Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

Russian occupying authorities “vastly and deliberately” played down the death toll from this summer’s destruction of a Moscow-controlled dam in southern Ukraine, the Associated Press reported Thursday, citing residents, volunteers and health workers. Moscow-installed officials said 59 people drowned in the days after the June 6 Kakhovka dam breach, which sparked massive floods in the Kherson…

As the year draws to a close, Russia’s motley landscape of civil rights defenders, election monitors, environmental campaigners, anti-war activists and others is more beleaguered than ever before.  Confronted with the increasingly oppressive machinery of the Russian state, scores of activists and the organizations to which they belong have gone into survival mode, with many…

Authorities in the Oryol region in western Russia are planning to build a memorial to the “heroes of Donbas” atop a mass grave of Soviet soldiers killed in World War II, the local Telegram channel Orlets reported Wednesday.  The mass grave in the village of Biofabrika near the region’s capital Oryol holds the remains of 52…

Two Russian anti-war poets, one of whom accused police of rape, have been sentenced to lengthy prison terms on charges of “inciting hatred” toward soldiers, the independent news website Novaya Gazeta Europe reported Thursday. Artyom Kamardin and Yegor Shtovba were detained in September 2022 after criticizing President Vladimir Putin’s “partial” mobilization for the war in Ukraine during poetry…

Russia has issued an international arrest warrant for opposition politician Anastasia Bryukhanova under its wartime censorship laws, the state-run TASS news agency reported Wednesday. Authorities opened a criminal case against Bryukhanova, a former Moscow municipal deputy, in April on charges of spreading “fake news” about the Russian army. In July, Moscow’s Khoroshevsky district court ruled to…

Ukrainian authorities said Thursday that a commercial ship arriving to collect grain hit a Russian naval mine in the Black Sea, injuring two sailors. The unnamed Panama-flagged ship was heading towards Ukraine’s Danube ports when it hit a mine, causing it to lose speed and control and sparking a fire on the upper deck, Ukraine’s…

Russia on Thursday reopened its embassy in Burkina Faso after a gap of nearly 32 years, the West African nation’s government and a Russian diplomat said. The mission was closed in 1992. The Russian ambassador to Ivory Coast, Alexei Saltykov, said Russian President Vladimir Putin would name the new envoy. The Burkinabe foreign ministry confirmed…

A list of 346 proxies who will campaign for President Vladimir Putin across the country in the 2024 election has been approved by the Central Election Commission. Among those included were the pro-war singer Shaman, People’s Artist of the USSR violist and conductor Yuri Bashmet, and President of the All-Russian Federation of Rhythmic Gymnastics Irina…

Over 600 people evacuated from the besieged Gaza Strip are being housed in 10 facilities across Russia, a Foreign Ministry official said Thursday. Among the refugees are around 300 children, Yuri Gorlach, head of the Foreign Ministry’s situation and crisis center department, was cited by the state-run TASS news agency as saying. An unnamed Russian diplomat…

President Vladimir Putin promised Chinese leader Xi Jinping that his invasion of Ukraine would last five years, the Japanese newspaper Nikkei reported Thursday, citing multiple anonymous sources familiar with Russian-Chinese diplomatic maneuvering. Putin’s remark apparently came during Xi’s visit to Moscow in March 2023, when Russia was already one year and one month into the war…

Russian and U.S. space agencies have agreed to keep working together to deliver crews to the International Space Station (ISS) until at least 2025, Russian corporation Roscosmos said Thursday. The space sector — including its so-called cross-flights that involve sending crews from different nationalities on one spacecraft — is a rare area of cooperation remaining between…

The Russian Orthodox Church announced it has adopted a document equating abortion to murder amid growing ultra-conservative calls for a nationwide ban and several regions restricting the procedure. “The Church unequivocally equates arbitrary surgical or medical abortion to murder, regardless of the gestational age and the manner in which it is carried out,” Church spokesman Vladimir Legoyda…

