At a meeting with Russia's Presidential Human Rights Council on Thursday, Vladimir Putin said that current events in eastern Ukraine "are very reminiscent of genocide."

A St. Petersburg court has jailed prominent investor August Meyer for two months pending trial for fraud. Meyer, a U.S.-born businessman who now holds Russian citizenship, is the owner of the beauty chain Rive Gauche and co-owner of the online retailer Ulmart. He stands accused of two counts of fraud totaling 2.4 billion rubles ($32.6 million). Meyer's wife, Inna, is also a suspect in the case and was placed under house arrest. Speaking in court, in English (see the video below), Meyer recounted coming under pressure from Russian investigators. Allegedly, he was told that if he plead guilty, the authorities would release his wife. "Is it appropriate to hold a wife hostage?" Meyer asked. "Is this 1931 Soviet Union?"

A group of lawmakers from the KPRF headed by party leader Gennady Zyuganov have submitted a draft law to the State Duma that would abolish remote electronic voting in Russian elections.

In 2021, Russia's Communist Party managed to become a headache again for the Kremlin, reemerging as a genuine threat to the country's ruling political party. The Communists staged protests, nominated unruly candidates for the State Duma, and opposed the government's unpopular introduction of COVID-19 vaccine passports. In return, the party's members have found themselves under felony investigation and at the center of attack pieces in the pro-government media. Meduza special correspondent Andrey Pertsev examines how the Kremlin and Russia's security apparatus have targeted the Communist Party, and he explores what we know about President Putin's thoughts on the campaign.

After nearly two years in a pandemic, the people of Arkhangelsk are tired. That's why now is the perfect time to rename the city "Putingrad," says former Mayor Alexander Donskoi, arguing that the move would kickstart the hopefulness and joy that's been missing since the long winter of the coronavirus.

The Russian Investigative Committee is looking into the work of popular rappers Oxxxymiron and Noize MC after receiving a "complaint" about their lyrics. As it turns out, the basis for the probe was a satirical LiveJournal post by a left-wing opposition activist, who immediately acknowledged that he wrote it as a joke. With a pre-trial check already underway, Russian investigators now have ten days to decide whether or not to initiate a criminal case. Will they get the joke and drop the probe? Meduza asks experts to weigh in.

The Russian Supreme Court has deemed lawful a 1995 presidential decree that classified information about NKVD employees involved in Stalin-era repressions.

Three-quarters (76%) of Russian residents have a "negative" or "rather negative" attitude toward the prospect of the country introducing QR-code vaccine passport prerequisites for accessing public transportation, according to a new opinion poll from the independent Levada Center.

A methane blast at the Listvyazhnaya coal mine in Siberia's Kemerovo region killed 51 people on November 25. It was the deadliest mining accident Russia had seen since 2010. The explosion sent toxic smoke through the mine's ventilation system, suffocating miners and rescue workers who came to their aid. But as miners at the Listvyazhnaya told Meduza, the mine's methane levels had been critical for about two weeks beforehand, ever since a rock collapse "completely crushed" a ventilation shaft. The Listvyazhnaya's management, however, opted against shutting down operations. According to the miners Meduza spoke to, their bosses were afraid they wouldn't fulfill the production plan.

Roughly 10 years ago, on December 4, 2011, elections were held for Russia's State Duma. The official results had United Russia, the ruling party, winning 49% of the vote. The mass voter fraud that led to this result, however, sparked protests across the country -- the largest since the early 1990s. The most notable events in the "Snow Revolution" or "Bolotnaya Revolution," as the protests were referred to by the media (though this was far from a revolution) were the rallies in Moscow: the protest at Chistye Prudy on December 5, the protests on Bolotnaya Square on December 10 and on Sakharov Prospekt on December 24, and the march on Yakimanka Street and the rally on Bolotnaya Street on February 4. The "March of Millions," an opposition march on Bolotnaya Street on May 6, ended in a clash with the police and subsequently with the "Bolotnaya Square Case," in which dozens of people were detained. On the 10th anniversary of the protests, a time when many Russians dared to hope for sweeping political change, Meduza looks back at the leaders and what's become of them in the decade since.