Russia

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Russia is introducing new penalties for sharing one’s SIM card or phone with another person — or even just forwarding a text message with a one-time verification code. The State Duma has passed laws amending both the Criminal Code and the Code of Administrative Offenses to incorporate the changes.

The measures are part of a broader effort to crack down on fraud, which has rapidly proliferated in the years since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In recent months, authorities have rolled out a series of initiatives aimed at limiting Russians’ contact with scammers. But these same changes are also creating new risks for ordinary citizens.

So Russia seriously banned people from letting others use their phones?

Yes — and the ban was actually signed into law several months ago, though it hasn’t taken effect yet. On April 1, Vladimir Putin signed a law titled “On the creation of a state information system to combat offenses committed using information and communication technologies, and on amendments to certain legislative acts of the Russian Federation.”

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Russia has established a new group of officials, described as a “demographic special forces unit," in response to a catastrophic decline in birth rates across the country, the RBC business daily reported Thursday.

The measure was announced during a press conference by upper-house Federation Council head Valentina Matviyenko.

According to Matviyenko, the creation of the group makes family issues a top priority for the government.

“Today, any regional government agency can give you the name of the deputy minister responsible for demographics. A special demographic task force has been created. We can hope that we will return to our traditional values,” she said.

The group’s formation is in line with previous efforts to address Russia's deepening demographic crisis.

Despite extensive promotional campaigns encouraging larger families, public appeals from officials and Russian President Vladimir Putin and restrictions on abortion access, Russia has not succeeded in reversing its demographic decline.

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Russia has established an extensive network of state-backed organizations aimed at incorporating schoolchildren into the country’s military-industrial complex, including the production, development, and operation of drones, according to a new report by the investigative outlet The Insider.

The system includes an online platform called Berloga (“Bear’s den” in Russian), which features games designed to develop students’ drone piloting skills, including a course called “Drone Academy.” To encourage participation, students are offered extra points on their university entrance exams for using the platform.

Top performers are invited to join the “Kruzhok movement,” an Education Ministry project under Russia’s National Technology Initiative (NTI). These students are also offered spots in extracurricular groups where they prepare for academic competitions and work on original engineering projects, most of which are drone-related. These include navigation, tracking and object recognition, cargo delivery, anti-drone systems, and improving drones’ resistance to electronic warfare.

The groups regularly compete in engineering contests, with assignments provided by major state corporations like Rosatom, Rostec, and Roscosmos, as well as defense contractors including the Yakovlev and Sukhoi military aircraft producers, the drone manufacturer Geoscan, and the air defense company Almaz-Antey. Representatives from these firms often serve as judges in the competitions.

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Involving minors in the development of technologies intended for warfare violates international norms such as the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Geneva Conventions. Moreover, these students aren’t just learning general drone principles; they’re being directly integrated into the Russian military’s technology production chain. They receive commissions, carry out technical assignments, and take part in demonstrations for the military. In practice, this amounts to using child labor for war.

The entire system is coordinated by Russia’s Agency for Strategic Initiatives (ASI), a nominally non-profit organization whose supervisory board is headed by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/39127015

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On 28 September, parliamentary elections are set to be held in Moldova, an event Russia is hoping will return Chișinău to its sphere of influence.

Last year's presidential election and the constitutional referendum on Moldova's EU accession were conducted under conditions of unprecedented Russian interference.

It has now come to light that, for the purpose of organising mass unrest, individuals were specially trained in two Balkan countries: Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

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Moldova's Intelligence and Security Service (SIS) stated that pro-Russian oligarch Ilan Shor had funded trips for Moldovan citizens to Moscow to receive training in protest tactics.

Some of these "students" were selected for advanced training in the Balkans, specifically in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) and Serbia, where instructors connected to Wagner and similar private military structures trained them in crowd psychology, weapons handling, making explosive devices and drone operations.

Soon after, information about this Balkan dimension of Russia's hybrid threat to Moldova was confirmed both in Serbia and in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

In Serbia, a real training camp was discovered near the village of Radenka. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, more precisely, in the Republika Srpska entity, a site was found where the theoretical part of the training had taken place, focusing on organising and dispersing demonstrations.