The U.S. government on Wednesday announced what it said was the last remaining package of weapons available for Ukraine under existing authorization, with Congress now needing to decide whether to keep supporting Kyiv’s battle against Russian invasion. “The year’s final package” includes air-defense and artillery munitions, the State Department said in a statement. It added…

BELGRADE, Serbia — The Serbian government this week thanked Russia’s intelligence services for exposing plans for protests in Belgrade against the country’s controversial election results.  The news has sent a shiver down the spines of thousands of anti-Putin Russians who have moved to Serbia since the invasion of Ukraine — and now fear their adopted…

Russia’s Justice Ministry has added two anti-war support groups and an international investigative journalism nonprofit to its list of “undesirable” organizations, banning its activities and putting staff at risk of jail in Russia. The U.S.-based Global Investigative Journalism Network (GJIN), the Britain-based True Russia Limited and Latvia-based Helpdesk Media Foundation have been included in Russia’s…

Continuing North Korean arms shipments to Russia this winter are allowing Moscow to maintain pressure on Ukraine as it faces the risk of losing critical Western supplies, Bloomberg reported Tuesday, citing satellite imagery. The United States, South Korea and Japan said in October they had confirmed North Korea was supplying Russia with arms and military equipment supplies…

The past year has been another troubling one for the Russian free press. Russian officials branded scores of independent news outlets “foreign agents” and “undesirable organizations” in retaliation for refusing to comply with the country’s wartime censorship laws.  As many as 17 media professionals have been detained in Russia for their work, bringing the total…

As the world’s attention remains fixated on the war in Ukraine and the constant intrigue of Kremlin politics, it is easy to overlook what has been happening in Russia’s regions. Yet the past year proved to be no less eventful for the regions beyond Moscow than it was for the country as a whole.  Here…

The breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia on Wednesday ratified a deal transferring a dacha in the coastal town of Pitsunda to Russia’s Federal Protection Service (FSO). Located on the Black Sea Coast, the Soviet-built Pitsunda dacha has long been a popular holiday destination for Soviet, Russian and allied leaders. Its transfer has sparked protests by locals concerned that…

Pro-peace Russian presidential candidate Yekaterina Duntsova announced Wednesday that she plans to form a new political party after the Supreme Court upheld the electoral commission’s rejection of her candidacy. Duntsova, 40, a journalist from the Tver region northwest of Moscow, launched her bid for the presidency in November on a pro-peace, pro-democracy platform. Though she secured…

Dozens of sailors remain missing following a Ukrainian missile strike on a large Russian naval landing ship in annexed Crimea, Russian news outlets have reported, citing anonymous sources. Ukraine’s Air Force claimed to have destroyed the Novocherkassk landing ship with cruise missiles at the port of Feodosia on Tuesday. The Kremlin only acknowledged that Novocherkassk…

George Orwell’s “1984” has earned the distinction of being the most stolen book from the shelves of Russia’s Chitai-Gorod bookstore chain in 2023. The dystopian classic, which was stolen from Chitai-Gorod stores 460 times, was also among the top 10 most-purchased books from the chain this year, the company said in a press release cited…

Russia has redirected its oil exports from Europe to China and India, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said Wednesday, almost two years after Moscow was hit by Western sanctions over the Ukraine conflict. After President Vladimir Putin sent troops to Ukraine in February 2022, Western countries hit Russia with a slew of sanctions including a European Union…

The international direct-sales cosmetics brand Avon has suspended plans to sell its business in Russia over the Kremlin’s steep exit tax, the Kommersant daily reported Wednesday, citing two anonymous industry sources. The U.S.-based Avon, owned since 2020 by Brazilian multinational Natura & Co., announced in March 2022 that it had halted investments in Russia and exports from…

From mercenary leaders to pro-Kremlin pop stars — and from opposition activists to conservative internet crusaders — these were the biggest names in the headlines in 2023: Yevgeny Prigozhin Yevgeny Prigozhin. Lev Borodin / TASS Known as “Putin’s chef,” Yevgeny Prigozhin became a prominent restaurateur and government caterer in the 1990s after leaving prison. Today…

