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Novaya Gazeta. Europe

July 2026

Kremlin spokesperson calls Russia’s current crisis ‘ideal’ and says it ‘strengthens sovereignty’

He also described the Ukrainian people as victims of a “terrible brainwashing campaign”, claiming the West was turning Kyiv into an anti-Russian bridgehead in order to “back Russia into a corner”.Peskov's remarks come as Ukraine has increasingly brought the war onto Russian territory, five years into Moscow's full-scale invasion

The war on the warehouses

The Ukrainian military spent the first half of 2026 doing serious damage to the backbone of Russia’s traditional economy, the oil industry

People tend to overestimate the share of supplies that doesn't go through Russia's Defence Ministry but instead comes through volunteers or is bought privately,... It'

Instead of compensation, Russian retail giant offers discounts and loans to sellers affected by drone attacks

Tatyana Kim, founder and CEO of Russian online retailer Wildberries, has announced the company's first support measures for sellers whose goods were destroyed in warehouse fires following Friday night's Ukrainian strikes

Work on a support mechanism for sellers is ongoing. It's a more complicated process, since we need to assess the damage to determine the scale of payouts. Based on expert estimates, that will take up to 30 days,

Russian anti-war politician fined €11 in extremism case in move to bar him from running for State Duma

Russian opposition politician Boris Nadezhdin, who launched a campaign for the Russian presidency in 2024 before authorities barred him from the race, was fined 1,000 rubles (€11) over “displaying extremist symbols” on Friday

Squeezing the elites

In the fifth year of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russian law enforcement has become far more aggressive about seizing money and property from officials, lawmakers, security officers, judges, and their relatives and associates

In 2014–2015, Putin shifted from the legitimacy of an elected president to the legitimacy of a wartime leader. He no longer needed local elites to deliver the right election results: a leader is legitimate because the people love him, and he appoints and replaces elites himself,
Anyone in Samara can see judicial corruption with their own eyes.”

Ukraine and nine other countries announce new ballistic missile defence coalition

At this stage, the countries say, they plan to create working groups and begin developing a “roadmap towards the Coalition’s first operational capabilities”.The coalition is likely to establish a common missile defence architecture to complement member states’ existing anti-missile systems.The statement was published on the same day as a meeting in Paris of the so-called Coalition of the Willing, a group of European countries that support Ukraine

We believe that the protection of Europe requires a global solution of integrated missile defence architecture to deter and defeat future missile threats,

British MPs demand Russian 'propaganda' cartoon Masha and the Bear be removed from streaming services

According to him, “pro-Kremlin and militaristic messages” are being introduced into children's entertainment content, “normalising Russia's aggression and imperial ambitions”.Discussions about restricting the broadcast of Masha and the Bear are also ongoing in Ukraine

For nearly two decades, Masha and the Bear has entertained families in more than 100 countries through universal themes of friendship, kindness and imagination. The series contains no political messaging, and any claim to the contrary is wholly unsupported by its content,