Bosnian security services even arrested a Russian citizen, Aleksandr Bezrukovnyi, on suspicion of organising these training centers.

Bezrukovnyi was detained based on a warrant issued by Polish law enforcement via Interpol. He was wanted in Poland for his involvement in preparing acts of sabotage.

Meanwhile, the investigation into last year’s attempted election-related destabilisation in Moldova is ongoing.

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/39121996

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Chinese-made engines are being covertly shipped via front companies to a state-owned drone manufacturer in Russia, labelled as "industrial refrigeration units" to avoid detection in the wake of Western sanctions, according to three European security officials and documents [...]

The shipments have allowed Russian weapons-maker IEMZ Kupol to increase its production of the Garpiya-A1 attack drone, despite the U.S. and E.U. sanctions imposed in October designed to disrupt its supply chain, according to the sources and documents, which included contracts, invoices and customs paperwork.

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The long-range drone is being deployed to attack civilian and military targets deep within Ukrainian territory, with around 500 being used by Russia per month, the Ukrainian military intelligence agency said in a statement to Reuters.

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The European Union's top diplomat Kaja Kallas told Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on July 2 that Chinese firms' support for Russia in the war posed a threat to European security and she urged China to cease trade that sustains Russia's military machine, the EU said in a statement.

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[Edit typo.]

The Russian authorities have repeatedly justified the war against Ukraine, comparing it with World War II, and their actions with the participation of the USSR in the anti-Hitler coalition. The State has appropriated the right to the past and is actively rewriting history. During the state’s war for the war, the authorities began to actively exploit legislation that assumes responsibility for those who disagree with the official interpretation of World War II. Nevertheless, by May 2025, the number of such criminal cases related to memory abuse, according to our data, is significantly lower than the number of anti-war prosecutions since 2022.

Amongst the war-related cases lead those initiated by the actions estimated by the prosecutors as support to the ‘Russian Volunteer Corps’ or to the ‘Freedom of Russia’ Legion (for instance, in the form of the comments on social networks). Out of 138 cases overall for different political reasons in 2025, the acts of persecution directly connected to the anti-war statements and other forms of protest against the military actions in Ukraine only concerned 35 individuals.

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Russian authorities have expanded efforts to prevent men conscripted into the military from leaving the country by granting security services direct access to military enlistment data, including electronic draft summonses, the pro-Kremlin Telegram news channel Mash reported Wednesday.

Men subject to military conscription now face increased scrutiny at airports and land border crossings, reported Mash, which is believed to have ties to the security services.

Officials are checking whether travelers have received draft notifications, and if a summons is found in the system, the individual is barred from exiting the country.

Under current protocol, Federal Security Service (FSB) border guards must escort these individuals to a designated area where a supervisor delivers a formal explanation and written notice warning that failure to report for service could result in criminal prosecution.

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In addition, Russian lawmakers introduce bill to allow year-round military conscription.

An explanatory note accompanying the bill says that [this] would help ease the burden on enlistment offices and improve the overall quality of mandatory military service.

Currently, conscription in Russia takes place twice a year — between April 1 and July 15, and again from October 1 to December 31 — under existing presidential decrees.

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Since invading Ukraine, the Kremlin has made it increasingly challenging for Russians to access foreign websites, social media platforms and, more broadly, information that contradicts its narratives.

This clampdown is set to escalate as lawmakers have adopted new legislation introducing fines for searching for “extremist” content online and advertising VPNs. Experts warn that the amendments mark one of the most significant assaults on digital freedom in modern Russian history.

Russian authorities are also mulling the replacement of WhatsApp with a domestic app called Max.

The proposals come as mobile internet outages blamed on Ukrainian drone threats have plagued much of the country.

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On Tuesday, the State Duma approved in their third and final reading amendments that introduce fines for the intentional search and access of “extremist” materials online, including through VPN services. The proposed changes also penalize advertising VPNs.

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At least 40 Russian regions have experienced mobile internet outages in recent weeks as Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian regions have become increasingly frequent, according to the independent media outlet Govorit NeMoskva.

While the most widespread disruptions took place during Victory Day in May and Russia Day in June, people also reported internet problems on regular days.

Some experts argue the shutdowns are not just about countering drones, but may also serve as testing tools designed to advance the “sovereignization” of Russia’s internet.

