Week-ending 21 February 2025
Russia’s War against Ukraine
Russia and Ukraine exchanged the remains of 802 fallen soldiers, officials from both countries said Friday. (The Moscow Times, 14/2/25)
Russian courts handled 429 terrorism-related criminal cases in 2024, a 40% increase from the previous year, the country’s top investigative authority said. (The Moscow Times, 17/2/25)
Russia’s State Duma passed a bill introducing prison terms of up to five years for desecrating symbols of support for Moscow’s war against Ukraine. (The Moscow Times, 19/2/25)
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the Trump administration would maintain sanctions on Russia at least until agreement is reached to end the war in Ukraine. (Meduza, 19/2/25)
Mariupol is getting a new museum to honor Andrey Zhdanov, one of the chief architects of Stalin’s repressions. (Meduza, 19/2/25)
Russian military courts sentenced more than 1,000 people on terrorist charges last year, President Vladimir Putin said Thursday. (The Moscow Times, 20/2/25)
At least 25 Russian conscripts have died in the six months since Ukrainian forces launched a cross-border incursion into Kursk region. (The Moscow Times, 20/2/25)
Ukrainian authorities estimate that more than 150 Ukrainian POWs are currently being held in Chechnya. (RFE/RL, 21/2/25)
Other news
A St. Petersburg court sentenced two students to five days in jail each for “publicly displaying Nazi symbols” – shouting a “Ukrainian greeting.” (Meduza, 14/2/25)
On the one-year anniversary of Aleksei Navalny’s death his supporters placed flowers at his grave in Moscow. (RFE/RL, 16/2/25; The Moscow Times, 16/2/25)
Russian opposition figure Yulia Navalnaya, widow of the late Alexei Navalny, on Sunday urged supporters to fight for a “free, peaceful” Russia. (The Moscow Times, 16/2/25)
Hundreds of supporters and allies of late opposition leader Alexei Navalny gathered in a Berlin church for a memorial service. (The Moscow Times, 17/2/25)
The anniversary of Navalny’s death is a stark reminder Moscow is holding “more than 2,000 political prisoners,” the UN’s expert on rights in Russia said. (The Moscow Times, 17/2/25)
A Murmansk court sentenced Artem Konstantinov to 13 years in jail on treason charges for allegedly contacting a Ukrainian army recruiter. (The Moscow Times, 18/2/25)
On the eve of U.S.-Russia talks in Saudi Arabia, Moscow released Kalob Wayne Byers, held since February 7 on drug charges. (RFE/RL, 18/2/25)
Lawmakers in Yakutsk, a city in Russia’s Far East, have voted to abolish direct mayoral elections, the news outlet 14.ru reported. (Meduza, 18/2/25)
A court in Kemerovo handed down Russia’s first-ever prison sentence for “LGBT extremism,” sentencing them to six years in prison. (The Moscow Times, 19/2/25)
The FSB said it had charged exiled former lawmaker Ilya Ponomaryov with attempting a coup and organizing a terrorist group. (The Moscow Times, 19/2/25)
The Latvian authorities have confirmed their decision to expel former OVD-Info employee the Russian lawyer Maria Chashchilova from the country. (Meduza, 20/2/25)
Officials in St. Petersburg announced controversial plans to equip thousands of the city’s surveillance cameras with ethnicity recognition software, the Kommersant business newspaper reported Thursday. (The Moscow Times, 20/2/25)
