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On March 6, the Telegram channel Faridaily reported that the Kremlin plans to add roughly 100 Ukraine War veterans to the 450-member State Duma when Russia holds its next parliamentary elections in the fall of 2026. Veterans with the Kremlin’s endorsement will reportedly run as candidates from the political party United Russia, though Faridaily’s sources noted concerns that soldiers-turned-politicians could prove unpredictable and out of step with the legislature’s incumbents. At the same time, other sources speculated that the veterans tapped for Duma seats will be familiar politicians (for example, deputy governors and other regional figures) who served only briefly in the war (if at all). Last year, large numbers of Ukraine War veterans sought public office in regional assemblies, but almost none of them passed United Russia’s primaries. In Moscow, all 14 military candidates failed to advance. Meduza podcast host Vladislav Gorin spoke to special correspondent Andrey Pertsev for more insights into Russian veterans’ role in electoral politics. That conversation is summarized below. However ambitious the Kremlin decides to be with its integration of veterans in electoral politics, it’s doubtful that unpredictable, undereducated outsiders will be permitted any real power. Both to date and according to the plan reported by Faridaily, veterans would be kept from the executive branch, “where the money is,” and relegated to “the powerless representative branch.” Pertsev argued that flooding the State Duma with veterans wouldn’t require major innovations in elections; Russia is already grooming future political elites by sending them on brief tours of duty (far from combat), and there’s still plenty of time to add some military sheen to a politician’s reputation, if need be. He cited the examples of acting Tambov Governor Yevgeny Pervyshov and acting Jewish Autonomous Region Governor Maria Kostyuk — two established politicians whose superiors proclaimed their military credentials before their latest appointments. (Pertsev said Pervyshov’s new job in Tambov could be viewed as a demotion from his mayorship in Krasnodar, while Kostyuk apparently owes her position to past work with a foundation run by Putin’s niece, Anna Tsivilyova.) Since Putin has signaled his interest in seeing more former soldiers enter politics, the veterans who have reached public office are typically the same local elites whose careers were already on this trajectory. “And I’ve heard that they try to place them somewhere without significant financial resources, where they can’t really mess up, fail in their role, or cause major problems,” Pertsev told Meduza, explaining that outsiders tend to rock the boat, especially at the local level, when learning how little is left to municipal governments once federal and regional officials have taken their cut of public revenues. (In the town of Sosnovka, officials even threatened to redeploy a veteran who became mayor after he spoke out too loudly against local corruption.) Further reading ‘Everyone is afraid’ The Kremlin says it wants Russian soldiers who fought in Ukraine to take up ‘leading positions’ in government — so where are they? Vladislav Gorin suggested that sources speaking to the media about the Kremlin’s alleged State Duma plans so far ahead of the next elections could mean that the initiative is doomed. Maybe the Putin administration will decide not to “buy into” the idea? Gorin disagreed, saying that the plan is appealing to the Kremlin (Putin and First Deputy Chief of Staff Sergey Kiriyenko are both infatuated with “round, impressive numbers”) and easy to implement (given that many existing elites already present themselves as veterans). The State Duma’s incoming “veteran class” could even materialize as a performance staged for Vladimir Putin. “They could create a separate little world for Putin,” explained Pertsev: He clearly imagines that this engages the entire country, that everyone is caught up in it, whereas in reality, it’s just a set of props built around him. They could stage some kind of simulation of career advancement for participants in the “special military operation,” while nothing of the sort is actually happening. For instance, they could pass off so-called volunteers in this process. They could even stuff the quota with bureaucrats working in the so-called new territories — the annexed regions. In other words, Putin’s personal fixations and grasp of Russians’ priorities — not any genuine popular demand — likely drive the Kremlin’s veterans’ initiative in the State Duma, Pertsev told Meduza. Despite the president’s current preoccupation with soldiers, Gorin said he thinks Putin expects veterans to accept business as usual once the war in Ukraine subsides. “I assume [his] task after the war will be precisely to sweep its consequences under the rug and create the illusion that it’s all in the past. ‘Yes, of course, we respect you, but, dear citizen, please don’t get distracted — don’t bother your compatriots.’” Summary by Kevin Rothrock…

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‘Next time, you’ll know better’. Women say doctors at a Russian hospital performed gynecological surgery on them without anesthesia