Dmitry Zair-Bek, head of the human rights group Perviy Otdel, said this could explain the mobile internet shutdown in the Sverdlovsk region, which has not come under Ukrainian attack at all.

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In other news, The Moscow Times reports that a Fund Linked to Putin’s Daughter Invests in Tech Firm as Kremlin Targets Foreign Platforms

A technology fund connected to President Vladimir Putin’s alleged daughter has acquired a stake in a Russian company developing alternatives to Western videoconferencing platforms amid a Kremlin push to curb foreign digital services operating in the country.

IVA Technologies, which markets its communications software as a Russian substitute for Microsoft Teams and Zoom, announced this week that the Technology Investment Fund, co-founded by Katerina Tikhonova, widely believed to be Putin’s daughter, has purchased a 1% stake in the company.

The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The Technology Investment Fund, which focuses on seed investments in Russian tech startups, was launched by Tikhonova and her deputy, Natalia Popova.

Tikhonova, a former acrobatic dancer, heads the state-linked scientific development foundation InnoPraktika.

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Azerbaijan’s head of state Ilham Aliyev has announced that documents are being prepared with the aim of filing a case against Russia in international courts, Minval reports. The claims are connected to the crash Azerbaijani Airlines Flight 8243, which went down in Aktau, Kazakhstan on December 25, 2024 after being struck by Russian air defenses while attempting to land at its intended destination of Grozny. Aliyev stated that the circumstances of the incident are “as clear as day.”

As Aliyev pointed out, the Azerbaijani side has not received a clear response from the Russian authorities. Azerbaijan's Prosecutor General has been submitting official enquiries to the Russian Investigative Committee, but the agency continues to cite an “ongoing investigation” as the reason why further information cannot be released. Aliyev characterized the Russian side’s approach as “lacking constructiveness.”

He also drew parallels to the probe into the crash of Flight MH17, which was shot down by Russian Buk anti-aircraft system No. 332 over “separatist-controlled” eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014. Despite the publicity around that earlier case, official accusations from European courts against Russian officials have been slow in coming. Aliyev noted:

“We are ready to wait ten years if necessary, but justice must prevail. We are currently preparing a case file to submit to international judicial bodies regarding this matter.”

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China plays a key role in Russia's war against Ukraine, supporting Russia while also being interested in preserving the semi-destroyed Russian economy. This allows Beijing to control the Russian economy and influence political processes in Moscow, according to Volodymyr Ohryzko, Director of the Centre for Russian Studies in Ukraine [and Ukraine's former Minister of Foreign Affairs].

"China, through the words of its foreign minister, has said that it will not allow Russia to lose. Therefore, this means that China has been helping and will continue to help Russia wage war against Ukraine. It's obvious and clear whose side China is on. On the other hand, will China help Russia too much? Here, I have huge doubts," Ohryzko noted [on Espreso TV].

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Today China controls practically everything that happens in the Russian economy. It dictates the prices at which it buys or will buy goods from Russia now or in the future. Therefore, China needs a half-dead Russian economy that it can manage as it pleases and accordingly influence what happens in Moscow, according to Ohryzko.

"Thus, in this triangle of Beijing–Washington–Moscow, the last one (Russia, ed.) is a zero without a stick. It's the third wheel, which will be invited to the table only when the key issues between the two serious players are resolved. That is, this is already obvious and clear to everyone," Ohryzko remarked.

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The Russian Defense Ministry’s television channel, Zvezda, recently reported that “boys and girls” who left school after ninth grade for vocational college are now working on attack drone assembly in Tatarstan. The report included footage from a drone production site in the “Alabuga” special economic zone. The facility’s general director, Timur Shagivaleev, called it “the world’s largest factory for producing attack drones.”

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Russia’s construction sector faces a wave of bankruptcies by the end of next year as sky-high interest rates squeeze companies across the industry, the head of Russia’s largest construction holding warned Monday.

Alexei Krapivin, CEO of the construction giant Natsproektstroy, told the RBC news website that the Central Bank’s 20% key interest rate is choking access to capital, leaving many firms unable to service debts or fund ongoing projects.

