Meduza

Ukrainian resistance to occupation has gone underground after years of brutal repression. Scholar Jade McGlynn explains how hatred — not hope — now drives those still fighting.

As the full-scale invasion of Ukraine enters its fifth year, resistance to Russian occupation has morphed into something radically different. The viral displays of defiance that defined the war’s ...
Meduza

A Russian blogger documented horrific conditions at a local morgue — and police promptly beat him up and threw him in jail

A blogger in Siberia faces criminal charges after posting a video documenting unsanitary conditions at a morgue, according to a lawyer familiar with the case. Artem Pavlechko, who lives in the city of ...
Meduza

Putin’s ‘Temple of War’ was just the beginning. Russia is building churches, mosques, and even underground chapels to convince the nation that the invasion of Ukraine is ...

People and Ideas That Made the Russian Invasion Possible,” by historian Ilia Venyavkin, profiles the figures who helped Vladimir Putin prime Russians for the attack on Ukraine. Venyavkin cites a visit ...
Meduza

Sky-high cucumber prices are rattling Russian shoppers. The spike might be temporary, but the inflation problem isn’t.

At the start of the year, Russians got a shock at the grocery store: cucumber prices had skyrocketed. Still, officials and economists aren’t sounding the alarm; prices are expected to begin falling by ...
Meduza

The IOC disqualified Ukraine’s skeleton captain for wearing a helmet honoring athletes killed by Russia. Zelensky says it proves the Olympics sides with the aggressor.

The International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation (IBSF) disqualified Ukrainian skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych before his opening heat at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy, citing his refusal ...
Meduza

A warning from Estonia: Russia’s economy is spiraling downward, but Moscow is still stockpiling for the ‘next war’

Russia is unlikely to attack any NATO member in the near future, but plans to continue its war against Ukraine, according ...
Meduza

After deadly protests forced reforms in 2022, Kazakhstan’s president agreed to one term. His new Constitution offers two Putin-style escape hatches to stay in power.

On January 31, Kazakhstan unveiled a draft of its new Constitution, the culmination of what President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has framed as a parliamentary overhaul. The initiative began in September ...
Meduza

Russia keeps citing a ‘spirit of Anchorage’ from last summer’s Trump–Putin summit, but that term exists only in Moscow’s vocabulary

Russian officials and state media have eagerly adopted the term “the spirit of Anchorage,” sometimes substituting “the ...
Meduza

A new law in Latvia is forcing Russian and Belarusian workers out of hospitals, railways, and power companies — with no severance and no exceptions

Latvia introduced sweeping labor restrictions in the summer of 2025 that bar Russian and Belarusian citizens from employment ...
Meduza

Ukraine races to defend a key Zaporizhzhia stronghold as a second Russian offensive gathers force in Donbas. Meduza analyzes the latest battlefield developments.

Like our earlier reports on the combat situation in Ukraine, this article reviews recent battlefield developments based on open-source information. Meduza has condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine ...
Meduza

Telegram is one of the last messaging apps in Russia that the state doesn’t control. Did the Kremlin just block it for good?

Telegram, one of Russia’s most widely used messaging apps, has been malfunctioning for the past two days. On Tuesday, ...
Meduza

Throughout the Putin era, the owners of Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport fought off every takeover attempt. Wartime nationalization proved their undoing.

Dmitry Kamenshchik, now the former owner of Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport, isn’t giving up. After losing every appeal in the nationalization of one of Russia’s largest airports — and after the country’s ...