MEDUZA/EN/VHF

Moldova's energy crisis has prompted parliament to approve the introduction of a state of emergency, the state news agency Moldpres reported on Friday, October 22.

Alexey Navalny's dramatic return to Moscow and immediate imprisonment was more than eight months ago. The anti-Kremlin opposition leader currently occupies a cell at a penitentiary in the Vladimir region. From here, he's watched the authorities systematically outlaw and dismantle his nationwide network of political campaign offices and the domestic infrastructure of the Anti-Corruption Foundation. Yet his core team has continued to operate. In 2021, the group's biggest project was a strategic voting initiative in Russia's September parliamentary elections that provoked the authorities' fierce resistance. In a new letter addressed to his colleagues and supporters (obtained by Meduza), Navalny says he's now ready to assess the past few months. Divided into six main points, the text is a mission statement where Navalny interprets the election results, appraises the effectiveness of the Smart Vote project, and outlines the movement's future. Meduza summarizes the letter below.

In early October, the human rights group Gulagu.net (Not to the Gulag) released several video clips that show incidents of physical and sexual abuse in Russian prisons. According to the Gulagu.net founder Vladimir Osechkin, these videos were just a fraction of a 40-gigabyte "archive" leaked to human rights activists by a former inmate (apparently the group has received more videos since then). Though prisoners themselves are sometimes involved in committing these abuses, Osechkin believes that this is part of a single, centralized system created with the knowledge of Russia's prison authority (the Federal Penitentiary Service or FSIN). For expert insight into what's fueling the rampant abuse in Russia's prison system, Meduza turned to Igor Kalyapin, the chairman of the Committee Against Torture.

On September 28, 1991, the Tushino Airfield in Moscow hosted the Monsters of Rock international music festival. AC/DC, Metallica, the Black Crowes, and Pantera all performed, while the metal band Electro Shock Therapy represented the Soviet Union. The event attracted a crowd of more than 500,000 people, making it the largest rock concert in the history of both the USSR and the Russian Federation. There were also violent clashes between the public, the police, and even the military, which was summoned from neighboring areas to maintain order. Journalist Alexander Morsin gathered accounts from the festival's organizers and headliners and tracked down what was written abroad about the event in its glorious aftermath.

Russia's Far East has traditionally been considered LDPR country: in the 2016 State Duma election, the party came in second only to United Russia in every region of the Far Eastern Federal District except Yakutia, where it shared second place with KPRF. Five years ago, LDPR won between 20-30 percent of the vote in the Far East, compared to its average 13 percent throughout the country, and won a similar share of the vote in local legislative elections. In 2021, however, the right-wing Liberal Democrats lost their status as the Far East's main opposition force, winning only half as many votes as in the previous election, and in some places only a third. This year, it was the Communists who embodied the protest vote. While KPRF received 7-18 percent of the vote throughout the Far East in the 2016 State Duma elections, they received 12-35 percent this time around (more than 20 percent in most regions). United Russia still won in districts throughout the region, albeit on shaky ground, but the Communists are confident voters supported them not only as an act of protest but also for ideological reasons -- and they're determined to take their success further.

On Monday, October 18, the Nizhny Novgorod Regional Court outlawed the far-right hate group "Male State" as an extremist organization. This movement, called "Muzhskoe Gosudarstvo" in Russian, is linked to a number of VKontakte groups and Telegram channels that proclaim an ideology described as "national patriarchy." Its founder, Vladislav Pozdnyakov, was handed a two-year suspended sentence in 2018 for inciting hatred against women (his sentence was overturned three months later, after which he left Russia). Over the past few years, Male State supporters have threatened LGBTQ+ activists, harassed feminists, and attacked brands for promoting tolerance and diversity in their ad campaigns. Meduza shares a dispatch from the trial that banned Male State's activities in Russia.

Two years ago, Meduza wrote about Alina Shcheglova, a journalist in Veliky Novgorod who came forward about being raped by local newspaper editor-in-chief Mikhail Bogolyubov. She sought publicity for her case after filing charges privately and realizing that police would ignore the attack without public pressure. For the past two years, Shcheglova has testified in courtrooms that Bogolyubov sexually assaulted her, while his lawyers blamed her for the incident, arguing that she never resisted Bogolyubov's advances, claiming that she delayed going to the police, and characterizing her as a "promiscuous" woman. On September 30, 2021, the Novgorod Regional Court upheld Bogolyubov's April 2021 conviction by a district court, sustaining his four-year prison sentence. Meduza special correspondent Irina Kravtsova, who wrote about Alina Shcheglova two years ago, sat down with her to talk about the case, whether she regrets speaking out, and how the whole ordeal has changed her.

Since his arrest on treason charges in July 2020, Ivan Safronov -- a former journalist and advisor to the head of Russia's space agency -- has been in custody in Moscow's Lefortovo remand prison. This entire time, he hasn't been allowed a single visit from family members or even a phone call. In July, Safronov told his lawyers that he was offered a phone call with his mother in exchange for a confession -- this proposal was put forward by Alexander Chaban, the FSB investigator leading Safronov's case. Safronov refused and, as a result, has only been able to communicate with his family through letters and, sometimes, at court hearings (though these proceedings take place behind closed doors, relatives are usually allowed to enter the courtroom for a few minutes during recesses). Last Friday, October 15, BBC News Russian reported that on orders from investigator Chaban, Safronov had been stripped of his right to send and receive correspondence. For Meduza, Safronov's lawyer Evgeny Smirnov explains the logic and the legality of this decision.

Spokespeople for Russia's National Guard deny it, and the veteran founder of a special troops unit says it never happened, but questions linger after Komsomolskaya Pravda war correspondent Alexander Kots reported late on October 17 that some "Vityaz" soldiers removed their crimson berets in protest against supposed favoritism shown to Chechen competitors. The allegations, which stoke tensions going back to Russia's Chechen War and highlight potential divisions within Russia's security elite, have provoked vehement repudiations.

Alexander Bastrykin, the head of Russia's Federal Investigative Committee, has had enough. He's had enough of youngsters and enough of "shoving" by Asians, Kyrgyz, and Tajiks, and now he's lost his patience with all the people from Krasnodar "flooding" into St. Petersburg. Specifically, Bastrykin's latest outburst was directed at Vladislav Megrelov, a 26-year-old detective based in the town of Vsevolozhsk, outside Petersburg. In a virtual meeting on October 13, the Investigative Committee's director called for Megrelov's head, saying he should be fired for supposedly bungling a case. The detective's colleagues have reportedly vowed to resign in protest if the agency follows through on Bastrykin's threats to fire him.