MEDUZA/EN/VHF

Russia's federal censor (Roskomnadzor) blocked former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky's website "duma.vote," reported the digital rights group Roskomsvoboda on Monday, September 13.

On September 8, three members of a Moscow family fell ill after eating watermelon from the Magnit grocery store on Sovkhoznaya Street. All three were hospitalized and two later died. Several other residents of their building and the neighboring one were also hospitalized with poisoning symptoms. On September 13, the Moscow branch of Russia's consumer rights watchdog (Rospotrebnadzor) said that they found traces of an insecticide in the watermelon the family ate. This same insect poison was found in other watermelons from the Magnit store. Moscow investigators arrested an exterminator from the pest-control company Klimovsk-Dez as a suspect in the case. However, officials haven't offered an explanation as to why the family's neighbors also fell ill.

Imprisoned opposition politician Alexey Navalny filed a lawsuit against the Russian Attorney General's Office and the federal censor (Roskomnadzor), according to a case listing on the website of Moscow's Tverskoy District Court.

In the Siberian city of Angarsk, several prisoners in the high-security Correctional Colony No. 2 went on hunger strike on September 13, to protest abuse and torture at the hands of prison officials.

Users of Apple devices in Russia report that the App Store has crashed, says the online publication Vc.ru.

Officials in Moscow have allocated at least 10 billion rubles ($136.5 million) to the construction of a sparkling new headquarters for a special anti-riot police regiment that works primarily with public demonstrations. Meduza discovered multiple large city contracts that first appeared online in public records in April. The new office will be erected at 39 Ryabinovaya Street, but public estate documents identify the compound as a future perfume factory. Meanwhile, satellite images and employment listings tell another story.

The CIA was involved in the Ukrainian-led operation that resulted in the arrest of 33 suspected Russian mercenaries in Belarus last year, reported CNN on Wednesday, September 8. Citing Ukrainian intelligence officials, CNN said that American intelligence provided their Ukrainian counterparts with "U.S. cash, technical assistance, and advice." However, U.S. officials deny playing a direct role in the operation, suggesting that the Ukrainian side may be attempting to "share or pass blame" for a sting gone wrong. In turn, the Kremlin's spokesman and the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) described CNN's report as further confirmation of the involvement of foreign intelligence in the detention of the Russian nationals -- something Russian authorities, including President Vladimir Putin, have claimed all along.

Hopelessness and disgust. That is the mission of Russia's latest batch of "spoiler" candidates and electioneering, according to a new report by BBC Russia correspondent Elizaveta Fokht. The main targets of these "dark technologies" in the September 2021 races are politicians nominated by the (left-wing) Communist Party of the Russian Federation (KPRF), the (right-wing) Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR), and the democratic opposition party Yabloko. Candidates from Just Russia and the ruling party United Russia have been mysteriously spared. While many of the stunts performed throughout this summer's campaigns seem like smear attempts, experts told Fokht that Russia's spoilers actually hope to discourage swing voters from participating at all.

On Wednesday, September 8, Russia's Emergency Situations Minister Evgeny Zinichev died on Lake Lama, 120 kilometers (75 miles) east of the Arctic city of Norilsk. The Emergency Situations Ministry (EMERCOM) said that the incident took place "during drills" in the region -- allegedly, Zinichev died while attempting to save documentary filmmaker Alexander Melkin, who was standing next to the minister "on the edge of a cliff" when he slipped and fell into the water below. Melkin died, as well. This same version of events was recounted by RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan on Telegram (though she didn't reveal her source). The Kremlin dismissed other accounts of the circumstances surrounding Zinichev's death as "blasphemous, untrue fabrications." Meduza profiles the late Evgeny Zinichev -- "Putin's former bodyguard" who, much to his dismay, found himself in the political spotlight.

Earlier this month, "Team 29" founder and human rights lawyer Ivan Pavlov fled Russia and moved to the Republic of Georgia to escape felony prosecution for supposedly disclosing classified evidence from the treason case against former journalist Ivan Safronov, whom Pavlov was defending. Under the terms of the charges against Pavlov, he was prohibited from using the Internet or any mobile connection -- even to communicate with his client. Now that he's emigrated, Pavlov can speak to whomever he likes, and he agreed to tell Meduza why he left, when he hopes to return, and what he plans to do next.