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Moments before Vladimir Putin arrived in Geneva for a presidential summit with Joe Biden that has dominated Russian and international news coverage all week, officials in Moscow and the Moscow region announced a sweeping mandatory vaccination campaign for persons working in the public and service sectors. Over the past two weeks, the spread of the coronavirus in Russia has spiked again, rising from 9,000 daily cases to 14,000 new infections. In this span of time, the number of new cases in Moscow has more than doubled, forcing the city to announce another "non-working week" from June 12 to 20, returning restrictions on eateries. Despite these measures, Mayor Sobyanin has insisted that the capital will not impose another lockdown. Meduza breaks down Moscow's controversial new vaccine program.

On June 16, Russian President Vladimir Putin held a summit meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden in Geneva. After about two hours of "constructive" talks, Putin gave a press conference where he told journalists that U.S. and Russian ambassadors will return to their posts and the two countries will hold consultations on cybersecurity. He also fielded questions about jailed Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny (without mentioning his name) and commented on violence perpetrated in the United States. Here's what Putin had to say, in a nutshell.

On June 16, officials in Moscow, the Moscow region, and later the Kemerovo region announced mandatory campaigns to vaccinate 60 percent of workers in the public and service sectors against COVID-19 by mid-August (employers will be responsible for making sure this happens). Officials maintained that without mandatory vaccination, it will be very difficult to cope with the increasing number of coronavirus cases. But are these campaigns lawful? And what are the legal consequences for refusing to get vaccinated? We asked two medical law experts to weigh in on these and other important questions.

Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin have finally met, face to face, for the first time as presidents. The brief summit took place in Geneva on June 16 before each leader addressed reporters in separate press conferences. Putin told journalists that his conversation with Biden was "constructive," though he complained about violence on U.S. streets ("You can barely say a word there before you are shot in the face or in the back") and claimed that Alexey Navalny engineered his own arrest ("He did what he wanted to do"). The American president, meanwhile, said he seeks a "stable and predictable" relationship with Russia. He also warned that Russia's international reputation would suffer "devastating" damage if Navalny dies in prison. Meduza asked several experts to identify what they think are the summit's most important results and why.

Following United Russia's congress in Moscow on June 19, the ruling party confirmed its election list for the September 2021 State Duma election. The first five names were presented by President Vladimir Putin himself - and United Russia's chairman, former president and prime minister Dmitry Medvedev, was noticeably absent from the list. Sources say that both Medvedev being left out and Putin making the announcement was a "humiliation" for the party chairman. Meduza special correspondent Andrey Pertsev breaks down the notable results of the ruling party's congress, including how the decision to exclude Medvedev was made.

On June 23, the Russian Defense Ministry reported that it fired "warning shots" and dropped bombs to deter a British Royal Navy destroyer, accusing the warship of violating Russia's state border in the Black Sea. In turn, the British authorities denied both of these claims, while maintaining that the ship, HMS Defender, was conducting "innocent passage through Ukrainian territorial waters" near the Russian-annexed Crimean Peninsula. The British Defense Ministry added that the crew had been made aware of Russian training exercises in the area. However, a BBC defense correspondent on board HMS Defender reported that there was firing, though it appeared to be out of range of the ship.

On June 21, the Russian Attorney General's Office declared the American liberal arts university Bard College an "undesirable organization." Bard has collaborated with St. Petersburg State University and Russia's Accounts Chamber Chairman Alexey Kudrin for many years, but the Attorney General's Office maintains that its "activity poses a threat to the basic constitutional order and security of the Russian Federation." Meduza digs into why Bard College was blacklisted as "undesirable" and uncovers what Alexander Ionov - the same man who demanded that Russia declare our media outlet a "foreign agent" - had to do with it.

The Russian authorities' designation of various nonprofit organizations, news outlets, and even individuals as "foreign agents" is part of a broader process that the state initiated long ago to reorder society. For years, officials in the government and law enforcement have meddled in the ownership of disobedient companies, swapped out elected politicians for political appointees, and tried to organize what once organized itself. Meduza "Ideas" editor Maxim Trudolyubov argues that the Russian authorities have effectively set out to make any grassroots enterprise a government department, hoping to transform the whole country into a managed administrative utopia.

Four Pussy Riot activists were handed 15-day jail sentences in Moscow on June 23, along with four of their friends. Meanwhile, another Pussy Riot member, Veronika Nikulshina, was already serving time on similar misdemeanor charges. All of the detainees were jailed for allegedly disobeying police officers or for minor hooliganism. According to police reports, and some of the activists themselves, they were arrested on suspicion of planning to carry out a protest action on June 22 - Russia's Day of Remembrance and Sorrow marking the anniversary of the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II. Meduza special correspondent Kristina Safonova looks into the sudden wave arrests targeting Pussy Riot activists and their friends, and finds holes in the official version of the story.

Against the backdrop of a spike in coronavirus cases, a number of Russian regions have begun to introduce mandatory vaccination in some form or another. Most of these campaigns target people working in the service, trade, healthcare, transport, and culture industries, as well as public officials. Many regions are aiming to vaccinate at least 60 percent of these workers against COVID-19 over the next few months or weeks. Meanwhile, on June 16, President Vladimir Putin's spokesman told reporters that there are no plans to introduce mandatory vaccination at the national level. Here are the Russian regions that have announced mandatory vaccination campaigns so far (Meduza plans to update this list).