The Russian Reader

The Russian Reader

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https://therussianreader.com/ "The Russian Reader is the best source of information in English about social and labour movements in Russia." - Simon Pirani, People and Nature

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The Russian Reader
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Russian Business Daily Paints Ukraine as the Aggressor, Europe as Its Victim The Russian business daily Delovoi Peterburg has consistently painted neighboring Finland as an aggressor since it joined NATO and closed its borders in response to Russia's… https://therussianreader.com/2026/10/23/2878/

therussianreader.comRussian Business Daily Paints Ukraine as the Aggressor, Europe as Its VictimThe Russian business daily Delovoi Peterburg has consistently painted neighboring Finland as an aggressor since it joined NATO and closed its borders in response to Russia's genocidal invasion of Ukraine, but now it is testing out a new tack: blaming Ukrainian "aggression" for the border region's tourism woes.
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Donald Trump Is Helping Russia Win the War Kyiv Independent: "We all need to start calling it what it is: Trump indeed wants the war to end quickly. He’s just choosing to end it with a Russian victory."... https://therussianreader.com/2026/10/14/2876/

therussianreader.comDonald Trump Is Helping Russia Win the WarKyiv Independent: "We all need to start calling it what it is: Trump indeed wants the war to end quickly. He’s just choosing to end it with a Russian victory."
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The Ninth Circle of Hell Paul Krugman: "So Trump is betraying an embattled democracy, demonstrating our faithlessness to the whole world, seriously damaging whatever is left of America’s leadership in the world, for the sake of maybe 12 hours’ worth of diesel. Really?"...

therussianreader.comThe Ninth Circle of HellPaul Krugman: "So Trump is betraying an embattled democracy, demonstrating our faithlessness to the whole world, seriously damaging whatever is left of America’s leadership in the world, for the sake of maybe 12 hours’ worth of diesel. Really?"
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Something I Learned Today: Churl(ish) "The fame of Carolus Magnus, 'Charles the Great,' or Charlemagne, added luster to the name Carolus, and the Slavic languages later borrowed the name as their general word for 'king,' korol' in Russian—and so, despite the gulf between a king and a churl, the…

therussianreader.comSomething I Learned Today: Churl(ish)"The fame of Carolus Magnus, 'Charles the Great,' or Charlemagne, added luster to the name Carolus, and the Slavic languages later borrowed the name as their general word for 'king,' korol' in Russian—and so, despite the gulf between a king and a churl, the Russian korol' and the Old English ceorl are related."
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Elena Kostyuchenko: We’re No Longer Eyeless in Gaza Since most Russian middle-class emigres are to the right of Smotrich and Ben-Gvir when it comes to Israel-Palestine and Israel's ongoing genocide in Gaza, exiled Russian journalist Elena Kostyuchenko's review of the documentary film "NAZA" and…

therussianreader.comElena Kostyuchenko: We’re No Longer Eyeless in GazaSince most Russian middle-class emigres are to the right of Smotrich and Ben-Gvir when it comes to Israel-Palestine and Israel's ongoing genocide in Gaza, exiled Russian journalist Elena Kostyuchenko's review of the documentary film "NAZA" and her experience of seeing it in New York is a rare act of insight and civic courage in that reactionary milieu.
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Simon Pirani: What’s Left of the Left When It Comes to Ukraine? Simon Pirani: "What, really, have socialists learned from the Russian war on Ukraine? Has it changed our understanding of the way that imperialism works? Tell us we were right all along? [...] Of what does the 'right to resist the…

therussianreader.comSimon Pirani: What’s Left of the Left When It Comes to Ukraine?Simon Pirani: "What, really, have socialists learned from the Russian war on Ukraine? Has it changed our understanding of the way that imperialism works? Tell us we were right all along? [...] Of what does the 'right to resist the invasion' consist, if not of the right to ask for weapons, be it from western governments, Ukrainians abroad, or anyone else? This is not just about politics, but about socialist morality."
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The Realities of Russia’s Brutal War Against Ukraine and Europe Illuminating insights into the realities of Russia's brutal war against Ukraine and Europe from independent war journalist Dylan Burns, Branislav Slantchev's Ukrainian students, and international affairs journalist Michael Weiss....