“Every company, without exception, is feeling the impact of expensive capital,” Krapivin said. “Many entrepreneurs believed they could manage their debt portfolios and invest in their programs and other projects, but now cannot service their obligations under the existing lending rates.”

Even under normal conditions, the sector’s profitability is modest, Krapivin noted.

Residential construction typically yields profit margins of just 9-10%, while road construction, particularly vulnerable, often delivers returns as low as 2-3%.

“Large infrastructure projects are capital-intensive and take years to complete,” he said. “If you calculate payback periods purely mathematically, such projects aren’t viable. You’d earn more by putting the money in a savings account.”

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Halfway through 2025, the share of businesses in Russia that are planning to cut jobs has nearly doubled from the beginning of the year, rising from 6.9 percent in January to 11.5 percent in July, according to a report by the Russian Central Bank on regional economic trends.

The share of companies expecting to maintain current employment levels also increased, from 62 percent in January to 65 percent in June. The Central Bank noted that the decline in workforce shortages was most pronounced in the mining, engineering, and pharmaceutical sectors, attributing it to falling demand for their products. The report said that some companies have already begun reducing staff, moving to shorter workweeks, or sending employees on unscheduled leave.

The Bank also reported that in April 2025, annual nominal wage growth had slowed in most industries compared to January. This was driven in part by falling wages in the finance and insurance sector, as well as slower growth in mining, retail, and construction.

At the same time, some companies are still planning to expand their workforce, the report said. These include engineering firms in the Chelyabinsk region and companies in the Leningrad region, where major investment projects in the gas chemical industry have sharply increased the demand for labor.

Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate (HUR) has released a radio intercept in which a Russian commander from the 155th Separate Marine Brigade of the Pacific Fleet is heard ordering the execution of one of his own wounded soldiers, as was reported by Hromadske on July 19.

The audio, made public on July 19, captures the officer stating: “Shoot him… There are no sick in the Marine Corps — only the living and the dead. He has no other options. I order you to shoot him if he doesn’t move.”

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Op-ed by Federico Fubini, Editor-at-large at Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera.

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We know that within Russia, the war has brought something resembling a 1930s-style fascist regime, though the Kremlin is relying on financial inducements, not just conscription, to feed the meat grinder. In the Samara region, the signing bonus for anyone who agrees to fight reached a record 4 million rubles (€37,700) in January.

Obviously, such large payments for military service in Ukraine reflect growing reluctance on the part of would-be soldiers. While former president Dmitry Medvedev reports that 175,000 men have signed up for the army in the first five months of this year, Mediazona estimates that 51,000 Russian died on the battlefield just in the second half of 2024. Perhaps Putin will still be able to recruit more than 30,000 per month, or perhaps not. In Samara, the bonus hike was reminiscent of how some gyms market memberships: the best perks were valid only for those who signed up by 1 February.

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The need to increase payments reflects Russians’ growing recognition of the odds of dying in Ukraine. In provincial areas such as Kurgan, located where the Urals and Siberia meet, cemeteries are being expanded. Nationwide, the “exit” bonus for dead soldiers’ families has nearly doubled.

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Still, Putin will likely avoid another mobilisation of conscripts. When he tried that in September 2022, public support for his “special military operation” seemed to take a hit. He also undoubtedly remembers the Soviet misadventure in Afghanistan. The reason those 15,000 fallen soldiers mattered so much politically was that most of them had never chosen to go fight. Moreover, they were drafted not only from the Soviet periphery but also from Moscow and St. Petersburg, where the losses affected cultural elites, undermining the system’s credibility.

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The courts are also playing a role. “I have followed hundreds of interviews with prisoners of war, obituaries, stories of soldiers among my acquaintances and family,” the exiled dissident Maria Vyushkova told me. “In recent weeks, I have come across three similar cases: [Russian] men who ended up on trial for minor offences and were pushed by judges to join the army under the threat of heavy sentences.”

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Meanwhile, the average age of new recruits is rising, with men over 60 joining those on the front line. Even authorised media outlets report cases of wounded soldiers being savagely beaten if they refuse to return to the front before fully recovering.

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Ironically, Russia’s military problems confirm the Kremlin’s total identification with war. Russia has been at war for 19 of Putin’s 21 years in power. Bent on revising the European order that emerged after the Soviet Union’s collapse, Putin has created a regime that is willing to make choices that appear senseless to democratic societies.

