MEDUZA/EN/VHF

On July 19, the Liberal Mission Foundation published an assessment of how Russia has handled the coronavirus pandemic, analyzing the government's actions and the public's response. Most controversially, the report's authors argue that Russia could have avoided roughly 220,000 deaths if officials imposed a second lockdown. Meduza reviews how researchers came to this alarming conclusion.

Maxim Reznik, a prominent opposition politician in St. Petersburg, who is currently under house arrest, has announced that he will not be running for re-election to the city's legislative assembly in the fall.

Journalists from MBX Media have published an investigation into a major construction site near Novo-Ogaryovo, Vladimir Putin's official residence on the outskirts of Moscow. Work on the project, which experts estimate could cost 20-50 billion rubles (about $269-672 million), reportedly began in the summer of 2020. The property in question is now home to two massive guest houses, as well as a wellness center and a sports complex, which allegedly includes an underground tunnel that connects directly to Putin's estate. Journalists uncovered the site after construction began on a bridge across the Moskva River, just a stone's throw away from the presidential residence. According to MBX Media, the Russian Secret Service (the FSO) is responsible for both the construction site and the bridge. But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov says "there are no construction projects at Novo-Ogaryovo."

Until recently, the Telegram channel and chat room "Eye of God" was one of the Russian Internet's main data-leak hubs, indexing services that allowed lawbreakers to gain access to private personal and corporate information sold by insiders abusing their privileges at work. In early July 2021, however, Eye of God suddenly disappeared from Telegram after a court order based on a complaint filed by Russia's federal censor, RKN, which argued that the channel violates privacy rights. The authorities have blocked other platforms like this, but RKN's campaign against the black market for personal data didn't begin in earnest until after researchers at Bellingcat used leaked records from the Federal Security Service to tie the agency to the attempt on Alexey Navalny's life. Russia's intelligence agencies "fear the Novichok stuff like Woland and Voldemort combined," says Evgeny Antipov, who created Eye of God. Meduza special correspondent Lilia Yapparova asked Antipov about the legality of his project, how Eye of God managed to track both FSB agents and journalists, how he collected several dozen state certificates, and whether he monitors his own clients for the police.

August 2021 should have marked the seventh anniversary of Team 29 - an independent association of lawyers, attorneys, and journalists known for tackling some of Russia's most hopeless human rights cases. But on July 18, the group announced it was disbanding to protect its members and supporters from criminal prosecution. The shutdown came just days after Russia's censorship agency blocked Team 29's website for allegedly publishing content from an "undesirable organization." In a statement, Team 29 said that they couldn't ignore the risks associated with continuing their work and that going forward, their lawyers will defend clients in an exclusively personal capacity. In conversation with Meduza, now-former Team 29 member Evgeny Smirnov said that he and his colleagues have long been a "bone in throat" of the Russian authorities.

A strange facility now lies in ruins outside St. Petersburg. Until bulldozers arrived on Monday, July 19, a compound 44 kilometers (27 miles) from the city concealed an abandoned private prison with three cells, a guard station, and a furnace that may have served as a crematorium. Viktor Smirnov and Andrey Karov, two local journalists from 47news, say they learned about the site through a tip "from some migrant worker." Meduza summarizes what they found underground.

Six months ago, on January 17, 2021, opposition politician Alexey Navalny returned to Russia and was immediately arrested at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport. Russian prison authorities accused him of violating probation while in Germany (where he spent about five months recovering from an assassination attempt) and a Moscow court incarcerated him under a reinstated sentence on February 2. Over the next several months, the Russian authorities destroyed Navalny's political and anti-corruption movement and launched an all-encompassing campaign of repressions against activists, human rights defenders, and independent journalists. Meduza looks back at the key moments in this crackdown.

Journalists from the outlet Proekt, whose publisher, the American company "Project Media, Inc.," was banned in Russia as an "undesirable organization," have promised to continue their investigative work.

Russia's federal censorship agency, Roskomnadzor, has ordered Internet providers to block access to the "Team 29" website.

In the late 2000s, Ranetki was one of the most popular pop-rock groups in Russia. Their concerts drew thousands of fans and an eponymous series based on their lives had a prime-time slot on the television network STS. But as their popularity gradually faded, Ranetki fell apart. In June 2021, one of the girl group's original members, Zhenya Ogurtsova, published a memoir titled "Ranetki: A Winning Ticket to Hell." In her book, Ogurtsova talks about the psychological pressure and harassment that she and her bandmates (who were minors at the time) were subjected to at the hands of various producers and other people from their "management team." Other former Ranetki members have also confirmed that they suffered emotional and sexual abuse during that time. Meduza spoke with Zhenya Ogurtsova about the harassment the group members faced and why she decided to finally speak out about it.