therussianreader.comThe Realities of Russia’s Brutal War Against Ukraine and EuropeIlluminating insights into the realities of Russia's brutal war against Ukraine and Europe from independent war journalist Dylan Burns, Branislav Slantchev's Ukrainian students, and international affairs journalist Michael Weiss.
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New Charges Against Russian Resistance Hero Ruslan Siddiqi Ivan Astashin, Giuliano Vivaldi, and Simon Pirani team up to report and analyze the new "high treason" charges against Russian-Italian anti-war resistance hero Ruslan Siddiqi, already serving 29 years behind bars for sabotaging a Russian…

therussianreader.comNew Charges Against Russian Resistance Hero Ruslan SiddiqiIvan Astashin, Giuliano Vivaldi, and Simon Pirani team up to report and analyze the new "high treason" charges against Russian-Italian anti-war resistance hero Ruslan Siddiqi, already serving 29 years behind bars for sabotaging a Russian munitions train bound for the Ukrainian front.
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How to Vote Safely This weekend, Russians are voting in parliamentary elections for the first time since their country invaded Ukraine. Days before the vote, Russian human rights organization OVD-Info (now deemed "extremist" by the Putin regime) issued a "first aid kit" on "how to vote safely,"…

therussianreader.comHow to Vote SafelyThis weekend, Russians are voting in parliamentary elections for the first time since their country invaded Ukraine. Days before the vote, Russian human rights organization OVD-Info (now deemed "extremist" by the Putin regime) issued a "first aid kit" on "how to vote safely," and the Russian Reader's fabulous friend the Fabulous AM has englished the whole darn thing for your reading pleasure. Who knows, the kit might come in handy for Americans when they go to their own troubled polls on November 3.... Meanwhile, Ukrainians in the occupied territories are being coerced by their Russian overlords to vote in these selfsame elections, reports the AP.
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Going Underground In the fifth year of the Petersburg mafia's brutal invasion of Ukraine, "going underground" has come to mean very different things for Kyivans and Petersburgers. While the former go underground literally to escape Russians missiles and drones and get some sleep, the latter "go…

therussianreader.comGoing UndergroundIn the fifth year of the Petersburg mafia's brutal invasion of Ukraine, "going underground" has come to mean very different things for Kyivans and Petersburgers. While the former go underground literally to escape Russians missiles and drones and get some sleep, the latter "go underground" just to escape, as most of them have been doing determinedly for the last two and a half decades.
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The Georgy Pirogov Case and Russia’s High Treason Epidemic Industrial climber Georgy Pirogov disappeared from Uzbekistan two years ago, later resurfacing in Moscow and facing charges of high treason. In July, he was convicted as charged and sentenced to 23 years in prison. His case is exemplary of…

therussianreader.comThe Georgy Pirogov Case and Russia’s High Treason EpidemicIndustrial climber Georgy Pirogov disappeared from Uzbekistan two years ago, later resurfacing in Moscow and facing charges of high treason. In July, he was convicted as charged and sentenced to 23 years in prison. His case is exemplary of a recent "epidemic" of such cases in wartime Russia, as documented by human rights group Department One (aka First Department).
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Lida Moniava: A Heroine of Our Time The Moscow Times, Alexander Podrabinek, Natalia Vvedenskaya, and Meduza with news and commentary on the Lida Moniava case: "I always thought she was exactly what a Christian should be like."...

therussianreader.comLida Moniava: A Heroine of Our TimeThe Moscow Times, Alexander Podrabinek, Natalia Vvedenskaya, and Meduza with news and commentary on the Lida Moniava case: "I always thought she was exactly what a Christian should be like."
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Day of Knowledge Zakhar Prilepin: "If you take your knowledge beyond the borders of this country, beyond the bounds of our national science, you will betray all those who stand beside you. I hope there is no one here like this, but some of you might secretly be thinking, 'I was born so…

therussianreader.comDay of KnowledgeZakhar Prilepin: "If you take your knowledge beyond the borders of this country, beyond the bounds of our national science, you will betray all those who stand beside you. I hope there is no one here like this, but some of you might secretly be thinking, 'I was born so intelligent, I am so wonderful and gorgeous, and basically I’m entitled to everything, that I’ll just pack my bags and go off somewhere where they’ll pay me more for my brains.' Please understand that this is a treachery against those people who have conquered and cultivated this vast expanse.”
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Bashmakovo Bands Together to Battle Press Gangs People in Bashmakovo, a town in Russia's Penza Region, have banded together to fight press gangs that have been abducting the town's men and sending them to the war in Ukraine....

