Navalny’s ‘terrorism,’ a women’s advocacy group dies, and Trump denies WSJ report Meduza breaks down today’s biggest Russia-related news stories, October 22, 2025

Below, you’ll find a digest of news reports from October 22, 2025, in Russian and English. Today, we focused on the expansion of terrorism charges against Russia’s dissidents and setbacks for women’s rights and music freedom. Europe is currently hosting dueling nuclear readiness drills, while Ukraine negotiates for greater flexibility on a still-theoretical loan. Meanwhile, Trump denies a WSJ report about U.S. assistance in long-range strikes inside Russia.

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Let’s talk about Russian human rights

The Kremlin unloads its ultimate weapon on Team Navalny’s remnants

On November 27, Russia’s Supreme Court will meet to consider a lawsuit filed by the Prosecutor General’s Office, requesting the designation of the Anti-Corruption Foundation (ACF) as a “terrorist organization.” The case specifically targets the group’s U.S. legal entity, created for fundraising purposes. Leonid Volkov, who helped create the foundation alongside the late Alexey Navalny, told Meduza that the new status — the most punitive designation possible in Russia — will further complicate ACF’s ability to raise money, travel internationally, and lobby for new sanctions against the Putin regime, though he offered no details. Volkov also warned that ACF’s terrorist status could serve as a “green light” for intensified attacks by Russian spies against the group’s exiled activists.

It ain’t just Navalny’s old gang ➜ Russia changed its criminal code in June to expand the grounds for adding individuals to its “terrorists and extremists” registry. Notably for opposition and independent media figures, the authorities can now add anyone merely suspected of “discrediting” the military or spreading information about the war in Ukraine that hasn’t been endorsed by Russia’s Defense Ministry. Inclusion on this list amounts to what Meduza has described as a “civic death,” blocking a person’s access to bank accounts, payment systems, employment, and more.

Other civic initiatives under pressure

• WOMEN’S RIGHTS ⇒ After nearly a decade of advocating for safe spaces for women, the group “Nasiliu.net” (No to Violence) is shutting down. Banks and cloud payment systems refuse to work with the organization because of its “foreign agent” status. The group’s regional coordinator joined the very first Naked Pravda episode back in November 2019. ⸻✦⸻ Chechnya’s human rights commissioner blames Aishat Baimuradova’s death in Armenia on the advocacy groups that helped her escape abuse in Chechnya. Though the death has been connected to Ramzan Kadyrov’s regime, Commissioner Mansur Soltaev accuses “Western-funded” groups bent on “discrediting Chechen family values.” ⸻✦⸻ A jailed journalist and activist in Ufa told her husband in a letter from pretrial detention that she lost the ability to speak after suffering sexual harassment by her guards. Olga Komleva is currently appealing a 12-year sentence for “extremism” and distributing “false information” about Russia’s military.
• MUSIC ⇒ Russia’s major music streamers are blocking a song by Zemfira for allegedly inciting suicide. The tune, “Hang Myself,” is two decades old. ⸻✦⸻ Meduza profiled the street band Stoptime, whose jailed frontwoman has become a minor celebrity among exiled oppositionists for her performances of blacklisted “foreign agent” musicians. Diana “Naoko” Loginova has defended the performances as an endorsement of “love,” but her remarks suggest an awareness of the wartime political subtext. Meanwhile, Loginova’s mother has criticized journalists for ignoring her daughter’s earlier performances of patriotic songs.

Buckle up, Europeans

• ☢️ Russia held nuclear readiness drills, overseen by Putin, coinciding with NATO’s “Steadfast Noon” exercises.
• 🇬🇧 Russian bombers flew over the Baltic Sea, while a U.K. destroyer intercepted a Russian warship.
• 🇸🇪 Sweden and Ukraine signed a deal for Gripen fighter jets.
• 🚬 Lithuania threatened to close its border over cigarette-filled smuggler balloons from Belarus.
• 🕊️ NATO’s Mark Rutte met Trump, praising the president’s peace-brokering skillz.
• 🇫🇷 France’s defense chief warned of a Russian “shock test” for Europe.
• 💰 The Zelensky administration urges the E.U. to allow it to buy non-European arms, repair war damage from Russian attacks, and compensate victims, if a “reparations loan” is extended.

Dig a little deeper ※ The New York Times published a report arguing that recent drone sightings near airports and military facilities in Europe reveal that the E.U.’s current detection systems are “ill-equipped to handle drone incursions,” if not “completely unprepared for these types of attacks or these types of incursions.” The incursions are widely believed to be Russian provocations.

ENERGY ⇒ Despite Putin’s executive order in August allowing Exxon Mobil to regain shares in the Sakhalin-1 oil and gas project, the U.S. oil major says it’s still working to exit. ⸻✦⸻ Russia will deliver around 750,000 barrels of Western-sanctioned oil and gas condensate to the Syrian port of Banias. ⸻✦⸻ The E.U.’s next sanctions package against Russia will list four companies involved in China’s oil sector that circumvent Western restrictions. ⸻✦⸻ Hungary will start talks on buying nuclear fuel from the U.S. “to diversify its supply,” but it will also keep buying from Russia. ⸻✦⸻ Russia’s army says it will “seek to use reservists to defend civilian infrastructure such as oil refineries.”

lol, what?

“The Trump administration has lifted a key restriction on Ukraine’s use of some long-range missiles provided by Western allies,” The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday. Roughly an hour later, writing on social media, Trump called the story “FAKE NEWS,” adding: “The U.S. has nothing to do with those missiles, wherever they may come from, or what Ukraine does with them!”