4 hours ago

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Patients at a public hospital in Surgut, Russia, say doctors performed abortions and other gynecological surgeries on them without anesthesia — ignoring their pain and mocking their suffering. The hospital’s chief physician has denied the allegations. The regional health department says it’s launched an investigation, though it claims no official complaints have been filed. Meduza summarizes what we know about the allegations so far. Two women told the independent news outlet Dozhd (TV Rain) that doctors at a public hospital in the Russian city of Surgut performed surgical procedures on them without anesthesia. Both told their stories on condition of anonymity. One of the patients said she was admitted to the hospital for an abortion at seven weeks of pregnancy. She was told she would receive local anesthesia, but the medication failed to take effect. Though she immediately informed the doctor, obstetrics and gynecology specialist Mikhail Kurnosikov — who also serves as the hospital’s chief physician — that she was in “searing, unbearable pain,” he ignored her agony and continued the procedure, she said. “He told me, ‘That’s what you deserve. Next time, you’ll know better than to get an abortion,’” she recalled. “I was in shock from the pain for a full hour afterward.” The other woman told Dozhd that she was admitted to the same hospital in 2018 for a gynecological surgery. “Normally, they administer anesthesia and wait for it to take effect. In my case, everything happened very quickly. But when it started, I thought I was going to black out from the pain,” she said. The woman said she only realized she hadn’t been given any local anesthesia after she was later readmitted. “I went through the entire procedure fully conscious, feeling everything,” she said. Surgut’s public hospital When Dozhd reached Kurnosikov for comment, the doctor first asked the reporter where she was calling from. Upon hearing she was in the Netherlands, he refused to discuss the allegations. “We don’t talk to Nazi subjects,” he said. Speaking to the Russian news outlet Podyom, Kurnosikov denied any wrongdoing. “Everything was done in strict accordance with the law,” he said, dismissing the allegations as harassment. “This is a smear campaign. It’s just foreign agents writing this. It’s a targeted attack from abroad.” Meduza’s survival is under threat — again. Donald Trump’s foreign aid freeze has slashed funding for international groups backing press freedom. Meduza was hurt too. It’s yet another blow in our ongoing struggle to survive. You could be our lifeline. Please, help Meduza survive with a small recurring donation. Reports of abortions being performed without anesthesia at Surgut’s public hospital surfaced in early March, when a patient shared her experience with the news outlet Ura.ru . “I was sent for a vacuum abortion for medical reasons, but they didn’t give me any anesthesia at all. They just started the procedure while I was in the chair, fully conscious. I screamed in pain, and they told me to shut my mouth and stop putting on a circus show,” she said. The regional Health Ministry has not commented publicly on the matter. However, Mediazona noted that the official account of the region’s health department responded to a post about the case in a local VKontakte group. The comment stated that no official complaints had been filed against hospital staff but that the department had initiated a review of the allegations. Mediazona also noted that reports of abortions performed without anesthesia appear in reviews of the hospital on the Russian online mapping service 2GIS. “I was admitted with a missed miscarriage,” one review reads. “They administered anesthesia but didn’t wait for it to take effect, so the procedure was performed while I was fully conscious. When I screamed in pain, they just said, ‘What, like you’ve never given birth?’” rebranding teenage motherhood As Russia targets abortion and ‘childfree propaganda’ to raise birth rates, ‘Pregnant at 16’ reality show rebrands to make motherhood more appealing…

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Ukrainian troops in Kursk region ‘not at risk of encirclement yet,’ top commander says

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There is currently no imminent threat of Ukrainian troops being encircled in Russia’s Kursk region, the commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s Armed Forces, Oleksandr Syrskyi, said . “For now, our units in the Kursk region are not at risk of encirclement. They are taking timely measures to establish more advantageous defensive positions,” he said. Syrskyi added that some of the settlements “mentioned in Russian propaganda reports” have, in reality, been completely destroyed by Russian forces. He also said Ukrainian troops have been successfully “eliminating” Russian sabotage groups attempting to infiltrate Ukrainian territory. Moscow launched an aggressive push in the Kursk region late last week, after Washington stopped sharing military intelligence with Ukraine. On March 8 and 9, Russian forces retook nine settlements, followed by five more on March 10. On March 8, Ukraine’s General Staff reported that Russian assault units had attempted to reach Sudzha by crawling through a gas pipeline. According to Ukrainian military officials, the raid did not catch them by surprise, and Russian units were targeted with missile and artillery strikes. pipeline to nowhere Russian troops reportedly spent days crawling through gas pipeline to slip behind Ukrainian lines in Kursk region…