therussianreader.comBashmakovo Bands Together to Battle Press GangsPeople in Bashmakovo, a town in Russia's Penza Region, have banded together to fight press gangs that have been abducting the town's men and sending them to the war in Ukraine.
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Where Apocalypse Is Now The late great art critic Peter Schjeldahl, writing in June 1991 on a trip to Helsinki and Leningrad via occupied Viipuri and the occupied Kannas: "Last week on a bus to Leningrad, as a bottle was passed around, I got angry for… https://therussianreader.com/2026/08/29/2860/

therussianreader.comWhere Apocalypse Is NowThe late great art critic Peter Schjeldahl, writing in June 1991 on a trip to Helsinki and Leningrad via occupied Viipuri and the occupied Kannas: "Last week on a bus to Leningrad, as a bottle was passed around, I got angry for Finland. The Finns aboard found this very funny. For three hours we jolted on atrocious roads through [the] Karelia[n Isthmus], former Finnish heartland gobbled by Stalin in the Winter War of 1939, then regained and lost again during the Second World War. Amid forests of birch and pine, I glimpsed a long disaster...."
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Space Can’t Kill Puppets Alexander Podrabinek: "The hope that Ukraine will emerge victorious from the war is quite popular among Russian political exiles. This is partly because there is nothing else they can do to liberate Russia. Well, almost nothing. Donating to the Ukrainian Armed Forces is…

therussianreader.comSpace Can’t Kill PuppetsAlexander Podrabinek: "The hope that Ukraine will emerge victorious from the war is quite popular among Russian political exiles. This is partly because there is nothing else they can do to liberate Russia. Well, almost nothing. Donating to the Ukrainian Armed Forces is easy, and it washes away all their sins as exiles. It's like going to church, lighting a candle, making a small offering, and assuming you've earned your place in heaven. As gestalt therapy it will do the trick, but it is quite dubious politically."
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Unhealthy Lifestyle Punk's not dead, not even in Russia, but the fascist authorities there would like to kill it, judging by their recent multi-law enforcement agency raid on a punk festival in the woods near Vyborg....

therussianreader.comUnhealthy LifestylePunk's not dead, not even in Russia, but the fascist authorities there would like to kill it, judging by their recent multi-law enforcement agency raid on a punk festival in the woods near Vyborg.
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Saint Petersburg Live (The Case of Igor Zaitsev and Other Navalny Donors) Just as Russia's fascist police arrest Igor Zaitsev, a Petersburg university lecturer, on criminal felony charges of "financing extremism" (that is, donating tiny amounts of money to the murdered Alexei Navalny's…

therussianreader.comSaint Petersburg Live (The Case of Igor Zaitsev and Other Navalny Donors)Just as Russia's fascist police arrest Igor Zaitsev, a Petersburg university lecturer, on criminal felony charges of "financing extremism" (that is, donating tiny amounts of money to the murdered Alexei Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation), the Finnish authorities are preparing to deport Valentin Sergienko, a Petersburger whose now-rejected asylum claim in Finland was based on his donations to Navalny's group and other banned grassroots civic organizations in Russia.
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Yabloko Is Not the Apple of the Kremlin’s Eye Yesterday, 10 August 2026, the Russian Supreme Court disqualified the opposition Yabloko party from September's parliamentary elections, presumably for their (mild) antiwar stance. More remarkably, given the times, several hundred mostly young…

therussianreader.comYabloko Is Not the Apple of the Kremlin’s EyeYesterday, 10 August 2026, the Russian Supreme Court disqualified the opposition Yabloko party from September's parliamentary elections, presumably for their (mild) antiwar stance. More remarkably, given the times, several hundred mostly young Muscovites showed up to support Yabloko. Deutsche Welle rounded up the reaction of talking heads to yesterday's events, while the ceaselessly amazing photographer Igor Stomakhin went to the Supreme Court to take pictures of the brave kids.
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Sandarmokh: The Russian Right Love the Great Terror The Russian far-right (and their backers in the Kremlin) have a problem with Russians who want to talk in public about Stalin's Great Terror, including at the NKVD's killing fields in the Sandarmokh forest in Karelia, where every year on August…

