Week-ending 17 July 2026
Russia’s War against Ukraine
Russian military blogger and contract soldier Yegor Guzenko has been placed in pre-trial detention for two months. (The Moscow Times, 10/7/26)
Russia is targeting the Ukrainian harvest with incendiary bombs to burn crops. (RFE/RL , 11/7/26)
Georgy Pirogov fled Russia after the invasion of Ukraine. He later vanished on a job in Uzbekistan and resurfaced in a Moscow jail. Now he’s been sentenced to 23 years. (Meduza, 13/7/26)
Russian refineries have processed an average of 3.91 million barrels of crude per day so far in July, the lowest figure since March 2005. (Meduza, 13/7/26)
Air defence assets have been removed from military sites in Russia’s far north. (RFE/RL, 14/7/26)
Gleb Viktorov, the frontman of the rock band Tri Dnya Dozhdya was hospitalized after denouncing the war in Ukraine onstage in Yekaterinburg. (Meduza, 14/7/26)
The Russian army has executed hundreds of Ukrainian PoW since 2022 under a deliberate policy, Kyiv says, with the exact number of victims unknown. (The Guardian, 15/7/26)
Russia seizes its citizens in Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan and puts them on trial back home. (Meduza, 15/7/26)
More than 50 British MPs have written a parliamentary letter urging that Masha and the Bear, an animated children’s show, be banned on the basis it is Russian propaganda. (The Guardian, 15/7/26)
Anti-war politician Boris Nadezhdin has been designated a “foreign agent” and charged with displaying “extremist” symbols. (The Moscow Times, 16/7/26; 13/7/26; 10/7/26)
Russia and Ukraine exchanged the remains of more than 530 soldiers killed during the war, the RBC news outlet reported Thursday, citing a Russian lawmaker. (The Moscow Times, 16/7/26)
The Higher School of Economics announced it will offer free tuition to applicants who sign a one-year military contract to fight in Ukraine. (The Moscow Times, 16/7/26)
A Moscow appeals court has rejected a petition from Euroclear, the Belgian securities depository, against a ruling ordering the firm to pay 18.17 trillion rubles. (Meduza, 16/7/26)
Russia returned the bodies of 501 Ukrainian soldiers, receiving 31 in exchange. (Meduza, 16/7/26)
Several of Russia’s wealthiest businessmen have moved billions of dollars out of the country amid growing concern about the economy’s future and fears their assets could be seized. (Meduza, 16/7/26)
VK said on July 16 that the Max messenger and the VKontakte social network apps had been removed from the Google Play app store. (Meduza, 16/7/26)
Russian law enforcement authorities have arrested blogger and former Kremlin loyalist Ilya Remeslov for allegedly spreading false information about the military. (The Moscow Times, 17/7/26)
There is a nationwide fuel shortage in Russia’s agricultural sector. (The Moscow Times, 17/7/26)
Senate Republican leadership has thrown its weight behind a renewed bipartisan push to impose sweeping new sanctions on Russia. (RFE/RL, 17/7/26)
Other news
Tensions between the authorities and civil society are rising in the republic of Kabardino-Balkaria over amendments to the republic’s constitution. (The Moscow Times, 13/7/26)
Four subjects will become mandatory for all university students: Russian language, philosophy, history, and “Fundamentals of Russian Statehood.” (Meduza, 13/7/26)
The EU sanctioned Russian tech giant VK over its role in developing the messaging app Max. (The Moscow Times, 13/7/26)
There has been severe flooding in Sverdlovsk region rains. (The Moscow Times, 14/7/26)
Yaroslav Kostrov, a local activist and political candidate in St Petersgurg was sentenced to 10 days in jail for “extremist” symbols in social media posts he made in 2021. (The Moscow Times, 14/7/26)
Migrants will be required to buy mobile phones so authorities can track them. (Meduza, 15/7/26)
The Nikulinsky District Court in Moscow fined David Nuriyev, the rapper better known as Ptakha, 80,000 rubles (about $1,000) for drug propaganda. (Meduza , 16/7/26)
