The bubbly flowed at the Grand Hotel Europe’s 150th anniversary gala. But Veuve Clicquot, Dom Perignon and other LVMH champagne brands were nowhere to be seen in a video released by the hotel after the party was over. The bottles came from Russian-occupied Crimea.
VAT filings show the LVMH hotel in Russia received payments from sanctioned entities: 2 units of arms maker Rostec, a subsidiary of Tactical Missiles Corp, from Sovcomflot and Rosneft, corporations under asset freezes Sberbank, Sovcombank and VTB
www.reuters.com/sustainabili...
Russian media largely ignored today’s 4th anniversary of the war in Ukraine. Btw, a piece from RBC offers statistics of four years' economic indicators and even repression data. It never mentions the war, the headline simply reads: “24.02.2022 - 24.02.2026. Infographics”
www.rbc.ru/politics/24/...
At the BonCafe bakery in southwestern Moscow, the shelves are empty ... and owner Yekaterina Oreshkina sits amid the dust and regret of a failed business.
Besides, Putin is unlikely to change course on Ukraine due to restaurants shutting their doors.
www.reuters.com/business/rus...
Washington Post Begins Laying Off More Than 300 Journalists www.nytimes.com/2026/02/04/b...
that moment when you found your surname mentioned in the Epstein files. no, I wasn't on the island. my name appears because I wrote a story about Navalny that was included in the FBI Public Affairs News Briefing in 2020
Trump, who is closing out the first year of his second term in office, sat behind his massive Resolute Desk... At one point, he held up a thick binder of papers he said contained his achievements since being sworn into office on January 20, 2025
www.reuters.com/world/americ...
@mashatsvetkova.bsky.social story!
Rostec replied with a Stalin image to @m_tsvetkova story on a defence factory boss who self-immolated over defmin pressure, calling it “propaganda clichés." "Scaring people with Soviet times is no longer fashionable in Russia. You’re 40 years too late.”
t.me/rostecru/10994
With Volna, a Moscow maker of tank radio set parts, nearing bankruptcy after the Ukraine war, its director set himself alight on Red Square
@mashatsvetkova.bsky.social spoke exclusively to him and others about the Russian defmin pressure that drove him to it
www.reuters.com/world/europe...
the investigation about Germany network you can read here
www.reuters.com/investigatio...
w/ @zverevlive.bsky.social @christianlowe.bsky.social Juliette Jabkhiro Tassilo Hummel @mashatsvetkova.bsky.social
A year ago we reported on a RU propaganda network in Germany handled by the GRU. During that work, Anna Novikova, a RU living in France, also drew our attention. She has now been detained on suspicion of espionage. Read about her ties to Kremlin proxies👇
www.reuters.com/world/europe...
that is in English too
carnegieendowment.org/russia-euras...
A timely piece by Alexandra Prokopenko (Carnegie) on how Russia uses Western legal systems to press exiled influencers: once labelled “extremists” or “terrorists” at home, they face banking and employment issues in Europe, the US, etc. In RU but easy to machine-translate
meduza.io/feature/2025...
Pokrovsk, Ukraine. Portrait of a city in war by Tyler Hicks. View for free: www.nytimes.com/2025/11/13/w...
I watched several times, thank you
Highly recommend the book "With Good Intentions” (Благими намерениями) by Ksenia Luchenko to anyone who wants to understand how modern Russian nationalist rhetoric was formed and evolved. Ksenia showed it through the Russian Orthodox Church. Only in Russian now, I hope for an Eng edition one day
ужасно!
please check out these dishes from a Georgian restaurant in Chisinau: Ceasaridze salad, khinkaluli (wtf?), and the real monster - khachapuri stuffed with khinkali
good data analysis from colleagues:
How Ukraine's European allies fuel Russia's war economy
www.reuters.com/business/ene...
I think this year we can really see the consequences of sanctions in Russia: www.reuters.com/world/europe...
Despite Moscow recruiting and paying dozens of priests in the deeply religious country to urge congregations to vote against the pro-European PAS party, Moldovans flipped the bird at Russian fascism in yesterday's elections, voting for democracy over Russian terror.
www.reuters.com/investigatio...
To get a sense of Moldova, look at this: a woman riding her bike along the highway, leading her cow on a rope. Watermelons in Moldova are truly beyond all expectations 🍉🍉🍉
Russia paid for Orthodox priests from #Moldova to make pilgrimages to Moscow. In exchange, they had to set up social media accounts warning about the dangers of closer European integration. @reuters.com investigation about how Kremlin is trying to influence Sunday’s key #election in Moldova 🇲🇩
I also encourage you to watch the short film about Russia's influence on the upcoming elections in Moldova through the Church, featuring some amazing shots by Janis Laizans for our story
youtu.be/83kfW9yZZ8Q?...
I’ve just launched a new Instagram account dedicated to journalism, where I share photos from my trips, behind-the-scenes moments, and everyday life as a reporter. Feel free to subscribe! I’ve already posted some background content from my recent trip to Moldova
instagram.com/polina_reports
Created parish channels are ramping up activity before Sunday’s election, fueled by the TG-channel Sare și Lumină.
Sare şi Lumiña printed papers are also shared in churches with QR-codes to TG and TikTok
The same RU operatives are under Sare şi Lumiña, we found 8/8
in exchange for the money they were expected to create social media channels for their parishes in Moldova to warn their flocks about the dangers of the pro-Western government's pursuit of closer European integration, said Bicu 7/8
Some priests received debit cards issued by a RU sanctioned state bank Promsvyazbank which were handed to them in a monastery by non-church people. And received several hundred dollars on them, more than double the country’s average monthly income (my photo from Balti hospital church) 6/8
They pushed Moldovan priests during the trips to Russia to open the TG-channels of their parishes. The Russians are involved in operating and supplying content for the social media campaign at these channels during the year before the parliamentary elections, like this 5/8