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There really are no limits to the methods of intimidation, threats and open terror that Russia is applying, both at home and in occupied Ukraine to force men into taking part in its war of aggression against Ukraine. Three 16-year-old boys were freed last week after being illegally held hostage in a Chechen police station since late December 2024. While possible that the publicity which the Memorial Centre gave to this abduction contributed to the release of Said Idigov; Elbrus Saidayev and Mansur Shabazov, the lads were only freed after their fathers, all of whom are over 50, agreed to ‘sign contracts’ with the Russian army, which they would certainly have known meant being sent immediately to fight in Ukraine.

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While you may need the specific lawlessness under Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s Chechen protégé Ramzan Kadyrov to abduct men’s 16-year-old sons, hold them prisoner, without any charges, and deprived of any contact with their families, there are constantly reports of Russian conscripts and others being forced to sign such contracts.

In occupied Donbas, such coercion, or worse, began around the time of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and it has not improved since.

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The methods of coercion described, however, have been seen in occupied parts of Donbas since February 2022, with men seized at their workplace, off the street or in their homes. It was known then that Ukrainians from occupied Donbas were being sent, effectively as cannon fodder, as they received no training, nor proper gear. It seemed clear then that Russia preferred using people from occupied territory, since no records were kept, and there was no need to provide compensation to bereaved families, etc.

Russia is now targeting very young people, and those who would not be liable for conscription because they are in full-time study.

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Russian soldier Mikhail Surikov signed a contract with the Russian military “out of foolishness.” In a video filmed while he was held captive as a prisoner of war in Ukraine in November 2023, he said he had enlisted because he “needed money.”

"They sent us here to die,” Surikov, a former locksmith for an oil company, said of the Russian army. It was not possible to determine whether his comments were made under duress.

When asked a year later about what would happen to him if he were freed in a prisoner exchange, Surikov said his Russian commanders would send him back to the battlefield.

Surikov, 49, appears to have been exchanged in a prisoner swap between Russia and Ukraine last year. He was later killed at the front.

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The two sides [Ukraine and Russia] held their eighth round of prisoner exchanges.

These swaps came amid reports that Moscow is sending former prisoners of war exchanged by Kyiv back into combat — a move that violates the Geneva Convention on POWs, which states that former prisoners cannot be employed on active military service.

As in the case of Surikov, some families have published video appeals asking Russian authorities not to send their formerly captive relatives back to the front after an exchange.

“I want to address Russian President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin…with a request not to send former POWs back to the war zone,” said Marina Frolova, whose husband, Alexei Frolov, has been held as a POW in Ukraine for more than a year.

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Kirill Putinsev, 23, who was recruited to fight in 2024 while serving a prison sentence for theft, returned to Russia after a swap in May 2025 — but he “wasn’t even allowed to go home for a single day” and was “denied even a referral to a military medical commission,” his sister Yana claimed.

After suffering a nervous breakdown, Putinsev was sent to a psychiatric hospital in Russian-occupied Donetsk, his sister said.

In the Pskov region, Vasily Grigoryev, 32, and Dmitry Davydov, 45, were drafted into the 1009th Motorized Rifle Regiment following Russia’s September 2022 mobilization. They were later sent to fight in Ukraine, where they spent over six months in Ukrainian captivity.

After being released in a 195-for-195 prisoner swap, Russian commanders redeployed them to the Kharkiv front where they were tasked with evacuating the wounded and the dead. The two men eventually escaped from their military base and hitchhiked to Moscow, where they sought legal assistance.

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It is impossible to estimate how many former Russian prisoners of war have been sent back to the front by order of Moscow, as official lists of those who have been exchanged and those currently serving in the Russian army are not publicly available.

Last year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a law that exempts former prisoners of war from mobilization.

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Russia’s top military leadership encourages acts of sexual violence by its troops. It even rewards perpetrators with the country’s highest honors, according to Kateryna Levchenko, Ukraine’s Government Commissioner for Gender Policy.

