The Biggest Surprises and Non-Surprises of Russia’s Regional and Municipal Elections

Russia’s 2024 regional and municipal elections ended in few surprises, with the ruling, pro-Kremlin United Russia party solidifying its control in over 4,000 races nationwide, including in occupied Ukrainian territories.

With the invasion of Ukraine in its third year, the Kremlin effectively banned any independent opposition candidates and thinned out the list of Kremlin-approved candidates allowed onto the ballot at all levels, from State Duma elections to local municipalities.

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Kursk Evacuees Say Still Awaiting $100 Payment Promised By Putin

Many of the evacuated residents of southwestern Russia’s Kursk region have not yet received payments promised by President Vladimir Putin over one month into Ukraine’s surprise incursion, the independent news outlet Agentstvo reported Monday, citing regional volunteers. 

On Aug. 8, two days after Ukrainian forces crossed into the region and captured settlements there, Putin promised one-time payments of 10,000 rubles ($110) to residents who were forced to evacuate from parts of the embattled region.

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Latvia Says Crashed Russian Drone Was Fully Armed Shahed

Latvia's armed forces on Monday said the Russian drone that crashed on the Baltic state's territory was an Iranian-designed Shahed equipped with explosives.

Riga had earlier announced that investigators were looking into a drone that had crashed in the eastern part of the country on Saturday.

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Top Russian Universities Raise Tuition Fees

Leading Russian universities are raising the cost of study ahead of the 2024-25 academic year, the business daily Vedomosti reported on Thursday, citing higher education ranking data.

Tuition fees at the Moscow State Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT) saw the largest increase, according to data from RAEX Analytics, with the average cost of study for undergraduates there jumping by 20%.

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Collaborators and Russian-Installed Officials Attacked Since the Invasion of Ukraine

The former mayor of Kupyansk, Ukraine, who surrendered his city to invading Russian forces in February 2022, died Tuesday night after being shot near his safe house in western Russia over the weekend.

Gennady Matsegora is the latest of over a dozen collaborationist or Kremlin-installed officials in occupied Ukraine to have been killed or injured in targeted attacks.

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NATO Eyes Crackdown on Russian Agents Over Alleged Hybrid Attacks

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said Thursday that the bloc's member countries could impose "tighter restrictions" on Russian intelligence operatives after a recent string of sabotage attacks.

Stoltenberg said NATO defense ministers meeting in Brussels would discuss plans to counter a "Russian campaign of hostile activities against NATO allies."

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Putin’s Daughters to Attend St. Petersburg Economic Forum

President Vladimir Putin’s daughters Katerina Tikhonova and Maria Vorontsova are scheduled to speak at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) this week, according to the annual event’s program.

Tech executive Tikhonova is among the speakers of a panel discussion on “the defense industry’s role in ensuring technological sovereignty” on Thursday. Washington sanctioned her for work that “supports the Russian defense industry” soon after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

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Russian Supreme Court Upholds Sentence for Jailed Sociologist Kagarlitsky

Russia’s Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld a five-year prison sentence against the prominent anti-war sociologist Boris Kagarlitsky on charges of “justifying terrorism,” state media reported.

Kagarlitsky, 65, was initially fined 600,000 rubles ($6,600) in December over a since-deleted YouTube video about the 2022 Crimea bridge explosion. In February, a military court of appeals reversed that ruling and sentenced him to five years in prison after an appeal by prosecutors.

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Tinkoff Bank Changes Name, Ending Association With Exiled Founder

The Russian online bank Tinkoff announced Wednesday that it was changing its name to T-Bank, marking a symbolic end to the lender’s association with its millionaire founder Oleg Tinkov, who has lived in exile since denouncing Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than two years ago.

“First there was a word, now there’s a letter,” the bank said in its announcement. “Simplifying the name is a logical step for both employees and customers.”

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Turkish Court Acquits Man Suspected of Murdering Russian Feminist Activist

A Syrian national accused of killing the Russian feminist and anti-war activist Anastasia Yemelyanova has been acquitted of a murder charge due to a lack of evidence against him, Turkish and Russian media reported Monday.

Mohammad Nizar Arnabeh was arrested in September after Yemelyanova, with whom he was in a relationship, was found dead in their shared apartment in the eastern Turkish city of Erzurum. 

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