Commenting on recent reports of conflict between the Taliban and resistance forces in Afghanistan's Panjshir region, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists that Russia has no plans to intervene.

Exactly one year ago, Russian opposition politician Alexey Navalny was poisoned with a chemical nerve agent in Siberia. Today, he's sitting in a prison outside Moscow. In a post on Instagram, Navalny marked the first anniversary of his poisoning by thanking everyone who helped him survive the assassination attempt. "I got a second chance at life and made decisions that I believe are correct and honest," he wrote. As always, Navalny found a way to tie in the problem of corruption, arguing that it played a role in saving his life. "Having contaminated Russia's entire state apparatus, they couldn't help but contaminate the intelligence services. And the quality of the covert operations we have is the same as our healthcare, education, and communal services," the Kremlin critic said. Meduza takes a look back on everything that's happened to Alexey Navalny since he was poisoned one year ago today.

The Russian authorities have a habit of executing politically controversial acts on Friday evenings. The phenomenon is known as "Clusterfuck Fridays" (it rhymes in Russian, but we can't print it here), and another such Friday unfolded late on August 20, when the Justice Ministry designated two new "foreign agent" media outlets: the investigative news website iStories and the television network Dozhd, as well as a handful of independent journalists. Immediately following the announcement, Meduza special correspondent Kristina Safonova spoke to Natalia Sindeeva, Dozhd's founder and CEO.

On August 20, Russia's Justice Ministry added new media outlets and journalists to its ever-growing list of "foreign agents." iStories and its editor-in-chief, Roman Anin, were among these new designees. Anin is no stranger to police pressure after the authorities raided his home this spring in connection with an investigation into an investigative report he co-authored years ago about Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin's then-wife. Anin told Meduza special correspondent Lilia Yapparova that iStories have been preparing for "foreign agent" status for a long time.

Russia's registry of "foreign agent" journalists and media outlets now boasts a mighty 43 entries. The two latest organizations to debut on this list are Dozhd, the country's only independent television network, and a small but daring investigative project called iStories. Respectively, these outlets are the 35th and 37th entries on a list that seems bound for triple digits.

On Friday, August 20, the Russian Justice Ministry designated the independent television channel Dozhd (TV Rain) and the investigative publication iStories as "foreign agents." Both media outlets were apparently blacklisted following demands from obscure campaigners. According to Dozhd's CEO, the television channel didn't receive any notice about the Justice Ministry's decision. At the same time, the designations aren't entirely unexpected given this year's long-running crackdown on civil society and independent media in Russia. The Russian Justice Ministry's "foreign-agent media" registry currently includes 43 entries, 25 of which are individual journalists.

Russia's federal censorship agency, Roskomnadzor, has sent a letter to Apple demanding that the tech giant delete Alexey Navalny's mobile app, Mediazona reported on Thursday, August 19.

French President Emmanuel Macron had a phone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the evening of Thursday, August 19.

The UK authorities have imposed sanctions on seven individuals believed to be the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) operatives implicated in the August 2020 poisoning of opposition politician Alexey Navalny.

August 9th marks the one year anniversary of the presidential election that sparked a mass opposition movement in Belarus. Since last summer, Alexander Lukashenko's regime has been carrying out a campaign of repression that has wiped out street protests, forced opposition leaders to flee the country, and all but destroyed the country's independent media. In total, at least seven opposition demonstrators were killed over the past year and the authorities launched 4,691 criminal cases in connection with the protests. According to the human rights group Viasna, there are currently more than 600 political prisoners in Belarus. Nevertheless, there is no indication that the persecutions are coming to an end: some opposition leaders are only now going to trial and there's an ongoing campaign to liquidate independent civil society organizations. Meduza looks back on the events of this pivotal year for Belarus.