killed while behind the wheel of his car on Thursday when someone shot him eight times through the driver’s side window. (Meduza)

  • Leaked geolocation data show that Klenkov regularly ordered food deliveries to the military’s Main Intelligence Directorate headquarters and visited a nearby outpatient clinic. (iStories, Telegram)

🏦 Andrey Kostin, the head of the state-owned VTB Bank, said he believes Russia’s key interest rate could reach 21 percent this year and 25 percent in 2025, quipping that “little is impossible” with a woman at the Central Bank’s helm — a reference to Elvira Nabiullina. (RIA Novosti)

  • Russia’s Central Bank raised its key rate to 19 percent a month ago. The rate has been steadily rising since July 2023. It held at 20 percent for a month in the initial aftermath of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. (Russia’s Central Bank)

🚨 Federal agents in Ryazan raided a doctor’s home and interrogated her for several hours in connection with online chat conversations where she expressed support for political prisoners and signed a statement calling for an investigation into Alexey Navalny’s death. 

  • Anesthesiologist Ekaterina Terekhina later said the FSB asked her whether she attended any pro-Navalny rallies, questioned her about Navalny’s personal doctor, and showed her “extremist” photographs from her doctors’ chat group. (Avtozak Live)
  • Police also raided the homes of doctors in Moscow, Izhevsk, and Ryazan, who also signed the open letter about Navalny. Healthcare professionals are just the latest group targeted in the Russian authorities’ campaign against Navalny’s supporters. Officials have harassed, prosecuted, and in some cases even imprisoned Navalny’s relatives, colleagues, and defense attorneys. (Meduza)

🔍 Bashkir activist Rifat Dautov, who died in police custody this January, was brutally beaten by officers, say RFE/RL journalists who reviewed independent forensic evidence, which shows a fatal blood loss of at least 5.2 liters (more than 1.3 gallons).

  • Dautov’s lawyer says his client was wrongly accused of attacking a local police chief at a January 2024 protest against the imprisonment of another activist in Bashkortostan. (RFE/RL)

✌️ Russian patent officials have denied a trademark request from the agribusiness Valov Group for an image resembling the letter “V” because the Latin character has become unofficially associated with the Russian Armed Forces. (RBC)

👨‍🎤 The pop star “Shaman,” real name Yaroslav Dronov, has filed two applications to register the trademark “I’m Russian” (the name of his best-known song) to use in the sale of alcohol, soda, cosmetics, and other products. The pro-invasion musician previously trademarked his stage name, reportedly with plans for a wide range of products. (RBC)

  • Shaman’s trademark applications are also intended to prevent others from labeling their products in ways that suggest affiliation.

🎯 State Duma deputy Bekhan Barakhoev has denied Ramzan Kadyrov’s allegations that he is plotting to assassinate him. The Chechen Republic’s leader made the claim last week when he commented on the September 18 Wildberries office shootout by declaring a “blood feud” against regional rivals Barakhoev and two other federal lawmakers. (Fortanga, Telegram)

🩸 Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on Ramzan Kadyrov’s recent declaration of a “blood feud” against three federal lawmakers. On Wednesday, the president’s press secretary said anyone in Russia has the right to file a police report if they are threatened. (Interfax)

🩺 Putin is fit as a fiddle, his press secretary told journalists on Wednesday, responding to a question about the president’s regular checkups at Moscow’s so-called “Kremlin Hospital.” The visits are “routine” and “preventative,” explained Dmitry Peskov. (TASS)

🛂 Russia’s federal government will slash next year’s quota for temporary residence permits for foreigners from 10,595 in 2024 to just 5,500 in 2025. Quotas for temporary residence permits have fallen for years (the government provided 39,000 in 2021), and regional officials typically utilize only a fraction of these allotments. (TASS)

✍️ Jailed Reuters journalist and producer Konstantin Gabov wrote a letter to Meduza describing his overcrowded living conditions at Moscow’s notorious Matrosskaya Tishina prison. He said he’s been placed in a basement cell with violent criminals, including terrorism and treason convicts.

  • Gabov and three other journalists are accused of preparing videos for the YouTube channel of the banned Anti-Corruption Foundation, created by the late Alexey Navalny. (Meduza)

⚖️ A Moscow court jailed Bryansk Deputy Governor Alexander Petrochenko on Wednesday, though the charges against him remain a mystery.

  • In late September, Moscow courts stopped identifying the criminal codes under which they assign pretrial detention measures, making it much harder for journalists and human rights activists to track politically motivated cases. (Mediazona)

(4) The Ukraine war

🇺🇸 “Our policy with respect to prohibiting the use of ATACMs or long-range strikes inside of Russia has not changed. That is not going to change,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Wednesday when asked about President Biden’s deliberations on permitting Ukraine to use American-provided weapons against targets deeper inside Russia. (The White House, YouTube)

🇺🇸 President Biden told Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday that the U.S. is releasing another security assistance package for Ukraine — this one worth $425 million. The aid includes “additional air defense capability, air-to-ground munitions, armored vehicles, and critical munitions to meet Ukraine’s urgent needs.” (The White House)


(5) As the world turns

🇬🇪 Anti-Kremlin nationalist activist Rafael Shepelev revealed in a Russian military court on Wednesday that he was apprehended in Georgia and repatriated by persons posing as Ukrainian Security Service agents who lured him to Russian-controlled South Ossetia with the promise of transferring him to Poland to be reunited with his ideological leader, Vyacheslav Maltsev. (It’s My City)

🇩🇪 Olaf Scholz told the Bundestag on Wednesday that he’s ready for negotiations with Vladimir Putin to discuss “a just peace” in Ukraine. The German chancellor stressed that “no decisions can be made behind Ukraine’s back,” reasoning that talks with Putin should occur “in coordination with our closest partners.” (Die Rheinische Post)

🔍 The Paris-based Financial Action Task Force will reportedly decide next week whether to put Russia on its blacklist. The group suspended Russia’s membership in February 2023, a year after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. 

  • Lowering Russia’s ranking requires consensus from FATF’s 40 member nations, which include China, India, Brazil, and South Africa. (POLITICO)

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