Current Digest of the Russian Press, Vol. 77, No. 32 – Table of Contents

EXPERTS: WITKOFF’S FIFTH VISIT TO MOSCOW SHOWS THAT DIALOGUE CONTINUES; SECONDARY SANCTIONS ON INDIA GO INTO EFFECT AS TRUMP WEIGH OPTIONS

(By Igor Serebryany. Ekspert, Aug. 6, 2025. https://expert.ru/ekonomika/pyatoe-amerikanskoe-preduprezhdenie/. Condensed text:) Editors’ Note. – The fifth visit to Moscow this year by US presidential envoy [for the Middle East] Steve Witkoff took place on Aug. 6, 48 hours before the expiration of the “ultimatum” [US President] Donald Trump issued to Russia on July 14 [see Vol. 77, No. 29, pp. 3-7]. But as soon as Witkoff left Moscow, the White House announced [additional] tariffs for countries that buy Russian oil, primarily India. Ekspert has followed Witkoff’s meetings with Russian representatives and drawn conclusions about whether the visit achieved its goals…

FLURRY OF MEDIA REPORTS PROVIDE DETAILS ALONG WITH SPECULATION ON COURSE OF U.S.-RUSSIA TALKS; NYT REPORTS TRUMP PLANS ONE-ON-ONE PUTIN MEET

(By Nikolai Pershin. Novaya gazeta Europe, Aug. 7, 2025, https://novayagazeta.eu/articles/2025/08/07/chut-blizhe-no-vse-tak-zhe-daleki. Condensed text:) On Aug. 6, the Donald Trump administration once again vividly showed that its favorite tactic is to send a slew of multidirectional and sometimes contradictory signals, which is bound to unnerve the opposite side and often forces it to make concessions…

POLICE SEIZE EVIDENCE OF ‘EXTREMIST’ MATERIAL FROM RFCP’S REGIONAL OFFICE IN LIPETSK; LOCAL OFFICIALS DENOUNCE SEARCH, WHILE SENIOR RFCP LEADERS VOW TO PROVIDE LEGAL, PRACTICAL HELP

Nezavisimaya gazeta, Aug. 4, 2025, p. 1. Condensed text:) NG has learned that the Russian Federation Communist Party (RFCP) leadership will support the Lipetsk regional committee – which has been paralyzed by searches for evidence of extremism – but only in the form of legal action and media statements. By all indications, political methods of struggle, including protest action, will not be used. . . …

POLICE SUMMON LOCAL RFCP OFFICIAL FOR FAILURE TO OBTAIN RALLY PERMIT WHEN MEETING OUTSIDE WITH VOTERS; EXPERT: PARTY BEING TARGETED FOR CRITICIZING PROVINCE LEADER AHEAD OF FALL VOTE

(By Sergei Tolmachev and Grigory Leiba. Kommersant, Aug. 7, 2025, p. 3. Condensed text:) . . . On Aug. 6, officers of the Lipetsk Province internal affairs department visited the regional office of the RFCP’s regional committee for the third time in a week. As Sergei Tokarev, second secretary of the faction, told Kommersant, the police served him with a summons to appear at the city police department, where a report would be made on the violation of the established order for holding a public event (Art. 20.2 of Russia’s Code of Administrative Offenses, carrying a fine of 10,000 to 20,000 rubles). This case refers to a July 30 meeting between Mr. Tokarev and voters in the courtyard of a residential building in the Ninth Microdistrict. According to him, the police believe that he did not notify the city administration about the rally. “I explained that it wasn’t a rally, but a report on the faction’s work,” Sergei Tokarev told Kommersant, adding that, among other things, he spoke with local residents about the upcoming [regional] elections, since there is “a rich body of local issues.”…

ZYUGANOV: RUSSIA HAS SEPARATION OF POWERS; COMPLAINTS SHOULD BE HANDLED BY THE COURTS BASED ON THE LAW, NOT ON WHAT OFFICIALS WANT; RFCP CENTRAL COMMITTEE WILL HELP IN LIPETSK

([No author indicated.] Sovetskaya Rossia, Aug. 9, 2025, p. 2. Complete text:) Editors’ Note. – Our newspaper recently wrote about how officers from the Center for Combating Extremism of Lipetsk Province’s internal affairs department raided the building of the RFCP’s Lipetsk regional committee and published a statement from the committee office of the RFCP’s Lipetsk Province branch titled “The Truth and the People are on Our Side!” RFCP Central Committee Chair Gennady Zyuganov gave an interview to the Krasnaya linia television station, where he responded to questions about pressure on the Communists in Lipetsk…

(By Ivan Rodin. Nezavisimaya gazeta, Aug. 4, 2025, p. 3. Condensed text:) Central Electoral Commission chair Ella Pamfilova reported that a petition has been sent to the Prosecutor General’s Office and other federal agencies to restore law and order in Zaporozhye [Province]. According to the Russian CEC, this is necessary because of the “unprecedented problems intended to, in effect, destroy the province’s electoral system,” which have been created by the decisions of Governor Yevgeny Balitsky. . . .

