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603,628 Kilometers Square (Solidarity with Ukraine)

Dear Kyiv Independent readers, Thank you for your continued support. In case you missed it, we recently added a new T-shirt to our online store to help the charitable organization East SOS, continuing our commitment to support important Ukrainian initiatives through your purchases. After Russia demanded that Ukraine cede five of its regions as a condition for a ceasefire, we designed a shirt…

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El lector ruso: Yulia Moskovskaya, terrorista

Yulia Moskovskaya (cuyo apellido de soltera era Joban), de veintidós años, fue detenida en San Petersburgo a mediados de junio. Es sospechosa de intento de atentado terrorista contra un empleado de una empresa de diseño de drones. Según el servicio de prensa de los tribunales municipales de San Petersburgo, no logró colocar el artefacto explosivo [sic]. Moskovskaya fue puesta bajo custodia en un…

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El lector ruso: Partidario de Navalny deportado a Rusia desde los EE.UU. es detenido en Perm acusado de “apología al terrorismo”

Leonid Melejin. Fuente: XSovietNews Un hombre detenido repetidamente en manifestaciones de protesta en Perm fue deportado a Rusia desde EE. UU. Hoy, 25 de julio, el activista Leonid Melekhin, de Perm, buscado durante varios años por las autoridades policiales y que figura en la lista federal rusa de “terroristas y extremistas”, fue puesto bajo custodia en un centro de detención preventiva.…

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Yulia Moskovskaya, Terrorist

Twenty-two-year-old Yulia Moskovskaya (née Joban) was detained in Petersburg in mid-June. She is suspected of attempting to carry out a terrorist attack against a drone design company employee. She failed to plant an explosive device [sic], according to the press service of the Petersburg municipal courts. Moskovskaya was remanded in custody to a pretrial detention center. Investigators say that…

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Cars for Ukraine

Vadim Volkov The European University at St. Petersburg has purchased and dispatched a UAZ vehicle to the war in Ukraine “for transporting the wounded in the combat zone,” the university’s press service has reported. It notes that the vehicle was sent to Military Unit No. 11076, which was formed from mobilized residents of St. Petersburg, the Leningrad, Murmansk, and Arkhangelsk regions, and the…

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Navalny Supporter, Deported to Russia, Detained on "Condoning Terrorism" Charges in Perm

Leonid Melekhin. Source: XSovietNews Man repeatedly detained at protest rallies in Perm deported from U.S. to Russia Today, 25 July, Perm activist Leonid Melekhin, who had been wanted by law enforcement authorities for several years and is on the Russian federal list of “terrorists and extremists,” was remanded to custody in a pretrial detention center, Properm.ru’s correspondent has learned.…

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El lector ruso: La muerte como ideal nacional ruso

Vladimir Putin habla con un grupo de viudas rusas de la invasión a Ucrania. Subtitulado en inglés por Julia Khazagaeva. La muerte como ideal nacional. Observen los rostros de estas mujeres que perdieron a sus hombres en la guerra contra Ucrania. Resplandecen con un nuevo significado. “Soy madre de cuatro hijos y, recientemente, enviudé… Gracias, Vladimir Vladimirovich”, “Perdí a mi hermano en la…

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Paywalls, Firewalls, and "Extremist Content"

Source: Screenshots of an email from The Bell, 21 July 2025, and pro.thebell.io. I “subcsribe”* to a fair number of newspapers, magazines, and online media outlets. None of them would dare to charge me $348 or even $189 for a mere two newsletters a week. That The Bell asks so much for its meager output gives you an idea of how much it was previously receiving, directly or indirectly, from “grant…

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Daily Beasts

“Let’s stand up for the truth.” A military recruiting billboard photographed earlier this summer in Kaluga, promising five million rubles (approx. 56,000 euros) for one year of “contract” (voluntary) military service, a one-time signing bonus of two and a half million rubles, and a monthly salary of 210,000 rubles for service in the “Special Military Operation zone.” Photo: Alexander Gronsky…

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Living Their Best Lives

Sergei Podgorkov, A Cafe on Vasillievsky Island (St. Petersburg). Source: Facebook […] Living their best life And here, the reader will stop for a second and most likely ask the question — but what about Russians, don’t they want the war to stop? And the answer is most likely no. Recently, I fell into a rabbit hole, watching videos posted by ordinary Russians on Instagram. It all started…

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RАК

In love, Cancer? The Russian-American Company’s logo on signage at Fort Ross State Historic Park in Sonoma County, California. Photo by the Russian Reader Is it true that not only Alaska, but other huge territories of the American continent were Russian? Yes, its stretched all the way down to Northern California. And Fort Ross, Russian fortress and settlement of the early 19-th century, which…

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El lector ruso: “Que me juzguen por traición” (Andrei Trofimov)

Andrei Trofimov, condenado activista pacifista ruso. Foto: Página Vkontakte de Andréi Trofimov, vía Mediazona. El 2023, el activista pacifista Andrei Trofimov, de Tver, fue condenado por diversos cargos (entre ellos, difundir noticias falsas sobre el ejército ruso, incitar al extremismo e intentar unirse a la legión Libertad de Rusia) a diez años de cárcel en una prisión de máxima seguridad. En…

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El lector ruso: Toda Ucrania pertenece a Ucrania

Prescott Avenue, Monterey, California, 23 de junio del 2025. Foto de The Russian Reader En el boletín de esta semana: Riesgos en la ley de ciudadanía ucraniana / Toma de la sede del sindicato de trabajadores / Vida bajo la ocupación / Campaña alto Seapeak / La guerra y la formación de un estado dependiente en Ucrania / M��s evidencia del adoctrinamiento ruso de infantes / Aumento masivo de los…

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All of Ukraine Belongs to Ukraine

Prescott Avenue, Monterey, California, 23 June 2025. Photo by the Russian Reader In this week’s bulletin: Risks in Ukraine’s citizenship law/ Trade union house grab/ Life under occupation/ Stop Seapeak campaign/ War & dependent state formation in Ukraine/ More evidence of Russia’s indoctrination of small children/ Massive increase in Russian attacks on civilians News from the territories…

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Andrei Trofimov: "Try Me for Treason"

Convicted Russian anti-war activist Andrei Trofimov. Photo: Mr. Trofimov’s Vkontakte page, via Mediazona In 2023, Andrey Trofimov, an anti-war activist from Tver, was sentenced to ten years in a maximum security penal colony on several charges [to wit, disseminating “fake news” about the Russian army, calling for “extremism,” and attempting to join the Free Russia Legion]. In his closing…

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Shopsh: Circassian Vocal Tradition of Zhiu

As the sun rises on 21 May, marking the Day of Remembrance for the Circassian Genocide, we invite you to listen beyond the silence that often surrounds the wounds of colonialism. In the following article, Bulat Khalilov, co-founder of Ored Recordings – a label dedicated to traditional and post-traditional music from the North Caucasus – reflects on a paradox within Circassian music today: how a…

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Sunday Reader No. 4: Sounds

Abkhazia is a country (some would argue an occupied region) with which it is impossible to work without ignoring the political context. It is an unrecognized state that in the 90s separated from Georgia, wanting to gain independence. Independence that came at the cost of war, brutality on both sides, historical trauma and nationalist myths. Most of the international community calls those events…