The Moscow Times (EN)

Arts and Life | Pushkin House Shortlists Elena Kostyuchenko's 'I Love Russia' for 2024 Book Prize By Howard Amos After living for two weeks in a psycho-neurological internat, a facility where Russia confines those with psychiatric illnesses who have no relatives willing to care for them, journalist Elena Kostyuchenko believed she had seen the “real face of my state.” She spoke to women who were forcibly sterilized, showed a doctor poetry written by a patient in an attempt to demonstrate the patient was not in the “vegetative” state their medical records claimed, and watched as female residents scrambled for their daily allocation of cigarettes. Read more | Subscribe to our channel

Ukraine Shelling of Russian Border Town Kills 2 - Governor Ukrainian shelling of a Russian town close to the border killed two people on Saturday, Belgorod region governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said. "Ukrainian armed forces fired on the settlement of Oktyabrsky from a rocket launcher. To my great sorrow, two people were killed: a man and a woman had numerous shrapnel wounds incompatible with life," Gladkov wrote on Telegram. Read more | Subscribe to our channel

Russian Strike on Kharkiv Hardware Store Kills Two - Official A Russian strike on Saturday hit a store selling building materials in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, killing at least two people, its mayor said. "We know for sure about two dead," Kharkiv mayor Ihor Terekhov wrote on Telegram, saying that according to preliminary information the strike hit a hypermarket for construction materials in a residential area. Read more | Subscribe to our channel

Russia Says Captured Another Village in East Ukraine Russia said Saturday its army had captured another village in eastern Ukraine in the latest of a series of small territorial gains for Moscow. Russia's Defense Ministry said that troops had "taken control of the village of Arkhanhelske" in the Donetsk region. Read more | Subscribe to our channel

Arts and Life | How to Ward Off Vampires and Foreigners: Garlic By Pavel and Olga Syutkin Garlic is the best way to keep vampires away, as everyone knows. Russia has never had much trouble with vampires, although it has plenty evil of its own kind. But garlic is a welcome ingredient in our historical cuisine. Many foreigners who visit Russia are perplexed by certain aspects of our traditional cuisine, such as sprinkling dill on virtually every dish. But a few centuries ago, foreigners were perplexed by something else: the taste and smell of garlic in many Russian dishes. Read more | Subscribe to our channel

Podcast | Helping Russian Deserters Flee the Front Lines Idite Lesom (Get Lost), an NGO founded in Georgia after Russia declared its "partial" mobilization in fall 2022, helps Russians escape from mobilization or from the front lines. In almost two years, Get Lost has helped over 500 conscientious objectors evade service. Its founder, Grigory Sverdlin, formerly director of the Nochlezhka homeless aid charity, spoke to The Moscow Times about the organization's work. Listen here | Subscribe to our channel

Kadyrov Says Ally Khuchiyev Appointed Mishustin Aide The former head of the republic of Chechnya’s regional government, Muslim Khuchiyev, has been appointed as one of Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin’s aides, Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov said Friday. Khuchiyev stepped down on Tuesday as head of the Chechen government after nearly six years in office, making him the second Kadyrov ally to resign from a senior-ranking post in the republic this month. Read more | Subscribe to our channel

Feature | In Russia’s Coal-Mining Heartland, Opponents of Plan to Revive a Soviet Hydropower Plant Are Being Silenced Like other infrastructure projects in the U.S.S.R., the Krapivinskaya hydropower plant was born at a time when the Soviets dreamt of bending the natural world to its will to fuel industrial growth.  Decades later, this rusting hulk of concrete and iron still looms above the Tom River in Siberia’s coal-rich Kemerovo region, half-finished and half-forgotten. Read more | Subscribe to our channel

At Least 6 Yekaterinburg Law Enforcement Officials Arrested on Various Charges – Reports At least six former and current law enforcement officials have been arrested on various charges in Russia’s third-largest city of Yekaterinburg over the past week, the independent news website Govorit NeMoskva reported Friday. Andrei Dyakov, who heads the anti-corruption department at the Sverdlovsk region branch of Russia’s Interior Ministry, was charged with abuse of power and bribery. Authorities accuse him of accepting 200 million rubles ($2.2 million) in bribes, allegations that he denies. Read more | Subscribe to our channel

Opinion | How Battlefield Motorcycles and ‘Turtle Tanks’ Expose the Weaknesses of Russia’s Army By Serhii Kuzan Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Russia has suffered heavy losses in both personnel and military materiel. The high rate of losses is forcing Moscow to send units into battle with improvised equipment, saving its limited resources until everything else has failed. It is a sign of weakness in the invading forces which can be overlooked by headlines about Russian advances on multiple fronts.  According to confirmed data from the Oryx project, as of May 1, 2024, Russia has lost 2,006 armored personnel carriers (APC) and armored fighting vehicles (AFV) destroyed, abandoned, or captured. As well as modern Russian armored personnel carriers like the BTR 80, this number includes many Soviet-era vehicles  The views expressed in opinion pieces do not necessarily reflect the position of The Moscow Times. Read more | Subscribe to our channel