The Russia Report

Issue 232

From the editor

Vladimir Putin looked as comfortable as ever at his annual press conference and direct line event yesterday, fielding an array of softball questions from tame Russian media representatives and members of the public, and a couple of expected challenging ones from NBC and the BBC. The four and a half-hour festival of self-indulgence enabled the Russian president to expound his views on ballistic missiles, the Ukrainian constitution, phone scammers and the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad with no danger of anyone contradicting him.

A banner of the 155th Marine Brigade was held up behind Putin during his press conference

In response to an opening question from the host about how Russia is coping when the world “seems to have gone crazy,” Putin said: “It’s always like this with us – when it’s calm, we’re bored. We want action. But when the bullets are flying, unfortunately we get scared, Russia is moving forward.” Russians have seen plenty of “action” in the past three years and thousands have not come back from it. But Putin’s message was that the country is doing better than ever, both economically and militarily.

The Oreshnik IRBM that Russia fired at Ukraine recently is impossible to shoot down, according to Putin, and he suggested holding a “technological duel” in which the West would place all its air defences around a target in Kyiv and Russia would attempt to strike it with the missile. Meanwhile he promised a displaced resident of Kursk Oblast that Ukrainian forces would be pushed out of the region and homes would be rebuilt, although he couldn’t say when exactly. Putin also said Russia would build a road around the Sea of Azov, the coast of which is in occupied parts of Ukraine. The state of Russia’s roads was one of the main topics of concern mentioned in a survey that was highlighted during the press conference, along with housing, healthcare and public transport. A resident of Chukotka asked Putin for internet connections in remote areas. But the Russian leader is still almost exclusively focused on trying to defeat Ukraine.

There was no mention of the death of Alexei Navalny in prison in February, or the publication of his book Patriot, but Putin insisted that Ukraine must hold an election in order to have a “legitimate” president who could sign a peace treaty. According to him Volodymyr Zelensky is violating Ukraine’s constitution by not holding an election during the war. For good measure he also claimed that Ukraine’s leaders are “worse than atheists” for their opposition to the Russian Orthodox Church. Atheists believe there is no God, while Ukraine’s leaders believe in nothing, Putin said. He blamed Ukrainian security services for a rise in reports of phone scams in Russia.

Remarkably Putin believes that Russia achieved its aims in Syria. Asked by NBC’s Keir Simmons if he would compromise in talks with Donald Trump because he would be the weaker leader due to his setbacks in Ukraine and Syria, Putin replied that Russia had been fighting terrorists in Syria a decade ago, but the rebels who ousted Assad have changed, as evidenced by the fact that the West is willing to talk to them. It was nonsensical, but that doesn’t matter, as Trump has also shown. The only requirement is to give an answer, true or not, and move on.

The BBC’s Steve Rosenberg said that 25 years ago Boris Yeltsin had stepped down and told Putin to take care of Russia. “Have you taken care of Russia?” he asked. “Yes, I have not only taken care of it but we have come back from the brink of the abyss. Russia was at risk of completely losing its sovereignty,” Putin replied. He substantiated this with some babble about NATO’s intervention in the war in Yugoslavia (which ended Serbia’s campaign of ethnic cleansing). At age 72 Putin has no intention of changing his tune, and if Russians remain as passive as they have been up until now, we may still be watching him when he’s 97.

You can receive this newsletter once a month for free, or sign up here for a weekly subscription for just £3.99 ($5) a month or £45 a year. I’m keen to hear what you’re interested in, so if you have tips or questions please contact me at sarahnhurst@gmail.com. You can follow me on X at @XSovietNews.

Russia kills civilians in Kyiv and Kherson

One person was killed in a Russian missile attack on Kyiv this morning that also damaged the Church of St. Nicholas, the city’s second-oldest Catholic church, which was built in the first decade of the 20^th century. The church is located close to a business centre that was also severely damaged. In Kherson at least two civilians were killed this week in shelling during a failed attempt by Russian troops to cross the Dnipro River.

Uzbek citizen arrested for assassination of general in Moscow

A 29-year-old Uzbek citizen, Akhmad Kurbanov, who was allegedly working for Ukrainian security services, has been arrested on suspicion of assassinating Gen. Igor Kirillov, 54, the head of Russia’s nuclear, chemical and biological forces, together with his assistant Ilya Polikarpov, in Moscow on Tuesday with an explosive device hidden in an electric scooter. Last year Kirillov claimed that Ukraine was using infected mosquitos to attack Russian soldiers in Kherson Oblast. In a video confession Kurbanov said he was offered $10,000 and entry to an EU country for the murder.