therussianreader.comSandarmokh: The Russian Right Love the Great TerrorThe Russian far-right (and their backers in the Kremlin) have a problem with Russians who want to talk in public about Stalin's Great Terror, including at the NKVD's killing fields in the Sandarmokh forest in Karelia, where every year on August fifth the names of the victims are read aloud.
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Daniil Belousov: A Political Prisoner’s Son, Sentenced to 7 Years in Prison In 2023, Oleg Belousov was the first person in Petersburg to be convicted of "disseminating fake news about the Russian army." Today, his son Daniil was sentenced to 7 years in prison for "condoning terrorism." Both Oleg…

therussianreader.comDaniil Belousov: A Political Prisoner’s Son, Sentenced to 7 Years in PrisonIn 2023, Oleg Belousov was the first person in Petersburg to be convicted of "disseminating fake news about the Russian army." Today, his son Daniil was sentenced to 7 years in prison for "condoning terrorism." Both Oleg and Daniil are disabled people, a fact that made no difference to their criminal judges.
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You Could Be in Pictures (Russia’s Elite Universities and the War) The cinematography department of the All-Russian State Institute of Cinematography (VGIK) posted an ad on its VKontakte page about "a special group" being recruited for director and cinematographer Mikhail Agranovich's class.…

therussianreader.comYou Could Be in Pictures (Russia’s Elite Universities and the War)The cinematography department of the All-Russian State Institute of Cinematography (VGIK) posted an ad on its VKontakte page about "a special group" being recruited for director and cinematographer Mikhail Agranovich's class. Prospective students are offered free tuition starting in the 2027 academic year, provided they sign a one-year contract with the Russian Defense Ministry for service in UAV (drone) units. The students are also promised free dormitory accommodation, combat veteran status (along with associated benefits), and "expanded technical and financial resources for student film projects." Contract service will be equated to conscription service, the ad states. "If you dream of studying at the world's first film school, the renowned VGIK, now's your chance. Places in the group are limited," the ad reads.
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Little Stalin Roskom who? / We'll do the job ourselves / A little Stalin sits inside each of us / He sits there inside / And says to you: / 'Delete that tweet' / 'Don’t do that—take back that like / Or the investigator will be at your door' / That’s how sweet it’s become to stay mum / A little…

therussianreader.comLittle StalinRoskom who? / We'll do the job ourselves / A little Stalin sits inside each of us / He sits there inside / And says to you: / 'Delete that tweet' / 'Don’t do that—take back that like / Or the investigator will be at your door' / That’s how sweet it’s become to stay mum / A little Stalin lives inside each of us
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Wildberries and the War Business daily Delovoi Peterburg's dry-as-dust and officialese-laden account of the Ukrainian drone attacks on Wildberries warehouses in the Petersburg area segues into a photo essay about a walk through one of the targeted neighborhoods eleven years ago and an oddly much…

therussianreader.comWildberries and the WarBusiness daily Delovoi Peterburg's dry-as-dust and officialese-laden account of the Ukrainian drone attacks on Wildberries warehouses in the Petersburg area segues into a photo essay about a walk through one of the targeted neighborhoods eleven years ago and an oddly much more compassionate account of the effects of the attacks on rank-and-file e-retailers in the Gray Lady. Look where the day takes you!
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Russian Greatness Derangement Syndrome Western "Russophilia" has a long and wildly ignominious history. As Russia shows no signs of ending its genocidal war against Ukraine, however, it takes a special kind of useful idiot to insist now on Russia's greatness and enthusiastically cultivate ties…

therussianreader.comRussian Greatness Derangement SyndromeWestern "Russophilia" has a long and wildly ignominious history. As Russia shows no signs of ending its genocidal war against Ukraine, however, it takes a special kind of useful idiot to insist now on Russia's greatness and enthusiastically cultivate ties with the transparently fascist gangsters who are trying to destroy Ukraine and run Russia into the ground at the same time. Here are a few quick sketches of prominent Americans afflicted by Russian greatness derangement syndrome who have caught the media’s eye in the past week.
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Incommunicado: Russian Political Prison Andrei Trofimov There has been no contact with political prisoner Andrei Trofimov since April. He has not responded to letters and has not been brought out to meet with a lawyer. The situation was reported by journalist Vladimir [Raevskiy], who has been…

