Nikolai Priser Podcasts

Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine began, 23 men from Selenduma, a village in Buryatia, have joined the war; that's about one percent of the village's population. In late March, the village buried Andrey Dandarov, the first resident to return from the war in a body bag. A week later, residents held a patriotic motor rally, lining up their cars to f…

On May 10, a spontaneous protest broke out in Riga's Victory Park after city officials used a bulldozer to remove the flowers left at the park's Monument to the Liberators of Riga. Residents who were upset by the authorities' actions started bringing new flowers to the monument, and a crowd formed. The impromptu gathering, which included demonstrat…

According to Russian officials, roughly 1 million people have been forced to evacuate from Ukraine into Russia since Moscow began its full-scale invasion on February 24. In many areas, evacuating civilians into Ukrainian-controlled territory is simply impossible due to Russian shelling. Left with no other way to safety, refugees are being forcibly …

On May 9, when Russia celebrates the USSR's victory against Nazi Germany, several regions across the country announced that they were renaming local streets in honor of soldiers and political figures from the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DNR). For example, the cities of Grozny, Yakutsk, and Omsk dedicated streets to Alexander Zakharch…

On the eve of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky's rating was less than 25 percent. Moscow waging an all-out war turned Zelensky into a national hero -- one who now enjoys more than 90 percent support among Ukrainians. For Meduza, journalist Konstantin Skorkin breaks down how Zelensky and his team are running the …

In early May, both Russian and Ukrainian troops launched offensives on eastern Ukraine across different parts of the less-than-mighty Siverskyi Donets river (which crosses from Russia into Ukraine before flowing parallel to the Ukrainian-Russian border). Since then, it's been the same story over and over again: one side's troops try to cross the ri…

The Azovstal steel plant remains the sole point of resistance against the Russian invaders in Mariupol. Though fighting has been ongoing outside of the plant for almost two months, none of the civilians hiding inside were evacuated until April 30. Azovstal workers Ilya and Pavlo (names changed) were some of the first civilians to escape the plant; …

Up until the end of April, a group of volunteers were working in Penza to help Ukrainian refugees get to St. Petersburg and, from there, to Estonia. However, threats from anonymous Telegram channels and direct pressure from unknown parties -- graffitied doors, slashed tires -- forced the Penza volunteers to shut down their efforts. Journalist Vladi…

Since the first days of the war, Russia's Belgorod region has been on the frontline. The regional center is located just 39 kilometers (24 miles) from the Ukrainian border, and its suburbs are even closer. Uniformed men and military equipment patrol the streets of Belgorod, where tent hospitals now stand alongside coffee shops and parking lots. Gov…

For more than two months now, many Russians have openly supported the Kremlin's "special military operation" in Ukraine -- choosing to close their eyes to executions and rapes, the shelling of peaceful cities, unthinkable destruction, and millions of people losing their homes. Journalist Shura Burtin spent several weeks talking to Russian citizens …

As Russia's military casualties in Ukraine continue to mount, Buryatia has emerged as the country's second-hardest hit region in terms of losses. The only place losing more men is Dagestan. Nevertheless, the speeches at the near daily funerals in Ulan-Ude and other Buryatian cities still resound with support for Russia's war against "Nazis" and gra…

Russia's war propaganda has begun co-opting Soviet symbols with increasing frequency. Monuments to the "grandmother with the Soviet flag," for example, have popped up across the country. And both Kremlin officials and propaganda narratives continue to frame Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine as an extension of the "Great Patriotic War." Meduza…

On May 13, the St. Petersburg news outlet Bumaga published an in-depth investigation into a new method the city's police have devised for suppressing protests: shortly before planned protest rallies, security officials use bomb threat charges to detain large groups of activists and hold them in detention facilities for 48 hours, causing them to mis…

Moscow has yet to confirm the exact number of Russian soldiers currently fighting in Ukraine. According to various estimates, Russia's full-scale invasion has involved up to 100,000 troops. In interviews with Meduza, several relatives of contract soldiers said that it's impossible for them to resign from military service -- those that attempt to qu…

Since early April, Kremlin propaganda has celebrated "Granny Anya" as a symbol of supposed Ukrainian popular support for Russia's "special military operation." Anna Ivanovna Ivanova, a 69-year-old woman who lives in Velyka Danylivka (a town outside Kharkiv), became an icon in Russia after appearing in a viral Internet video where she greeted a grou…

The first step of Putin's "special military operation" against Ukraine ended with the creation of an occupied bridgehead in the south of the country that's adjacent to Russian-annexed Crimea on one side and to the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic on the other. Russia's military has captured the majority of the Kherson region and part of th…