The past year has been another year of significant change in Russia, from drone attacks, cross-border incursions and the Wagner mutiny to the arrests of journalists, the ICC’s arrest warrant for Putin and Azerbaijan’s takeover of Nagorno-Karabakh. Here is a look back at some of the top headlines of 2023: Ukraine’s Much-Anticipated Counteroffensive Floundered Analysts…

Ukraine’s commander-in-chief said on Tuesday his forces had pulled back to the outskirts of the town of Maryinka, a day after Moscow claimed full control of the key town. “We have now moved to the outskirts of Maryinka, and in some places already beyond the boundaries of the settlement,” Valerii Zaluzhnyi told reporters in Kyiv.…

Russian celebrities and pop stars have started issuing on-camera apologies for attending a scandalous “almost naked” party that was widely condemned in pro-Kremlin circles as unpatriotic and disrespectful of Russian soldiers. After initially dismissing the public outcry over footage of scantily clad celebrities and other guests at last week’s private party at a Moscow nightclub, the party’s organizer,…

The Kremlin is investing in movements of wives and mothers who support the war in Ukraine and promote traditional values to counter the growing influence of protesting relatives of soldiers, according to a report by the independent news outlet Holod published Tuesday.   Mobilized soldiers’ relatives, most notably the Put’ Domoi (Way Home) group, are demanding the return…

Over 1,000 roe deer have invaded the Omsk region in western Siberia due to abnormal weather, with around 100 animals wandering in the city of Omsk, the region’s deputy natural resources minister told local television Monday. Icy rains in late November, which were followed by severe frosts, could have triggered the sudden migration of the deer, which…

“They forced me to castrate a pig because I wanted gender-affirming surgery.” Ada Blakewell, 23, a non-binary transgender woman, was undergoing hormone therapy when in August 2022 her parents took her to a private center in the Altai region to undergo “masculinization” — an attempt to change her to her birth sex.  “My parents, with…

Russian authorities have issued arrest warrants for two popular animators and exiled opposition politician Dmitry Gudkov, the independent news website Mediazona reported Tuesday. The Russian Interior Ministry’s wanted persons database lists Gudkov, who served in Russia’s lower-house State Duma from 2011-16, alongside cartoonists Oleg Kuvayev and Pavel Muntyan. Kuvayev is the creator of the long-running flash-animated series “Masyanya,” whose…

Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny on Tuesday detailed his transfer to a high-security prison colony in Russia’s Arctic that had kept him from the public eye for nearly three weeks and raised concerns about his safety. In his first public letter since unveiling an anti-Putin 2024 presidential election strategy in a Dec. 7 post, Navalny sought to…

The Kremlin on Tuesday acknowledged a Ukrainian attack had damaged a warship in the occupied Crimean port of Feodosia in what Ukraine and its Western allies called a major setback for the Russian Navy. Feodosia is home to Russia’s Black Sea Fleet naval base on the annexed Crimean peninsula. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu informed…

Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has been located at a prison colony in Russia’s Arctic, his team said Monday, ending a frantic three-week search for the opposition figure’s whereabouts. Navalny’s spokeswoman said he had been found at the IK-3 prison colony in Kharp, a settlement in the Yamal-Nenets autonomous district some 2,000 kilometers northeast of…

Jailed Moscow municipal deputy Alexei Gorinov was located at a prison hospital in the city of Vladimir on Monday after being missing for over two weeks, his supporters announced.  Gorinov, 62, was sentenced to seven years in prison in April 2022 for spreading “knowingly false information” about the Russian military. He has been serving the sentence…

Authorities in northwestern Russia’s republic of Karelia have erected a monument to “victims of Finnish occupation” at a memorial site for the victims of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin’s purges, a local opposition deputy said Monday. The Sandarmokh memorial, where at least 6,000 gulag prisoners were buried in mass graves, is officially designated as a “burial place…

Russia said Monday that its forces have captured Maryinka, a town in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region that has been all but destroyed during Moscow’s invasion. “The assault detachment of the ‘South’ grouping completely liberated the settlement of Maryinka today,” Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu told President Vladimir Putin in a televised meeting. Kyiv has not yet commented on Moscow’s…

