Week-ending 4 September 2026
Russia’s War against Ukraine
Oleksiy Arestovych was sentenced to 11 years in absentia on charges of spreading false information about the Russian military and publicly calling for terrorism. (The Moscow Times, 28/8/26)
Courts disqualified 3 Yabloko party candidates running in single-mandate districts. (Meduza, 31/8/26)
President Putin signed a decree expanding the central-office staff of Russia’s FSO. (Meduza, 31/8/26)
Overnight into Aug. 29, a car belonging to the Dmitry Neelov, first deputy head of the notorious Olenivka penal colony, was blown up in Russian-occupied Donetsk. (The Insider, 31/8/26)
Verstka’s journalists found 33 categories of goods sold by Ozon that could be used at the front. In just one year, marketplace users bought 25 billion rubles of these goods. (Meduza, 1/9/26)
Russian car-sales platform CarPrice has limited payouts after one of its investors was branded an ‘extremist’ for aiding Ukraine. (Meduza, 1/9/26)
Rapper Alisher Morgenshtern said he was offered a chance to return to Russia if he publicly supported the war. (Meduza, 1/9/26),
President Putin continues to exaggerate Russian forces’ battlefield performance. (ISW, 2/9/26)
Volodymyr Zelenskyy declared Russia’s airspace is becoming unsafe for commercial airlines; the Turkish airline Pegasus then cancelled its Russia flights. (The Guardian, Meduza, 2/9/26)
The German government said Russia was responsible for a recent drone attack on Leipzig airport and ordered a Russian consulate and cultural center closed. (The Guardian, The Moscow Times, 2/9/26)
Lida Moniava, a prominent advocate for critically ill children’s care, has been charged with spreading false information about the military. (The Moscow Times, 2/9/26)
Protecting oil refineries from drone strikes requires significant spending, but “it’s worth it,” said Alexander Novak, Russia’s deputy prime minister. (Meduza, 2/9/26)
Russia will close Germany’s Goethe-Institut cultural centers. (The Moscow Times, 3/9/26)
Russia continues the deportation of Ukrainian political prisoners to Russia in apparent violation of international law. (ISW, 3/9/26)
Russian oil companies failed to fulfill about 60% of gasoline supply contracts on the St. Petersburg exchange between May and September, according to Kommersant. (Meduza, 3/9/26)
Ukrainian drones attacked Russia’s Moscow region. (Meduza, 3/9/26)
Russian authorities have tightened security around state TV executives and hosts. (Meduza, 3/9/26)
Ukraine’s security service alleged a commander of the Russian Volunteer Corps was recruited by Moscow to assassinate a Russian opposition figure. (The Moscow Times, 3/9/26)
Norway has seized a Russian ship in the Arctic to enforce a $4.2 billion compensation claim won by Ukrainian energy firm Naftogaz over Moscow’s seizure of its assets. (The Moscow Times, 3/9/26)
Mass production of attack drones for the Ukrainian military has begun in Bavaria. (Meduza, 4/9/26)
Fires broke out at two energy facilities and one air defense base around the Black Sea port city of Sochi following a Ukrainian drone attack on Friday. (The Moscow Times, 4/9/26)
Other news
VK Video cut off a fundraising livestream by the Yabloko party. (Meduza, 28/8/26)
Elena Morgunova, wife of performance artist Pavel Krisevich, was detained and sentenced to 10 days of administrative arrest for disobeying police orders during a visit to Russia. (Meduza, 28/8/26)
Investigators dropped all charges against St. Petersburg businessman Ilya Traber over a 2020 contract killing of a local politician and business rival. (The Moscow Times, 31/8/26)
The treason trial has begun of Ivan Semenikhin, a police officer. (Meduza, 1/9/26)
Putin has never once taken part in a debate during his time in power. (Meduza, 2/9/26)
The Russian government wants to unban books published by “undesirable” organizations and “foreign agents” before their respective designations as such. (Meduza, 2/9/26)
Leonid Slutsky says the party he heads, the LDPR, is a “party of security officials”. (Meduza, 3/9/26)
Ventprom, Russia’s largest manufacturer of industrial ventilation equipment, has been nationalised after its owners were branded an “extremist organization”. (The Moscow Times, 3/9/26)