On Aug. 2, the official CEC channel on Telegram published a harsh statement from Pamfilova on the situation around the Zaporozhye Province [electoral] commission and Balitsky’s actions. “We held out hope to the very last that we would solve this problem ‘peacefully,’ but since all of this has gone public, we have no choice but to react.” she stressed. She went on to explain: “It is deeply distressing that the head of Zaporozhye Province has only now ‘become concerned’ by the situation with the lengthy arrears in paying salaries to our Zaporozhian colleagues, a situation that he himself artificially created.” The text goes on to elucidate that the crux of the issue is a dispute over the number of people on the Zaporozhye Electoral Commission. Allegedly, Balitsky had previously sought approval for a total of 56 people and even received a federal subsidy for it…

([No author indicated.] Meduza, Aug. 5, 2025, https://meduza.io/en/feature/2025/08/05/isis-and-a-ukrainian-connection. Condensed text:) . . . The trial over the Crocus City Hall terrorist attack has begun in Moscow, more than a year after gunmen stormed the concert venue. On March 22, 2024, before the start of a concert by the Russian rock band Piknik, the assailants opened fire on the crowd and staff, and the building went up in flames [see Vol. 76, No. 13, pp. 3-14]. The terrorist attack left 149 people dead and one missing. Investigators say more than 600 others were injured.

Nineteen people are now in the dock – four accused of carrying out the attack and 15 charged as accomplices. Prosecutors say the gunmen were Dalerdzhon Mirzoyev, Saidakrami [Murodali] Rachabalizoda, Shamsidin Fariduni, and Muhammadsobir Faizov – all citizens of Tajikistan. In court, according to the state news agency TASS, all four pleaded guilty and apologized to the victims…

(By Yelena Balayan, Sergei Yusov and Natalia Grafchikova. Izvestia, Aug. 5, 2025, p. 4. Condensed text:) On Aug. 4, during a field hearing in Moscow, the Second Western District Military Court began consideration on the merits of the criminal case concerning the terrorist attack at the Crocus City Hall concert venue. On March 22, 2024, armed militants attacked audience members, shooting at them and setting the auditorium on fire [see Vol. 76, No. 13, pp. 3-14]. . . .

In March of last year, ahead of a concert by the rock band Piknik, terrorists in camouflage broke into the building, began shooting and set the concert hall on fire. In March 2025, Russian Investigative Committee (IC) chairman Aleksandr Bastrykin reported that the investigation into the Crocus terrorist attack had been completed in less than a year. In June, IC spokeswoman Svetlana Petrenko reported that 149 people were killed, 609 suffered wounds or injuries of various degrees of severity, and one person remains missing as a result of the attack…

([No author indicated.] Meduza, Aug. 7, 2025, https://meduza.io/en/feature/2025/08/07/from-youtube-to-boob-tube. Complete text:) Editors’ Note. – Last summer, the Russian authorities began throttling YouTube playback speeds, rendering the popular video platform practically unusable [see Vol. 76, No. 33, pp. 12-13]. YouTube videos began taking a long time to load – if they loaded at all – and it soon became all but impossible to watch anything without a VPN. By December 2024, YouTube traffic in Russia had dropped to 20% of normal levels, and experts deemed the platform de facto blocked. In the year since the “slowdown” began, YouTube has maintained a large chunk of its audience in Russia. However, the throttling of this genuinely popular video platform has pushed many Russians to change their media consumption habits. Meduza analyzes the present and potential consequences of the Kremlin’s ongoing campaign against YouTube.

After the Russian authorities began throttling YouTube in July 2024, industry experts wondered how long it would take for the Kremlin to block the platform completely. But those who predicted an imminent YouTube ban failed to take into account that slowing down video playback speeds to near-watchable levels works just as well…

(By Georgy Pakhomenko and Ivan Sysoyev. Rossiiskaya gazeta, Aug. 6, 2025, p. 6. Complete text:) A Chisinau court has sentenced Gagauz Autonomy head Evghenia Gutul, to seven years in prison. As expected, the judges sided with the prosecution, which believes that Gutul committed “violations in funding a political party.” The prosecutors originally demanded nine years in prison for her [see Vol. 77, No. 14, p. 17].