A month has passed since a Ukrainian missile strike sank the Russian warship Moskva. In total, there were around 500 people aboard the vessel, which was the Black Sea Fleet's flagship. The Russian Defense Ministry has only acknowledged that one sailor was killed, while claiming that another 27 are missing. On condition of anonymity, the mother of a…

Bohdan is an airfield service employee at Hostomel Airport, which was the site of heavy fighting at the very start of the war. For three weeks, he and his family lived in the basement of their apartment building, right across from the occupied airport. The building, which came under heavy fire at times, was occupied first by Chechen riot police, th…

On May 15, Western military experts declared that Ukraine had won the "battle for Kharkiv." Analysts pointed to the retreat of Russian detachments around Kharkiv in the face of Ukrainian counterattacks. Russian troops had been fighting to take control of the city, which lies about 25 kilometers (15 miles) from the Russian border, since the beginnin…

On May 17, lawmakers in the State Duma discussed the possibility of cancelling both gubernatorial and regional and municipal elections scheduled for September 11, 2022. The stated reason is the need to support the president unanimously during Russia's "special military operation" in Ukraine. Meduza special correspondent Andrey Pertsev learned that …

Internet giant Yandex is looking for buyers for its Russian assets Yandex Search, Yandex.Mail, and the movie database Kinopoisk, a source close to the company's co-founder Arkady Volozh told Meduza. This was corroborated by another source close to the company's management. Original Article: https://meduza.io/en/feature/2022/05/17/deal-or-no-deal…

Since the start of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Georgian citizens have enthusiastically supported Ukraine: thousands of people have attended anti-war rallies in Tbilisi, the city is covered in Ukrainian flags, and some Georgians have even chosen to fight alongside Ukrainians as volunteers. Despite all that, official relations between the two count…

Russia has been waging a full-scale war against Ukraine for nearly three months. Photographer Petr Kamanin has spent this time taking pictures of Moscow and Muscovites, in an attempt to capture how ordinary, everyday scenes have changed since February 24. Meduza shares these snapshots of the Russian capital along with the photographer's commentary.…

A Kyiv court began the first war crimes trial for a Russian soldier on May 13. On Wednesday, May 18, the accused, 21-year-old Vadim Shishimarin, pleaded guilty to fatally shooting a civilian in Ukraine's Sumy region. Meduza interviewed Shishimarin's mother Lyubov, who lives in the town of Ust-Ilimsk in Russia's Irkutsk region (she asked that her su…

For three weeks, more than 300 refugees from Mariupol have been living in the town of Vrangel in Russia's Far Eastern Primorsky Krai. During Russia's weeks-long siege of Mariupol, which is now under occupation, many residents were unable to safely escape to territory controlled by Kyiv. Instead, some civilians seeking evacuation were forcibly depor…

Vladimir Putin's eldest known daughter, Maria Vorontsova, is reportedly active in a Telegram chat group used by alumni of Moscow State University's Medical Department, where she sometimes writes about current events. Dmitry Kolezev, the editor-in-chief of the website Republic, shared this information on Wednesday, May 18, 2022, posting several scre…

After weeks of defending the Azovstal steel plant as Ukraine's last stronghold in Mariupol, soldiers from the Azov Battalion began leaving the site on May 16. The troops were evacuated into Russian-controlled territory as part of what Kyiv describes as an ongoing "rescue operation." However, officials in Russia and the self-proclaimed Donetsk Peopl…

On Thursday, the second court hearing of 21-year-old Russian Sergeant Vadim Shishimarin took place in Kyiv. Shishimarin is the first Russian soldier to face formal charges for war crimes in Ukraine. He is accused of murdering a 62-year-old man in the Sumy region named Oleksandr Shelipov. According to prosecutors, on February 28, Shishimarin and fou…

McDonalds has announced that it is leaving the Russian market after 32 years of doing business there. Since mid-March, operations have been suspended at McDonalds' 850 restaurants across Russia. On May 16, the company confirmed that it will sell its Russian business. Existing locations will be rebranded, and the iconic Golden Arches will vanish. Ac…

The investigative news website Proekt has published a database of information about Russian military units currently fighting in Ukraine. In total, the database names 166 commanding officers, offering varying degrees of detail about each individual's activities and biography, as well as information about their income, property, debts, and any recor…

Russian ballet master Igor Zelensky may share a last name with Ukraine's current president -- but he's actually the father of Vladimir Putin's granddaughter. A joint investigation by Meduza, Current Time TV, and the Dossier Center has revealed that Zelensky has been in a years-long relationship with Putin's purported second daughter, Katerina Tikho…