If one story dominated the headlines from Russia in 2023, it was the rise and the fall of the murky and brutal Wagner mercenary group — and of its leader, the late Kremlin-linked catering magnate Yevgeny Prigozhin.  Wagner rose to prominence as one of the driving forces of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine starting in mid-2022.…

Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has been located in a prison colony in northern Russia after going missing for nearly three weeks, his spokeswoman said Monday. The disappearance of Russia’s most prominent opposition figure, who mobilized huge protests before being jailed in 2021, had spurred concerns from allies, rights groups and Western governments. “We have…

Officials in Russia’s Irkutsk region in southeastern Siberia have publicly denounced activists seeking to block a controversial bill that would ease logging restrictions along the shores of Lake Baikal, the Govorit NeMoskva news outlet reported Monday.  In an open letter, 34 regional officials, including six mayors, accused environmental activists of waging a cyberbullying campaign and inciting…

Russian authorities have opened at least 190 criminal cases against Wagner mercenaries who were pardoned in exchange for fighting in Ukraine, the independent media outlet Vyorstka reported Monday. Russia’s Defense Ministry and the Wagner mercenary group have recruited heavily from Russian prisons to bolster their manpower in Ukraine, promising convicts a pardon in exchange for military…

Foreign shareholders have suspended their participation in Russia’s Arctic LNG 2 project due to U.S. sanctions, the Kommersant business daily reported Monday, citing anonymous government sources. The United States in November issued sanctions on Arctic LNG as part of broader measures targeting Russia’s future energy production and other areas over its invasion of Ukraine. The European Union…

A fire erupted on board Russia’s Sevmorput nuclear-powered cargo ship, authorities said Monday, adding that the blaze was quickly extinguished. Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry said it had dispatched crews to vessel manager Atomflot’s base outside the Arctic city of Murmansk late on Sunday. “It was established there was a fire in one of the Sevmorput cabins spanning…

Hundreds of supporters of Igor Girkin, a jailed former commander of Russian-backed fighters in Ukraine, rallied in Moscow Sunday to back his bid to stand for president. Better known by his alias Igor Strelkov, Girkin was a key leader of separatist fighters in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic in eastern Ukraine in 2014. The nationalist…

Iran has summoned Russia’s envoy to protest a recent statement by Moscow and Arab countries calling for talks over three islands controlled by Tehran but claimed by the United Arab Emirates. The summoning of Moscow’s charge d’affaires came days after Iran’s key ally Russia signed a joint declaration with Arab countries which “supported peaceful solutions…

Two suspects have been detained in Riga following a grenade attack at a bar where journalists from the BBC Russian service had gathered, Latvian police said Sunday. While police claimed the motive was a “personal” conflict with the bar’s owners, many have speculated that it was a targeted intimidation effort against the journalists. An unidentified…

Russian bombardment killed four people and injured nine over 24 hours in the frontline southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, a regional official said Sunday. Russian forces fired 71 shells at Kherson from Saturday to Sunday morning, hitting the city center, residential areas, medical and educational institutions and “critical infrastructure facilities,” the region’s governor Oleksandr Prokudin…

ST. PETERSBURG — A pair of tall drag queens is performing on a stage, cracking jokes and interacting with the only three guests who have come to this gay bar on a Thursday night. The entrance to this renowned venue is marked only by a nondescript metal door in a dimly lit courtyard. “We could…

Russian President Vladimir Putin has been telegraphing a readiness to discuss a ceasefire in his nearly two-year war on Ukraine through diplomatic backchannels, The New York Times reported Saturday. The report comes as the 22-month Russian invasion of Ukraine has effectively ground to a stalemate, Western aid for Kyiv is at risk of drying up…

The Communist Party of Russia, the second-largest party in parliament, on Saturday selected a 75-year-old to stand next March in presidential polls against Vladimir Putin. At a party congress in the Moscow region, the members held a single-candidate vote backing Nikolai Kharitonov. He won just under 14% of the national vote when he stood against…