The Chisinau court’s decision also includes partial confiscation of her property. According to Gutul’s lawyer, Natalya Bairam, the confiscation of property was another demand from the prosecutors. Gutul is to give the state 42 million lei (almost 200 million rubles), which investigators allege she used to unlawfully fund the Sor Party…

(By Natalya Prikhodko. Nezavisimaya gazeta, Aug. 4, 2025, p. 5. Condensed text:) Over the weekend, the Ukrainian cabinet and President Vladimir Zelensky promptly fired the heads of local administrations suspected of involvement in a corrupt drone procurement scheme. . . .

Judging by the chronology of Kiev mass media reports, the meeting of the Ukrainian cabinet of ministers at which former Lugansk Province administration head Sergei Gaidai was dismissed from his post as head of the Mukachevo District administration took place nearly at midnight. In any case, Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Sviridenko gave notice of the upcoming meeting on Saturday evening [Aug. 2]. After that, Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky signed order No. 98/2025-rp to dismiss Gaidai, as well as the head of the Rubezhnoye local military administration in Lugansk Province, Andrei Yurchenko. It was dated Aug. 2 but made public on Sunday [Aug. 3]…

(By Afghan military and political analyst Abdussamad Samadi. Nezavisimaya gazeta, Aug. 5, 2025, p. 3. Complete text:) Recent leaks about Mexican cartels providing partial financing for several training camps in Afghanistan run by Al Qaeda (a terrorist organization banned in Russia) are the subject of heated debate in that country. According to information obtained by local politicians, Latin American criminal groups have also helped move fighters trained at these camps across the Mexican border and into the US. The connection between Mexican criminal empires and jihadist terrorist networks in Afghanistan is built on drug trafficking infrastructure. The Taliban regime not only receives its share from acting as an intermediary in this drug trafficking but also acts as one of the key stakeholders in this international project.

The Americans aren’t the only ones affected by this cooperation between the Taliban and the drug cartels. The interaction between transnational criminal networks (drug cartels) and jihadist terrorist networks could change the global security balance. This union, which is based on common interests, shows that the line between organized crime and international terrorism is becoming increasingly blurred. The cooperation between Mexican cartels and jihadist networks has greatly alarmed US special services and their allies: The clandestine smuggling networks the cartels have developed for decades have created convenient routes for Al Qaeda operatives to enter the US under the radar. This could make it easier to prepare future terrorist attacks, especially if the Afghan trained fighters are able to take advantage of vulnerabilities along the southern US border…

(By Konstantin Gaivoronsky. Republic.ru, Aug. 8, 2025, https://republic.ru/posts/116207. Condensed text:) Editors’ Note. – History and fiction books often present the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as the best option available at the time, claiming they saved millions of lives by obviating the need for an amphibious operation. But what if another, much less brutal alternative was available? Konstantin Gaivoronsky delves into the moral and political aspects of the bombings that happened 80 years ago, demonstrating how a simple phrase in the Potsdam Declaration could have ended the war without a nuclear apocalypse.

. . . The atomic bombing of Hiroshima took place on Aug. 6, 1945. Two days later, on Aug. 8, the charter of the International Military Tribunal (IMT) for the war criminals of the European Axis was adopted. On Aug. 9, an atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. Gen. Carl Spaatz, commander of the US Strategic Air Forces in the Pacific, recommended dropping the second bomb on an unpopulated area – just to show the Japanese that the US had more than one bomb. But an order came from Washington saying that another city must be targeted…

THE EMPEROR HAS NO CLOTHES¹ (By Maksim Bazanov. Izvestia, Aug. 7, 2025, p. 4. Complete text:) Editors’ Note. – The era of bitter confrontation is continuing in Poland’s corridors of power. On Aug. 6, [Poland’s] new president, Karol Nawrocki, a right-wing populist and Eurosceptic supported by the Law and Justice party (PiS) and [US President] Donald Trump, took the oath of office. Now he faces five years of work with his ideological antipode – the pro-European government of Donald Tusk. This tandem will complicate relations with Brussels and Kiev and could partially refine [Poland’s] position on Ukraine. The main question is whether Nawrocki’s harsh rhetoric will change the country’s course or merely remain an element of the larger domestic political game.

¹ [The Russian headline “A Karol-to goly” is a play on the line “The emperor has no clothes!” from the Russian version of the well-known folktale; here the Polish name Karol is used in place of the word korol [king or emperor]. – Trans.]…