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‘Especially problematic’. Blinded by Trump’s intelligence-sharing pause, Ukraine loses ground in Russia’s Kursk region

8 hours ago

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Russian troops in the city of Pogrebki in the Kursk region, March 9, 2025 The suspension of U.S. intelligence sharing with Ukraine has reportedly contributed to Russia’s recent successful offensive in the Kursk region. Ukrainian soldiers speaking from the front by telephone told The New York Times that the lack of American intelligence in the region has been “especially problematic.” Meduza reviews how the increasingly rocky relationship between Washington and Kyiv is affecting events on the battlefield inside Russia. A high-ranking U.S. military official told the New York Times that the suspension of intelligence sharing has "hurt Ukraine’s ability to detect and attack Russian forces in Kursk and hampered its ability to strike high-value targets.” A source in the Zelensky administration told TIME magazine that the absence of U.S. intelligence had primarily affected Ukraine’s ability to conduct military operations inside Russia. “Not only Kursk — in all Russian territory there are problems now,” the source said. Russian forces launched a major offensive in the Kursk region late last week. On March 8-9, troops recaptured eight settlements : Loknya, Malaya Loknya, Cherkasskoye Porechnoye, Kositsa, Lebedevka, Viktorovka, Nikolayevka, and Staraya Sorochina (by comparison, Russian forces regained control of only five towns in the entire month of February). According to calculations by the news agency TASS, based on the Defense Ministry’s statements, Russian forces had liberated 32 towns in the Kursk region as of the evening of March 9. On Monday, March 10, the “Sever” military grouping announced that “the Russian flag had been raised” over four more towns, though Meduza has not yet verified this information. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on March 10 that he has “no doubt” that Russia will reestablish full control over the Kursk region, but he again refused to speculate on when this might happen. “Regarding the Kursk region: of course, there are no deadlines. Our military is doing everything possible to clear our land of militants as quickly as possible,” Peskov told reporters. A day earlier, U.S. President Donald Trump said his office had “ just about ” restored intelligence sharing with Ukraine, indicating that the policy depends on the results of upcoming talks with Ukrainian officials in Saudi Arabia. “We just about have. We just about have,” Trump told Reuters when asked if he plans to resume intelligence sharing with Kyiv.…

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Russian law enforcement reportedly struggling with a shortage of smartphone hacking equipment

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Russian law enforcement agencies are facing a shortage of specialized equipment used to hack smartphones, RBC reported , citing sources with knowledge of the matter. According to those sources, the issue has worsened since the start of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine, due to sanctions and the withdrawal of foreign companies. In recent years, Israel’s Cellebrite, Sweden’s MSAB, and Canada-based Magnet have all left the Russian market, said Igor Bederov, head of information and analytical research at T.Hunter. Cellebrite had reportedly already ended its cooperation with Russian security agencies in 2021. As a result, the market is now left with Russia’s Mobilnyy Kriminalist, China’s Forensic MagiCube, and products from the Russian company Elcomsoft. Dmitry Boroshchuk, a cybersecurity researcher and head of BeholderIsHere Consulting, said Russia lacks a well-developed market for forensic smartphone investigation tools. “These tasks rely on software suites or sets of interfaces for different functions,” he said. “But there are no complete packages specifically designed for field forensic work.” Experts say another challenge in hacking smartphones is the increasing security of Android and iOS operating systems. The human rights group Department One previously reported that Russian security forces hack mobile devices at border checkpoints using both Cellebrite and Mobilnyy Kriminalist. While Cellebrite has officially ceased operations in Russia, rights activists note that its UFED system — a forensic hardware and software suite capable of hacking many mobile devices and extracting various types of data — remains in use at border crossings. The UFED system is also available on the black market.…

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‘Vile and inhumane’. See the aftermath of Russia’s deadly attack on Dobropillia, which came days after Washington stopped sharing intelligence with Ukraine