therussianreader.comIncommunicado: Russian Political Prison Andrei TrofimovThere has been no contact with political prisoner Andrei Trofimov since April. He has not responded to letters and has not been brought out to meet with a lawyer. The situation was reported by journalist Vladimir [Raevskiy], who has been corresponding with Andrei. ‘We have tried every possible avenue, but we are told that “he does not want to maintain contact with anyone” — which is nonsense, he is one of the most outgoing people I know — and that “he already has a lawyer”, which is untrue. On one occasion, a lawyer we had hired even travelled to Petrozavodsk at our request, but Andrei Trofimov was not brought out to see him,’ Vladimir [Raevskiy] wrote.
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Pride (and Prejudice) Featuring dispatches from Human Rights Watch, Deutsche Welle, the Lancet, Parni Plus, and the Moscow Times, this end-of-Pride-month survey of the dismal state of LGBTQ+ rights in Russia is not easy reading, but it will fill you with admiration for the Russian activists…

therussianreader.comPride (and Prejudice)Featuring dispatches from Human Rights Watch, Deutsche Welle, the Lancet, Parni Plus, and the Moscow Times, this end-of-Pride-month survey of the dismal state of LGBTQ+ rights in Russia is not easy reading, but it will fill you with admiration for the Russian activists continuing the fight at home and abroad.
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The Bulwark Stands in Solidarity with Haitian Refugees Despite (or maybe even because of) my own leftist sympathies, I'm a proud subscriber and reader of the Bulwark, an online publication anchored by "recanted" (?) neocons like Bill Kristol. The younger me would have wondered how such an…

therussianreader.comThe Bulwark Stands in Solidarity with Haitian RefugeesDespite (or maybe even because of) my own leftist sympathies, I'm a proud subscriber and reader of the Bulwark, an online publication anchored by "recanted" (?) neocons like Bill Kristol. The younger me would have wondered how such an unbelievable thing could have come to pass, but I would explain to him that we need a united front against fascism right now, and the Bulwarkers, Kristol included, are quite explicitly, vocally, and usefully part of that front.
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Sasha Razor: Who Burns the Lavra? Who is responsible for Monday's heavy missile and drone barrage on Ukraine, which set ablaze one of the holiest sites in Eastern Orthodoxy, destroyed Ukraine's oldest and largest costume archive, killed eleven people, and wounded fifty others? asks Sasha Razor in…

therussianreader.comSasha Razor: Who Burns the Lavra?Who is responsible for Monday's heavy missile and drone barrage on Ukraine, which set ablaze one of the holiest sites in Eastern Orthodoxy, destroyed Ukraine's oldest and largest costume archive, killed eleven people, and wounded fifty others? asks Sasha Razor in a provocative essay.
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The Podcast The Russian Reader ("where the news arrives already wearing its funeral clothes") plunges into the red-hot, psychotic abyss of AI with help from its new glib podcast robots Axel and Mara, as well as Dmitrii Volkov, Elizaveta Osetinskaya, Palisade Research, Daniel Kokotajlo, Radio 4,…

therussianreader.comThe PodcastThe Russian Reader ("where the news arrives already wearing its funeral clothes") plunges into the red-hot, psychotic abyss of AI with help from its new glib podcast robots Axel and Mara, as well as Dmitrii Volkov, Elizaveta Osetinskaya, Palisade Research, Daniel Kokotajlo, Radio 4, Robert Edward Grant, the Architect, Geoffrey Hill, and Thom Gunn.
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Kyrgyzstan: Pro-Russian Outpost in Central Asia and Cannabis Heaven? "For centuries, cannabis has been harvested in Central Asia by horsemen who would ride naked through wild cannabis patches and then scrape the resin from their skin and the hair of their horses": on cannabis, corruption, crime,…

therussianreader.comKyrgyzstan: Pro-Russian Outpost in Central Asia and Cannabis Heaven?"For centuries, cannabis has been harvested in Central Asia by horsemen who would ride naked through wild cannabis patches and then scrape the resin from their skin and the hair of their horses": on cannabis, corruption, crime, and cozying up to Russia in Kyrgyzstan.
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You’re Getting Discombobulated (and You’re Getting Ebola) Making America great again, fifty-two deranged social media posts at a time: what does it say about America's alleged greatness that seventy-seven million Americans voted for this exercise of "executive time"?...