Oil spill from sinking tankers contaminates Black Sea coast

Beaches and wildlife in Anapa, Krasnodar Krai and the surrounding area have been contaminated with low-quality heavy fuel oil after three Russian tankers were damaged in the Black Sea. The Volgoneft-212 and the Volgoneft-239 – both Soviet-era vessels - were carrying thousands of tonnes of oil when they sank in the Kerch Strait on Sunday in high winds. On Tuesday fuel also leaked from the Volgoneft-109. A court in Simferopol, occupied Crimea, has sent the captain of the Volgoneft-212 to jail to await trial and the captain of the Volgoneft-239 into house arrest to await trial. A 23-year-old crew member died on the Volgoneft-212.

Two activists die in custody, others get long sentences

Anarchist Roman Shvedov, 39, reportedly committed suicide in a jail in Rostov-on-Don on Wednesday a few hours after being sentenced to 16 years in a maximum-security prison for setting fire to an administrative building. At 3 am on Sept. 26, 2022, Shvedov allegedly threw a petrol canister at the window of the office of the head of the construction department of a district of Rostov Oblast in a protest against the war in Ukraine. A computer, tables, shelves and other office supplies were damaged. Shvedov was convicted of terrorism.

Environmental activist and lawyer Vladimir Kazantsev, 53, has died in prison in Kopeysk, Chelyabinsk Oblast, apparently from heart failure. In October 2022 he was sentenced to four years in prison for fraud in a case that his supporters believed was fabricated. Kazantsev had been acting as the lawyer for a group called Stop GOK! that opposed the construction of the Tominsk copper mine. He ran a non-profit called Environmental Consulting that brought lawsuits on behalf of citizens against development projects.

A court in occupied Luhansk Oblast has sentenced 20-year-old Ukrainian citizen Danil Fisun to 17 years in a maximum-security prison for espionage. According to prosecutors Fisun allegedly gathered information about the location and movements of Russian troops in the region in April-May 2023 and sent it to Ukrainian security services. Occupying authorities published a video of Fisun confessing that he had spied in return for money to pay for his studies. Fisun’s information allegedly helped to target a successful Ukrainian missile strike.

A military court in Rostov-on-Don has sentenced Ukrainian citizens Serhiy Fedosenko, 33, Vladislav Vodolazsky, 36, and Vitaly Dzyuba, 50, to 15, 13 and 10 years in maximum-security prison for allegedly planning to blow up a Russian military checkpoint in 2022. According to prosecutors Fedosenko and Vodolazsky asked Dzyuba to supply them with explosives and he agreed. The defendants were reportedly tortured to force them to confess their guilt.

A court in Kamchatka has sentenced 55-year-old Grigory Bilenko 14 years in a maximum-security prison for treason. After the full-scale invasion of Ukraine he allegedly agreed to work for Ukraine’s SBU providing information about his relatives in the military and the Russian military in general. Bilenko was born in Ukraine but had Russian citizenship and worked for a Kamchatka fishing company for 30 years until he retired. In 2019 he moved to Ukraine but in 2023 he returned to Russia to renew his passport and get his pension.

A naval court has sentenced fisherman from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky Yaroslav Levchenko to two years in prison for “justifying terrorism”. According to prosecutors Levchenko frequently told his colleagues on a fishing boat that the government should be overthrown and that he supported the Ukrainian armed forces and the killing of Russian troops in Ukraine. In a search of his home the FSB allegedly found weapons and foreign-made military equipment. Levchenko was arrested in July last year.

More violence from returning soldiers

A soldier from Yakutia on a week’s leave from the war murdered his 14-year-old daughter and committed suicide. Deciding that he did not have time to go home during his leave, he rented a flat in Rostov-on-Don and paid for his wife, daughter and 10-year-old son to visit him. The soldier was not supposed to drink alcohol because of an injury, but he drank vodka when the family was eating together. He argued with his daughter and stabbed her six times. He also injured his wife and son with the knife before jumping out of a window.

A military court in Novosibirsk has sentenced soldier Viktor Litovchenko to seven years in a maximum-security prison for beating a man to death in a sauna in August while drunk. Litovchenko punched his victim in the head and body at least 35 times.

A court in Stavropol Krai has given 21-year-old Wagner contractor Vasily Pogrebitsky an 18-month suspended sentence for threatening murder and shoplifting. In autumn this year, while drunk, Pogrebitsky waved a kitchen knife at a neighbour and threatened to kill him. In a separate incident he filled a rucksack with groceries in a supermarket and walked out without paying. In 2022 Pogrebitsky was given a two-year suspended sentence for stealing money from his grandmother. The Stavropol court gave Pogrebitsky a lenient sentence due to his guilty plea, military service and willingness to remain in the military.

Five soldiers die in Yakutsk military jail fire

Five soldiers died and seven others were hospitalised with smoke inhalation as a result of a fire last night in a military jail in Yakutsk, where they were being held for allegedly attempting to desert. It’s believed that authorities in the far eastern region have been looking for soldiers who returned from the front in Ukraine on leave or for rehabilitation and detaining them to send them back. It was also reported that detainees at the facility were beaten, denied use of the toilet and meetings with relatives, and forced to listen to songs by pro-Putin singer Shaman, the best known of which is his hit I’m Russian, at top volume.