9 hours ago

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A man covers a window of his apartment that was blown out during a Russian strike. Dobropillia, Ukraine. March 8, 2025. On the evening of March 7, Russian forces launched a missile attack on the small frontline city of Dobropillia in Ukraine’s Donetsk region. The strikes killed at least 11 people and wounded 50 others, including at least seven children, according to Governor Vadym Filashkin. President Volodymyr Zelensky later said Russian forces had struck the same site twice, launching a second ballistic missile to target rescue workers arriving at the scene, a tactic he described as “vile and inhumane.” “The strike was deliberately calculated to inflict maximum damage,” Zelensky said , adding that a rescue worker was among the dead. “Every day, Russia’s brutality proves that nothing has changed for them in Moscow. They aren’t thinking about how to end the war — they’re focused on destroying and seizing as much as possible as long as the world continues to let them wage [it].” The attack on Dobropillia comes as Ukraine faces worsening battlefield conditions following the U.S. decision to halt intelligence sharing. The move has hindered Ukraine’s ability to track Russian aircraft and strike targets deep inside Russian-held territory, Time reported , citing officials and military sources. After Russia's attack on Dobropillia, the Donetsk region declared March 8 a day of mourning. Meduza shares photos of the aftermath of the deadly strikes. People stand near an apartment building struck by a Russian missile. Dobropillia, Ukraine. March 8, 2025. An apartment building hit by a Russian missile. Dobropillia, Ukraine. March 8, 2025. People comfort a woman near a damaged residential building. Dobropillia, Ukraine. March 8, 2025. A person gathers belongings inside a damaged apartment in Dobropillia, two days after a Russian attack. March 9, 2025. Vitalina, 21, collects some belongings from her damaged house in Dobropillia. March 9, 2025. A woman carrying flowers walks past an apartment building damaged by a Russian strike. Dobropillia, Ukraine. March 8, 2025. A woman stands by a window with its glass blown out. Dobropillia, Ukraine. March 8, 2025. Meduza has condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine from the very start, and we are committed to reporting objectively on a war we firmly oppose. Join Meduza in its mission to challenge the Kremlin’s censorship with the truth. Donate today . People carry items out of a damaged apartment building. Dobropillia, Ukraine. March 8, 2025. People stand near the rubble of an apartment building destroyed by a Russian strike on Dobropillia. March 8, 2025. Burned-out cars and damaged buildings in Dobropillia. March 9, 2025. A man with a bicycle stands near burned-out cars following a Russian strike on Dobropillia, Ukraine. March 8, 2025. Help Ukrainian civilians One year of Let’s Help Here’s how your $800,000 in donations helped support Ukrainian civilians affected by Russia’s war…

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Russian troops reportedly spent days crawling through gas pipeline to slip behind Ukrainian lines in Kursk region