Speaking at a briefing hosted by Media Center Ukraine, Levchenko said Ukraine is working to build a strong legal case to prove that sexual violence against civilians and prisoners of war by russian forces is not only widespread but also systematic, a necessary step to have russia officially recognized at the United Nations as a state that commits sexual violence in conflict.

“We must prove the facts of numerous cases of conflict-related sexual violence,” Levchenko said. “It is important for us to cooperate with the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission, which tracks such incidents. This is undoubtedly the responsibility of law enforcement and international organizations documenting these crimes.”

She underscored that establishing a pattern of systemic abuse is just as critical.

“Sexual crimes committed against Ukrainians are supported at the highest levels of russia’s military leadership,” Levchenko said. “After russian forces retreated from the Kyiv region and returned to russia, some were awarded the honorary title of ‘guardsmen’, a clear indication that these crimes were committed with the consent of the top command.”

Levchenko also stressed the importance of demonstrating that such crimes have been occurring since the beginning of russia’s aggression in 2014, not only since the full-scale invasion in 2022.

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Reuters reported already las year that Russian commanders encourage sexual violence in Ukraine.

There is evidence that Russian commanders in several instances were aware of sexual violence by military personnel in Ukraine “and in some cases, encouraging it or even ordering it,” according to an international criminal lawyer assisting Kyiv’s war crimes investigations.

British lawyer Wayne Jordash told Reuters that in some areas around the capital of Kyiv in the north [...]some of the sexual violence involved a level of organisation by Russian armed forces that “speaks to planning on a more systematic level.” [...]

A woman from the village of Berestianka, near Kyiv, told Reuters that shortly after Russian troops arrived in March a soldier ordered her to hang a white rag outside her house. He returned that night with two other Russians, according to the woman, who asked to be identified only by her first name Viktoriia.

She said one of them, who she took to be a commander because he appeared to be much older and because that’s how the others referred to him, told her the two other soldiers were drunk and wanted to have fun.

According to Viktoriia, a slim-built 42-year old, those two soldiers walked her to a neighbouring house, where one shot dead a man when he tried to prevent them taking his wife. The two soldiers then took both women to a nearby house, where Viktoriia said she was raped by one of them. The other woman was also raped, according to that woman’s sister and Viktoriia. Reuters was unable to reach the second woman, whose family said had left Ukraine.

When Reuters visited the village in July, splattered blood was visible in the location where the sister and her mother said the man was shot. Viktoriia said she cried uncontrollably after her experience and remains easily frightened by loud noises.

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Three Ukrainian women who were abducted from their homes, subjected to torture, and convicted in Russia as alleged Ukrainian spies told their stories.

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Now we know: they came for her at home. They tore the place apart looking for phones — anything that could be “evidence.” At first they kept her and a few others in a pit. Just a hole dug in the ground. When it rained, the pit would flood. There was nothing down there. She spent several months like that. We know a few people who were held with her — they were later returned to Ukraine. They told us my mom was incredibly brave. She kept everyone’s spirits up. They said they were like a family in there — with her at the center of it all.

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Down in the basement they sat me on a chair, taped me to it with duct tape, and started asking questions. If I answered, they'd shock me. If I didn’t, they'd shock me as well. If I told the truth and they decided it was a lie, they would give me another jolt of electricity. They asked where I grew up, what my nationality was, how many phones I had, who in the Ukrainian army I’d spoken to. The questioning went on all night and into the next day, until about 5 p.m. Eventually they made me sign some papers. I was still blindfolded, I couldn’t see what I was signing. They only lifted the blindfold just enough for me to see where to put my signature.

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Four months later, we found her sister Natalia in the morgue. She was beaten badly, exhausted, her hair turned gray. Her body was in such a condition that she couldn’t be buried in an open coffin. She had simply been tortured to death in a basement. The morgue staff said they just found the body, but the official cause of death was listed as heart failure.

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• Top executives at some of Russia's biggest banks have privately discussed seeking a state-funded bailout if the level of bad loans on their books continues to worsen over the next year.
• The banks' assessment of the quality of their loan books is far worse than what official data show, according to current and former officials and documents.
• Central bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina has downplayed the risk of a systemic crisis, saying Russia's banking system was "well capitalized" and had capital reserves of 8 trillion rubles.

