MEDUZA/EN/VHF

The Russian Justice Ministry added nine more individuals and three organizations to its "foreign agent" registry on Friday, October 8, just hours after Novaya Gazeta editor-in-chief Dmitry Muratov was awarded this year's Nobel Peace Prize.

Especially where kids are involved, divorce can be a harrowing experience. Few manage to get along with a former spouse as well as Russian Deputy Justice Minister Oleg Sviridenko, who reportedly fathered two children with his ex-wife, dancer Natalia Poluichik, after their marriage officially ended in 1999. According to a new report by the investigative website Agentstvo, Sviridenko's divorce was a legal scheme to conceal the couple's wealth. On social media, Poluichik has shared photographs showing her together with Sviridenko, where she refers to herself by her married surname. Adding irony to its discovery, Agentstvo identifies Oleg Sviridenko as the "curator" of the Russian Justice Ministry's war against "foreign agents." Meduza summarizes the report's findings.

Alexander Bastrykin, the head of Russia's Federal Investigative Committee, waded into an incident this week that is stoking ethnic tensions in Moscow. Bastrykin awarded the Valor and Courage medal to a 25-year-old man whom three assailants brutally attacked after he defended a woman they were harassing on the subway. "Despite being outnumbered, he did not stand aside. He stood up for the young woman. Without entering into a conflict, he made a remark for which this aggressive group of men beat him severely," Bastrykin said in an announcement. The attack on Roman Kovalev occurred on the evening of October 4 between Moscow's Izmailovskaya and Pervomayskaya subway stations. Video of three men stomping on Kovalev's head circulated widely on Russian social media, generating substantial controversy, particularly because the victim is an ethnic Russian man and the assailants are from the North Caucasian Republic of Dagestan.

The popular Russian tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda is shutting down its branch in Belarus. In an editorial published on Tuesday, October 5, the newspaper explained that this decision was made upon considering "the events of the past year and especially the past week." Komsomolskaya Pravda said that all of the staff from its Belarusian edition would be offered compensation or jobs in other branches of the company. A week earlier, the website Komsomolskaya Pravda in Belarus was blocked after the tabloid published an article about Andrey Zeltsar, an IT worker who was involved in a shootout with security forces in Minsk on September 28. The reporter who authored the article, Gennady Mozheiko, was arrested on charges of inciting hatred and insulting a government official. He is currently in custody at the Okrestina Street detention center in Minsk.

After 30 years spent defending the legal rights of Russian conscripts and soldiers, the NGO "Soldiers' Mothers of St. Petersburg" will no longer be working with military personnel. In a statement published on October 5, the organization said that a new order issued by the Federal Security Service (FSB) has rendered most of its operations impossible. Indeed, the new order includes a list of topics -- many of which concern the military -- that you can't collect information on without risking a "foreign agent" designation or even felony charges. That said, Soldiers' Mothers isn't shutting its doors completely. To find out more about how the NGO plans to move forward, Meduza spoke to its chairperson, Oksana Paramonova.

The Russian State Duma is set to consider a new draft law aimed at lifting the two-term limit for the heads of Russia's regions. This piece of legislation is almost certain to make it through parliament. Moreover, it will give the president more power to influence regional leaders, allowing him to reprimand them, issue warnings for poor performance, and, eventually, fire them (that said, a similar "no confidence" mechanism exists already). Regional leaders will also be given standardized titles, meaning positions like the "President of Tatarstan" will have to be renamed. What is the point of all these changes? Meduza special correspondent Andrey Pertsev explains.

In late September, the Russian authorities designated the Ivanovo Center for Gender Studies as a "foreign agent." The labeling wasn't random but part of a coordinated state policy to undermine this relatively new research field. At Meduza's request, University College London School of Slavonic and East European Studies doctoral student and feminist activist Ella Rossman explains how gender studies emerged in the USSR and how scholars have fought for its survival in contemporary Russia.

Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov and Philippines journalist Maria Ressa were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2021. In the words of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, the two journalists were given the award "for their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace." Muratov, who is the editor-in-chief of the independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta, spoke with Meduza special correspondent Svetlana Reiter shortly after the announcement. Here's what he had to say.

Russia's Justice Ministry has developed a habit of announcing "foreign agent" designations on Friday evenings. October 8 was no exception. The Justice Ministry announced a total of 12 additions to the list: nine individuals and three media organizations (including the investigative project Bellingcat). Current Time TV correspondent Elizaveta Surnacheva, the former deputy editor-in-chief of the investigative outlet Proekt, is among the journalists who were blacklisted. In her own words, she tells Meduza how she received the news.

The number of coronavirus cases in Russia this fall is three times higher than during the same period last year, Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova said during a meeting with President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday October 5.