On February 23, four members of an Orthodox youth movement in Kharkiv set out on a four-day pilgrimage. Their plan was to return home on February 28. At 5:00 a.m on February 24, they got off their train in Kyiv and learned that Russia's invasion had begun. Ever since then, they've been living in a Ukrainian Orthodox monastery in the Kyiv region. So…

On May 11, the online newspaper Ukrayinska Pravda released a short documentary called "The Occupant" ("Okupant," in Ukrainian), which tells the story of a Russian lieutenant named Yury Shalaev. According to the newspaper, 24-year-old Shalaev served as the commander of a motorized rifle platoon in a military unit based in Shali, Chechnya. He was dep…

On May 20, Azov regiment member and Mariupol defender Dmytro Kozatsky posted two farewell photos on social media as he left the Azovstal steel plant, where he had been living under siege for over two months. Original Article: https://meduza.io/en/feature/2022/05/25/azovstal-s-ears-and-eyesBy Nikolai Priser

As of today, Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine has been underway for exactly three months. Throughout Moscow's "special military operation," representatives of the Russian elite have repeatedly changed their positions on the war in Ukraine and the crisis at home. Moderate optimism replaced what was initially extreme pessimism, only to be oust…

Mariupol's Azovstal steel plant was under continuous siege by Russian troops from early March until May 17. The last place unoccupied by Russian troops in the city, the plant was completely cut off from the outside world. Ukrainians managed to defend it up until May 16, when the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces ordered the commanders of …

Since the start of the war, the Russian government has repeatedly violated even the most basic rights of Russian soldiers. Those who don't want to join the war have been forced to sign contracts and sent into battle against their will. Meanwhile, families have been given little to no information about the fates of their missing husbands and sons --…

According to the Kremlin-controlled media, the overwhelming majority of Russians support the war against Ukraine. There is no mass movement against the invasion, the state's propagandists argue, and yet the authorities tirelessly track down and prosecute ordinary people for criticizing the "special operation" on social media and at small protests w…

Since mid-April, Russia has focused its invasion of Ukraine on capturing the eastern region known as the Donbas. According to military reports, the fighting here has been largely positional battles without significant advancements by either side. Both Russia and Ukraine have built up their forces, regrouped, and continued artillery fire. In the las…

Dmytro Kozatsky is a soldier from Ukraine's Azov regiment and the photographer behind a now-famous collection of photos showing the defenders of the besieged Azovstal steel plant. On May 16, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces ordered the commanders of the units in Azovstal to "save the lives of the personnel" there. Four days later, on…

Days after launching its full-fledged invasion of Ukraine, Russia outlawed the spread of "knowingly false information" about the country's armed forces. The new law, which came into force on March 4, carries punishments of up to 15 years in prison -- and it has so far been used to persecute those who openly condemn Russia's war against Ukraine. Med…

Moscow's Alexander Kudryashov Theater Company is an independent troupe staging low-cost plays for intimate audiences. Inside the company, Alexander Kudryashov plays the "roles" of playwright, director, and actor. His new play, "Bye, Dad," tells the story of his late father, a veteran of the Second Chechen War. And it's a rare example of theater tha…

Before Russia launched its full-scale war against Ukraine, Ukraine's state railroad company, Ukrainian Railways, was often criticized for being ineffective and suspected of corruption. Now, Ukrainian Railways is providing shelter for millions of refugees, transporting foreign leaders on official visits to Kyiv, and delivering humanitarian and milit…

Since the start of the war, St. Petersburg resident Alexey Lakhov has been sending complaints to various government agencies requesting that they remove pro-war symbols from public spaces. St. Petersburg news outlet Bumaga recently published a story about Lakhov and his small acts of protest. With their permission, Meduza is publishing a translatio…

Twenty-four-year-old Dmitry Paramoshkin signed a contract with the Russian army in 2020, near the end of his conscription term. "It just sort of happened that way. They said there'd be exercises, [parachute] jumps, we'd ride around, and do that kind of stuff. So, I went ahead and did it," he told the news website Fontanka. On February 25, 2022, Dmi…

For several days now, Russian forces have been trying to capture Lyman -- a strategic railway hub in Ukraine's Donetsk region. Russia is seeking to gain a foothold in Lyman in the hopes of pushing its offensive towards the cities of Slovyansk and Kramatorsk. Russian troops began storming Lyman on May 24, and Denis Pushilin -- the head of the self-p…

Despite failing to capture Kyiv at the outset of the war, the Kremlin is reportedly considering a second assault on Ukraine's capital, as Russian troops appear to be on the verge of seizing the entire Donbas region. Sources tell Meduza that advances in the east and expectations that Moscow can win a war of attrition against Kyiv and its Western all…