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At least three lenders identified as systemically important by the Bank of Russia have considered the possibility that they may need to be recapitalized in the next 12 months, according to current and former officials and documents reviewed by Bloomberg News.

The banks have discussed internally how they would raise the prospect of a bailout with the central bank should that become necessary. The scenario arises because their assessment of the quality of their loan books is far worse than what official data show, according to the people and documents.

The people, granted anonymity to disclose information that isn’t public, said any bailout request was dependent on a continued rise in the volume of bad loans over the next year. Still, they said the discussions were becoming more urgent throughout the banking industry.

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On paper the banking system is in relatively good health, with profits robust even amid a rise in so-called non-performing loans to companies and households with the central bank’s key interest rate at a near-record high 20%. Officially, levels of bad debt remain well below those recorded in past financial crunches and that were defused by the Russian authorities.

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Officially, the share of bad-quality loans to corporate borrowers stood at 4% as of April 1, while the proportion of unsecured consumer debt in arrears of 90 days or more was at 10.5%.

Still, top bankers have begun to raise the alarm about the prospects for the next year.

"It is already clear that it will not be easy,” Herman Gref, chief executive officer of state-owned Sberbank, Russia’s largest lender, said of the prospects for the next year at the annual shareholders meeting last month, because loan portfolio quality is deteriorating with companies increasingly needing to restructure their debts. “I hope, as always, we will be able to find joint plans to get through these difficult times,” he added.

At VTB, Russia’s second-largest lender, the share of non-performing loans from individuals in its retail portfolio reached 5% in May, amounting to 377 billion rubles, the bank’s First Deputy Chairman Dmitriy Pianov said, Vedomosti newspaper reported July 1.

That indicator has risen by 1.2 percentage points since the beginning of the year. The share of bad loans could hit 6%-7% by 2026, Pianov said, though he also noted this was below the peak of 8%-10% seen in 2014-16.

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Russia has used bailouts and other mechanisms to recapitalize failing banks in the past. In 2017, the central bank spent at least 1 trillion rubles to rescue three large private banks, Otkritie, Promsvyazbank and B&N Bank, a move it said was necessary to save the financial system.

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Deep in the Russian heartland, hundreds of kilometers from home, Ukrainian prisoners of war were tormented by a sadistic doctor. Reporters set out to unmask him.

[Op-ed by Denis Mikhailov, a lawyer who used to lead Alexei Navalny's St Petersburg campaign office. He was granted asylum in Poland.]

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There is evidence that Russia fully understands that it cannot completely ignore international legal norms without consequences. That is why the Kremlin officially demands the cancellation of reparations and war-related payments for Ukraine, as well as the lifting of all sanctions imposed on the country in connection with its war against Ukraine.

But still, Moscow continues its legal nihilism. This poses the challenge of how the international community should respond to a nuclear power that rejects any legal obligation that does not serve its interests. This question extends far beyond Ukraine or internal repression. It threatens the very foundations of the international order — a system based on obligations, accountability and universally accepted human rights principles.

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I personally know dozens of Russians — former political prisoners, activists and victims of police violence — whose cases were ruled on in Strasbourg, with Russia found guilty. These individuals have not had their names cleared, received compensation for their suffering, nor received official recognition of the injustice they endured. Russia has not only refused to implement these decisions but has also blocked any domestic path to legal rehabilitation.

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A path to achieving justice would be to funnel frozen Russian assets held abroad into a compensation fund from which victims can receive the restitution the ECHR says they are owed. Kremlin officials have already threatened a “severe” response if these assets are seized, which shows that the Kremlin views them as sufficiently important that they could be used to put pressure on the leadership.

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If the international community chooses to ignore Russia’s violations, it will send a dangerous signal that authoritarian regimes can break the rules with impunity.

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Making Russia pay does not necessarily mean the rapid democratization of the country. Smaller-scale achievements are more likely but no less essential: the release of political prisoners and easing of domestic repressions are more likely but no less essential. They could build up to an end to current military aggression and a return to the international legal fold.

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Exerting pressure on Russia today is not an act of hostility — it is an act of systemic defense: of rights, institutions, security and human dignity. This responsibility lies not only with politicians and diplomats, but also with human rights defenders, analysts, civil society activists and journalists. Their efforts are the building blocks of a future just world.