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On Saturday, reports emerged that Russian troops had taken an unusual approach to trying to get behind Ukrainian lines in Russia’s Kursk region — crawling through a defunct section of a pipeline that once carried Russian gas to Europe via Ukraine. Soon after, the Ukrainian side confirmed the attack but said its forces had detected the movement “in time” and launched strikes as Russian troops tried to emerge. While many pro-Russian outlets have portrayed the ongoing offensive near Sudzha as a success, some pro-war bloggers and propagandists have criticized the pipeline strategy as poorly planned. Here’s what we know so far about this unusual raid. Russian forces crawled through a gas pipeline in an attempt to ambush Ukrainian troops near the Ukrainian-held city of Sudzha in Russia’s Kursk region. They used a branch of the Urengoy–Pomary–Uzhhorod pipeline, which has been out of operation since January 1, 2025, to slip behind Ukrainian lines. Reports of the operation quickly spread across Russian pro-war Telegram channels. On the evening of March 8, Ukraine’s General Staff confirmed the raid. According to Russian war bloggers and propagandists, a unit of up to 100 soldiers traveled nearly 16 kilometers (about 10 miles) through an underground gas pipe measuring 1.4 meters (about four and a half feet) in diameter. The troops reportedly crawled through the pipe for two days and then waited inside for four more before emerging. The raid was allegedly carried out by fighters from the Veterans private military company (PMC), the Akhmat special forces unit, and Russia’s 30th Motorized Rifle Regiment. The Veterans PMC had previously used a similar tactic in January 2024 during an assault on the southern outskirts of Avdiivka in Ukraine’s Donetsk region. Reactions among Russian pro-war commentators were mixed. Self-styled “war correspondent” Vladimir Romanov and propagandist Anastasia Kashevarova criticized the operation as poorly planned, citing a lack of water, supplies, and ventilation. According to their accounts, several soldiers died underground from methane poisoning. Meanwhile, Russian serviceman and pro-war blogger Yegor Guzenko argued that the premature publication of photos and videos showing soldiers crawling through the pipe had tipped off the Ukrainian side and that forces would have needed an additional week to secure a foothold. Meduza’s survival is under threat — again. Donald Trump’s foreign aid freeze has slashed funding for international groups backing press freedom. Meduza was hurt too. It’s yet another blow in our ongoing struggle to survive. You could be our lifeline. Please, help Meduza survive with a small recurring donation. The Ukrainian military said they weren’t caught off guard by the underground raid. According to Ukraine’s General Staff, reconnaissance units from the Air Assault Forces detected the Russian troops “in time,” allowing Ukrainian forces to target them with missile and artillery strikes. The Ukrainian military released a video purportedly showing strikes on Russian positions at a railway crossing along the pipeline, about two kilometers (just over a mile) northeast of Sudzha. “At present, Russian special forces are being located, blocked, and destroyed. Enemy losses near Sudzha are very high,” Ukraine’s General Staff said. However, Russian pro-government media offered a different version of events. According to the Telegram channel Shot, Russian forces are advancing on Sudzha from multiple directions. On the morning of March 9, Russian troops reportedly cleared the villages of Cherkasskoye Porechnoye and Kositsa, while fighting was ongoing in Martynovka and Malaya Loknya. Russian forces also claimed to have retaken Lebedevka, a village 10 kilometers (about six miles) from Sudzha. Russia’s Defense Ministry has not commented on the underground raid or the reported offensive near Sudzha. Photos from the region Back in Russian hands Photos from a Kursk region village that spent more than six months under Ukrainian control…

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U.S. to hold separate talks with Russia in Saudi Arabia this week — CNN

16 hours ago

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Officials from Donald Trump’s administration will meet this week in Saudi Arabia not only with a Ukrainian delegation but also with Russian representatives, CNN reported , citing a source familiar with the plans. According to the source, the meeting with the Russian delegation will be held separately from the talks with Ukraine. The source did not specify who would take part in the discussions. The exact date of the Washington-Moscow meeting was also not disclosed. Update: Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova denied the reports, telling TASS that no new round of talks between Russia and the United States is planned in Saudi Arabia this week. She added that “no such information has been received from the American side either.” Talks between U.S. and Ukrainian officials are scheduled for March 11 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.…

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Ukraine to propose partial ceasefire in U.S. talks as Washington assesses Kyiv’s willingness to cede territory to Russia, media report

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Ukrainian representatives plan to propose a partial ceasefire with Russia during talks with a U.S. delegation scheduled for March 11 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, The Financial Times reported on March 9, citing sources familiar with the matter. The proposal would reportedly include a ban on drone and long-range missile strikes, as well as a halt to hostilities in the Black Sea. Meanwhile, the U.S. delegation intends to assess whether Ukraine is willing to make territorial concessions to Russia to end the war, Reuters reported on March 10, citing two American officials. “You can’t say ‘I want peace,’ and, ‘I refuse to compromise,’” one U.S. official said ahead of the talks. Another added, “We want to see if the Ukrainians are interested not just in peace, but in a realistic peace. If they are only interested in 2014 or 2022 borders, that tells you something.” One of Reuters’ sources said the U.S. delegation also aims to assess whether Ukraine is serious about improving relations with Washington following the contentious February 28 meeting between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House. The U.S. delegation will include Secretary of State Marco Rubio and, reportedly, National Security Adviser Mike Waltz and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff. The Ukrainian delegation will be led by Andriy Yermak, the head of the Ukrainian president's office, and will also include Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha‎, Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, and Pavlo Palisa, the deputy head of the Ukrainian president's office. On March 9, Trump said he expected “a lot of progress” in the negotiations. Zelensky, for his part, expressed hope that the talks would yield results. In recent days, the Trump administration has halted arms shipments and intelligence sharing with Ukraine, a move that news reports say is intended to pressure Kyiv into negotiations. Amid these developments, Moscow claimed it has retaken several settlements in Russia’s Kursk region. NBC News reported on March 9 that the United States would be prepared to resume military aid and intelligence sharing if Zelensky agreed to territorial concessions, took steps toward holding elections in Ukraine, and possibly stepped down as president. Meanwhile, Trump remarked that Washington has “just about” ended the freeze on intelligence sharing with Kyiv.…

