MEDUZA/EN/VHF

SOURCE: During his annual call-in show on June 30, Russian President Vladimir Putin promised to write an article to back up his much-touted claim that Ukrainians and Russians are "one people." As promised, on July 12, the Kremlin published Putin's take "On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians." In an essay that spans the Middle Ages to the present day, Putin touches on everything from the Mongol invasion to the collapse of the Soviet Union and more. In addition to claiming that modern Ukraine is the "brainchild" of the Soviet era, Putin blames the West and Ukrainian elites for allegedly working to turn the country into an "anti-Russia." Despite Putin's repeated claims about Russian and Ukrainian being "almost identical," the Kremlin chose to publish his essay in both languages. Meduza summarizes Putin's "historical article" here.

In the past few days, the leaders of the Russian democratic opposition party Yabloko have deliberately alienated Alexey Navalny's followers. The party's founder and chief authority, Grigory Yavlinsky, recently spoke to the independent television network Dozhd and said plainly, "We aren't going to pursue Navalny's politics, and we aren't inviting his supporters onto our party lists. Those who want to vote for Navalny needn't vote for us." Not long before these remarks, Yabloko's party congress blocked an initiative by its Moscow bureau to nominate Oleg Stepanov (Navalny's former Moscow office coordinator) in the upcoming State Duma elections. The party also rejected a motion to nominate former political prisoner and Lyubov Sobol volunteer Alexey Minyailo. At the same time, Yabloko endorsed the candidacy of Andrey Pivovarov, the jailed former head of the Open Russia movement. "This is a humanitarian step in support of a political prisoner, but we understand that he won't be waging any kind of campaign from pretrial detention," clarified the party's deputy director, Ivan Bolshakov. Meduza special correspondent Andrey Pertsev spoke to Yabloko chairman Nikolai Rybakov about why the party decided to dissociate itself so strongly from Alexey Navalny, whom it considers to be its allies today, and how it expects to do in Russia's September parliamentary elections.

In the face of pressure from the authorities, the most prominent independent media outlet in Belarus, Tut.by, ceased operating in mid-May. On top of blocking Tut.by's website and freezing its company bank account, the Belarusian authorities detained a number of its staff and initiated a felony tax evasion case against the publication's leadership. Despite the persecution, some of Tut.by's journalists and managers were able to flee Belarus. Now they're spread out around the world, living in countries from Ukraine to the United States. On July 8, the Tut.by team launched a new media outlet - Zerkalo.io - to hold their publication's place until it can resume working in Belarus. To find out more about this new venture, Meduza spoke to Zerkalo.io's acting editor-in-chief, Anna Kaltygina, and manager Sasha Pushkina. All of the outlet's other employees preferred not to reveal their identities for security reasons.

The crackdown on the independent media in Belarus shows no sign of stopping. On July 8, police raided the newsroom of the prominent online newspaper Nasha Niva and the homes of its journalists. Officers detained editor-in-chief Yahor Martsinovich and several Nasha Niva journalists have been unable to reach colleagues. Earlier in the day, the Belarusian Information Ministry said the news outlet's website had been blocked. (At the time of this writing, it was inaccessible to readers both in Belarus and abroad.)

The Russian authorities are "fighting statistics instead of problems," says the investigative outlet Proekt in a new report. Under pressure from the Kremlin, the government, and regional leaders, the Federal Statistics Service (Rosstat) has bent over backward to correct "bad" numbers and bury unflattering statistics. According to Proekt's sources, the Kremlin and the Cabinet also made a conscious decision to publish official data not only as rarely as possible, but also at the most inconvenient times. Meduza summarizes the story here.

Thanks to numerous journalistic investigations (such as Proekt's recent profile of Russia's top cop, Vladimir Kolokoltsev) the private life of the Russian state has long ceased to be a secret. We see that Russian officials live a double life - they present themselves to the public as ordinary civil servants, while hiding their economic interests. We know that journalists who shed light on this, as well as opposition figures, may become victims of persecution and may even face attempts on their lives. But officially, Russia remains a democracy with separation of powers, political parties, and elections, and a government that fights against corruption and prides itself on economic stability. How does one live with the feeling that there's a huge gap between what's painted on the facade and what's happening behind it? And what kind of political regime has developed in this context? Meduza "Ideas" editor Maxim Trudolyubov grapples with the many labels used to describe Russia's political system.

Jailed former governor Sergey Furgal has added an eighth lawyer to his defense team. Dmitry Dovgy - a former senior investigator who was sent to prison in 2009 on bribery and abuse of office charges - officially joined the Furgal case during a closed-door remand hearing on July 5. Also during the hearing, the Moscow City Court extended Furgal's arrest until October 7. Dovgy told Meduza that he had to sign a non-disclosure agreement and will begin studying the case file soon. Here's what we know about the former Khabarovsk krai governor's newest lawyer.

A year ago today, on July 7, 2020, agents from Russia's Federal Security Service arrested 30-year-old Ivan Safronov on charges of treason - punishable by up to 20 years in prison. Then serving as an advisor to the head of Russia's space agency, Safronov worked for many years prior as a journalist at the newspapers Kommersant and Vedomosti. Meduza reviews the developments in the case over the past 12 months and looks at how Safronov and his defense team have weathered a year of uncertainty.

On July 6, an Antonov An-26 passenger jet crashed in Russia's Kamchatka territory. The plane's communications cut out and it disappeared from radar while flying from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky to the town of Palana. The plane left Elizovo Airport at 12:57 p.m., local time (8:57 p.m., the previous day, EDT), and should have landed in Palana, roughly two hours later. Flight control officials lost contact with the plane about 10 minutes before it was expected to land. The company that owns the plane says it disappeared about nine kilometers (about six miles) shy of Palana. The owners also say the aircraft, built in 1982, was in good condition.

At least 137 Russian tourists who arrived in Cuba between June 30 and July 3 were forced to quarantine in their hotel rooms after testing positive for COVID-19. As of July 5, at least 89 Russian nationals are still in isolation and awaiting the results of repeat PCR tests. However, many of the tourists aren't convinced that they actually have the coronavirus - while some tested negative prior to leaving Russia, others say they've been vaccinated against the disease. Meanwhile, the Russian Association of Tour Operators is telling travellers not to expect compensation for the inconvenience of having quarantine, because they were warned about Cuba's coronavirus regulations.