therussianreader.comYou’re Getting Discombobulated (and You’re Getting Ebola)Making America great again, fifty-two deranged social media posts at a time: what does it say about America's alleged greatness that seventy-seven million Americans voted for this exercise of "executive time"?
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Something I Learned Today: Somewhere Far Away The second issue of "Something I Learned Today" is a series of dispatches, daydreams and nightmares about "somewhere from away" from Yekaterinburg, Shiraz, Hawaii, Karachi, Utah and elsewhere. Featuring the Yekaterinburg rock band Kurara, Statista, BBC…

therussianreader.comSomething I Learned Today: Somewhere Far AwayThe second issue of "Something I Learned Today" is a series of dispatches, daydreams and nightmares about "somewhere from away" from Yekaterinburg, Shiraz, Hawaii, Karachi, Utah and elsewhere. Featuring the Yekaterinburg rock band Kurara, Statista, BBC Radio 4, the U.S. Census Bureau, and Rafia Zakaria.
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“I Don’t Want to Get Used to the War” In Petersburg, Alexander Arseniev, who spray-painted the message "I don't want to get used to the war" on two fences last year, is sentenced to 20 months' time served in pretrial detention and released in the courtroom, underscoring human rights activist and…

therussianreader.com“I Don’t Want to Get Used to the War”In Petersburg, Alexander Arseniev, who spray-painted the message "I don't want to get used to the war" on two fences last year, is sentenced to 20 months' time served in pretrial detention and released in the courtroom, underscoring human rights activist and former political prisoner Ivan Astashin's argument, recently made in the Moscow Times, that Russia's wartime repressive apparatus is marked not by its massiveness but by its unpredictability: "[C]ontemporary Russian repression does not need to become mass repression at all. Its effectiveness rests on a combination of unpredictability and public signaling: most cases remain almost invisible, but individual stories become a signal to everyone else."
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Shyshagh: Imaginary Circassian Underground (Circassian Remembrance Day) Ored Recordings mark today's Circassian Remembrance Day by releasing a snapshot of new Circassian music that conjures up "a soundscape where Mark Fisher visits Murdin Tesh." Give it a listen here, and then download and pay for…

therussianreader.comShyshagh: Imaginary Circassian Underground (Circassian Remembrance Day)Ored Recordings mark today's Circassian Remembrance Day by releasing a snapshot of new Circassian music that conjures up "a soundscape where Mark Fisher visits Murdin Tesh." Give it a listen here, and then download and pay for it on Bandcamp if you like what you hear.
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Inner Emigrants Documentary filmmaker Lena Karbe spent nearly four years traveling undercover to Moscow to chronicle the experiences of three psychologists maintaining an anonymous crisis hotline at the start of the Ukraine war, while at the same time struggling to reconcile their totalitarian…

therussianreader.comInner EmigrantsDocumentary filmmaker Lena Karbe spent nearly four years traveling undercover to Moscow to chronicle the experiences of three psychologists maintaining an anonymous crisis hotline at the start of the Ukraine war, while at the same time struggling to reconcile their totalitarian regime’s strict demands with their own beliefs. Karbe wanted to explore why Russia’s silent majority was staying silent as the war on Ukraine took hold. “Are they complicit, or — as many Russians say — ‘neutral’?” asks Karbe. She says that her film, “Inner Emigrants,” is “a cautionary tale.”
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Russians and Republicans Hate Black People One thing that unites many Russians and U.S. Republicans is their fierce anti-Black racism: reflections on the matter by Elie Mystal, Nika, Dr. John Watson, Marshawn, and Kimberly St. Juliian-Varnon.

therussianreader.comRussians and Republicans Hate Black PeopleOne thing that unites many Russians and U.S. Republicans is their fierce anti-Black racism: reflections on the matter by Elie Mystal, Nika, Dr. John Watson, Marshawn, and Kimberly St. Juliian-Varnon.