MEDUZA/EN/VHF

Russia's federal censor, Roskomnadzor (RKN), has added the caller identification app "GetContact" to one of its registries, thereby obliging it to collect and store users' data and share it with government and law enforcement agencies at their request.

The Kremlin will review the proposed amendments to Russia's law on "foreign agents" put forward by the publishers and editors-in-chief of independent media outlets, presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told RIA Novosti on Friday, September 3.

Roskomnadzor (RKN) blocked six VPN services, Interfax reports. According to the federal censorship agency, the VPN providers -- NordVPN, ExpressVPN, IPVanish, Hola, VPN Unlimited, and Speedify -- "violate Russian law."

On Friday, September 3, the Rostov Regional Court revoked the five-day jail term previously handed down to activist Bella Nasibyan for posting a photo of a "Smart Vote" poster on Instagram.

The Russian authorities' unprecedented attack on independent journalism is continuing apace. Since April 2021, seven media outlets and 20 individual journalists have been declared "foreign agents." Another investigative publication was deemed an "undesirable organization." Meduza asked the editors-in-chief of six blacklisted media outlets to respond to the same set of questions about how they're coping with the crackdown. Though their answers varied, they all agreed they can't count on the authorities easing up. As it turns out, all of these top editors are proceeding from the assumption that producing honest journalism in Russia will only get more and more difficult. But this also means that their reporting will be increasingly in demand.

On August 30, iStories journalist Alesya Marokhovskaya wrote on Facebook that the Moscow-based nonprofit Information Culture had uninvited her to work as a mentor at a hackathon. The organization backpedaled on offering Marokhovskaya the gig after the Russian Justice Ministry designated her as a "foreign agent." Information Culture's staff told Marokhovskaya that their lawyers had advised them against signing a contract with a "foreign agent," because it could create risks for the nonprofit organization itself. Meduza asked lawyers and labor law experts to weigh in on whether or not this decision is legal, and whether or not it constitutes discrimination.

President Vladimir Putin spent Knowledge Day, September 1, in Russia's far-eastern city of Vladivostok. There, he met with some of the country's star schoolchildren, the winners of various academic competitions and educational olympiads. But over the course of their conversation, he made a small mistake.

Jesus Christ was the first communist on the planet, KPRF leader Gennady Zyuganov proclaimed during a Komsomolskaya Pravda radio broadcast on September 1. The Russian Orthodox Church replied that "it does not consider it correct and appropriate to compare the incarnation of God with any political and economic doctrines, including communism." However, this isn't the first time Zyuganov has referred to Jesus as a communist. Meduza discovered that Communist Party leader has been making this claim for at least 20 years -- and more often than not, he brings it up ahead of parliamentary elections.

Academic rights and freedoms were among the few achievements won by Russia's democratizing turn in the 1990s, even as government funding plummeted. Now the state has returned to the academy, aiming to make it world-class. In an essay for Meduza's Ideas section, sociologist Dmitry Dubrovsky explains why such a goal is incompatible with a repressive stance seeking to limit contacts with the global academic community.

It's been two days since Meduza concluded its summer music festival, where well-known artists (like Eurovision finalist Manizha) showed their support for Meduza and other media outlets labeled as "foreign agents" by premiering new music and special covers of beloved tracks. Now, heading into fall, other creatives are taking on the "foreign agent" theme -- namely, graffiti artists.