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Trump says U.S. has 'just about’ resumed intelligence sharing with Ukraine

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Washington has “just about” ended the freeze on intelligence sharing with Kyiv, President Donald Trump said on Sunday, according to Reuters and Bloomberg . “We just about have,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One when asked whether he would lift the pause on intelligence exchanges, Reuters reported. Trump said he wanted to do “anything we can to get Ukraine serious about getting something done.” He added that he expected “good results” from talks between American and Ukrainian delegations set to take place in Saudi Arabia later this week. “I think we’re going to make a lot of progress I believe this week,” he said. Washington’s suspension of intelligence sharing with Kyiv was first reported on March 5 by The Financial Times and Sky News . CIA Director John Ratcliffe later confirmed the halt, calling it a “pause” that would “go away” once progress was made toward a peace agreement Trump was pursuing.…

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Man in St. Petersburg will face felony charges for spray painting slogan ‘I don’t want to get used to war’ on fence

3 days ago

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A judge in St. Petersburg has jailed Alexander Arsenyev on misdemeanor charges of “politically motivated” vandalism and felony charges of “discrediting” the Russian army. Though the court has not revealed what Arsenyev allegedly spraypainted on a public fence, reporting by Fontanka , Bumaga, and Mediazona indicates that it was the pacifist phrase: “I don’t want to get used to war.” Police reportedly arrested Alexander Arsenyev, 38, at his home in Moscow, where officers say they found spray paint cans and a gray acrylic marker in a plastic bag.…

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Russian State Duma speaker threatens to confiscate British property in retaliation for frozen asset revenue transfers to Ukraine

3 days ago

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State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin warned on Friday that the Russian authorities “have every reason to respond in kind and confiscate British property,” following Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal’s announcement earlier in the day that Kyiv has received roughly $971 million from the U.K., funded by revenues from frozen Russian assets. “The transfer of funds belonging to Russia by England to Ukraine is a blatant violation of international law. They will have to return to Russia what they are now so generously distributing,” Volodin stated, arguing that the transfers “will permanently undermine trust in the British financial system.”…

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Film review: Vera Krichevskaya’s ‘Connected’. Anton Dolin on the ‘unmistakable hope’ of a new documentary on businessman, scientist, and philanthropist Dmitry Zimin

3 days ago

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The 2025 Artdocfest documentary film festival concludes in Riga this weekend. The pictures in the main competition program include Vera Krichevskaya’s “ Connected ,” which tells the story of entrepreneur Dmitry Zimin, the founder of VimpelCom (which operated the Beeline brand) and the Dynasty Foundation (which supported science and education efforts until its “foreign agent” designation in 2015). Krichevskaya filmed “Connected” shortly before Zimin’s death in December 2021, “capturing the closing scenes of a life and a time of peace.” Anton Dolin reviews this last look at one of Russia’s great philanthropists. Krichevskaya’s film, which describes the life of businessman, scientist, and philanthropist Dmitry Zimin, uses familiar techniques to achieve something that’s neither a biopic nor a “ceremonial portrait.” There’s the typical series of interviews with the main character and his associates, the archival footage, old photographs, and narration with biographical details, but the film’s unconventional nature (whether planned from the start or crafted in the editing process) is evident even in the title, which doesn’t name Zimin. In Russian, it’s called Blizkie (which means “Close Ones”), while in English (the film is officially a U.K. production), it’s titled Connected . “Close ones” in this case refers to business partners and friends, namely Zimin, who transformed during Perestroika from an engineer and researcher into an extraordinarily successful entrepreneur, and his American partner at VimpelCom, Augie Fabela. Their partnership symbolized the Iron Curtain’s collapse and the beginning of a new era in U.S.-Russia relations — an era that, unfortunately, ended much sooner than the film’s protagonists had hoped. Fabela remained a close friend even after Zimin left the business world and devoted himself entirely to philanthropy, supporting science and the arts. In Krichevskaya’s film, Augie becomes the narrator — a simple but clever choice that broadens the story’s potential audience, offering an outsider perspective on Zimin’s remarkable career for those who don’t know him. Fabela, a man from a different world and yet still “close,” was among those with whom Mr. Zimin (“Dim’” to his friends) shared the final weeks of his life. Connected also explores others in Zimin’s life, focusing first and foremost on his family — his wife, Maya, and his son Boris, who continues his legacy. There’s also the filmmaking team, which was granted access to document Zimin’s last days. Alongside Krichevskaya are cinematographer Heiko Gilberto and sound designer Daniel Goldan, who also served as the second cameraman. The scene unfolds on a yacht, where Zimin gathered friends for a farewell voyage. We know from the start of the film that he is preparing for an assisted death. You might even say the title includes all of us — everyone for whom the film is meant. We are “connected” through the thoughts, words, and ideals of a man who modeled his business strategy on bringing people together. This message is especially vital in today’s dreary times of atomization and division. The details of Zimin’s biography come into focus only by the film’s end. The 88-year-old complains about his memory, which seems to cause him more pain than the cancer eating him away. As if mimicking the selective nature of memory itself, Krichevskaya first focuses on Fabela, the energetic and accomplished son of American emigrants, and their shared journey through Russia’s new business landscape before exploring Zimin’s past. We learn about his ancestors, from the Pale of Settlement to his father, who was branded an “enemy of the people.” We get his childhood and education, his academic interests, and his transformation into a researcher. There’s Zimin’s gutsy move to “reset” his life, and then his gradual disillusionment with the hopes of the 1990s and disappointment in the 21st century. On screen, we see Gorbachev and Reagan, Yeltsin and Clinton, Nemtsov, and then Putin-Putin-Putin. “He seems like a decent guy, but isn’t he a Chekist?” Zimin muses in one archival recording. Told alternately by Augie and Dim’ himself, the story of how the “American dream meets Russian fate” unfolds in under two hours into a family chronicle — a snapshot or cast of the entire 20th century. Albeit in broad strokes, the film finds time for the century’s most defining events: revolution and war, repressions, the Thaw, tanks in Prague, dissidents, and Perestroika. It’s an unexpectedly inspiring spectacle about the significance of a single life amid the devastating purges of Grand History. Zimin’s strategy was not mere survival but defending his dignity with every step and every word. The main twist is revealed in the opening credits: This is not a film about life but about death. Zimin’s magnificent voyage, surrounded by friends and like-minded people, is a final farewell before heading to a Swiss clinic to end his life on his own terms. “Live long? How much longer? For what? Why?” Zimin asks with a good-natured bewilderment. He requests to be buried in ski boots, with an epitaph that reads: “The person you are calling is currently outside the coverage area.” A self-described native of Moscow’s storied Arbat alleys who liked to quote the poet Sergey Yesenin, Zimin could not bear the humiliation of seeing his Dynasty Foundation declared a “foreign agent.” In the film, he predicts a major war, which ultimately unfolds in Ukraine two months after his death. The overused cliché “the end of an era” becomes literal with Zimin — an entirely accurate description of his passing. The film opens with an epigraph — a passage from a letter written by Alexey Navalny from prison, where he calls Dmitry Zimin a role model. Both these men are gone today, yet seeing their names together on screen evokes an illogical, irrational, yet unmistakable sense of hope. Review by Anton Dolin Translated by Kevin Rothrock…

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Putin willing to discuss temporary truce in Ukraine — Bloomberg

3 days ago

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Russia is ready to discuss a temporary truce in Ukraine, Bloomberg reported on Friday, citing sources familiar with the situation in Moscow. According to the sources, the Kremlin wants to have a clear understanding of the key principles of a final peace agreement before halting hostilities. Moscow will insist on defining the parameters of a potential peacekeeping mission in advance, including a list of countries that could potentially send peacekeepers to Ukraine, one source told Bloomberg. U.S. and Ukrainian delegations are set to meet in Saudi Arabia next week to discuss a potential ceasefire deal between Kyiv and Moscow. Earlier on Friday, U.S. President Donald Trump threatened “large scale” sanctions against Russia if Moscow doesn’t agree to take part in ceasefire negotiations.…

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Back in Russian hands. Photos from a Kursk region village that spent more than six months under Ukrainian control

3 days ago