Russia’s mobile operators warn they’ll block bank calls starting October 15 if they aren’t labeled

Russia’s Digital Development Ministry has asked the central bank to make sure banks are complying with a requirement to label mass calls, the Russian business daily Kommersant reported. Digital Development Minister Maksut Shadayev sent the request in a letter to Elvira Nabiullina, the head of Russia’s central bank.

Raisingtaxes on passive income could bring Russia’s budget an additional 700 billion rubles a year, economist says

Expanding Russia’s progressive personal income tax to cover income from deposits, dividends, investments, and property sales could bring the budget an additional roughly 500-700 billion rubles a year, economist Dmitry Polevoy estimated.

Russian political scientist and election analyst Alexander Kynev arrested in Moscow on drug charges

Moscow’s Perovsky District Court ordered the arrest of political scientist Alexander Kynev on September 25 in a drug case, the independent Russian news outlet Mediazona reported, citing court records and defense attorney Mikhail Biryukov.

After Ukraine’s overnight attack, Novoshakhtinsk oil refinery — one of southern Russia’s biggest fuel suppliers — halts operations

The Novoshakhtinsk oil refinery in the Rostov region halted operations after an attack by Ukrainian drones, Rostov Governor Yuri Slyusar said.

United Russia won 349 of 450 seats in Russia’s new State Duma. Parliament will include 46 war participants

The head of the Central Election Commission, Ella Pamfilova, announced the results of the State Duma elections, held September 18–20.

Vladimir Putin has an eight-year-old granddaughter — Elza Tikhonova. Her parents are the Russian president’s younger daughter and ballet dancer Igor Zelensky

Vladimir Putin has an eight-year-old granddaughter, the daughter of Katerina Tikhonova, head of the Innopraktika foundation and the Russian president’s younger daughter, and ballet dancer Igor Zelensky. Journalists with the Russian investigative outlet Proekt found that the girl is named Elza Igorevna Tikhonova.

Finnish President Stubb asks Elon Musk to expand Starlink coverage for Ukraine so it can strike missile launchers on Russian territory

Finnish President Alexander Stubb has called on Elon Musk to expand Starlink satellite internet coverage so Ukraine can strike missile launchers on Russian territory, Reuters reported.

17 servicemen swept into Caspian Sea during military exercises in Kazakhstan. 14 died, most of them conscripts

Seventeen servicemen were swept into the Caspian Sea during naval exercises in Kazakhstan’s Mangystau region. Fourteen of them died, Kazakhstan’s Defense Ministry said.

Russian state news agency published a column threatening Lithuania with Russia’s ‘next SVO.’ Hours later, it was deleted

The Russian state news agency RIA Novosti published a column headlined “Russia Is In for Another SVO. It Will Be Very Short,” which threatened Lithuania with a nuclear strike.

One in three members of Russia’s new State Duma has ties to the war in Ukraine. Some are accused of war crimes. Here’s who they are — and what they’ve done

Russia has held its first State Duma elections since the start of the full-scale war. According to preliminary results, United Russia has won a record number of seats — more than three-quarters of the chamber. The party has already said that 49 “participants in the special military operation” will become lawmakers on its ticket, effectively answering Putin’s call for military personnel to become Russia’s “new elite.” But they make up only part of what might be called the Duma’s “war faction.”

Moscow–Tolyatti passenger train damaged by ‘external interference,’ injuring driver and halting rail traffic

Passenger train No. 66 Moscow–Tolyatti sustained damage to its locomotive and first car after “outside interference” on the Racheika–Belasheika stretch in the Samara region, the Kuibyshev Railway reported.

Russia says it intercepted nearly 600 Ukrainian drones overnight as strikes hit refineries and industrial sites

Ukrainian drones struck several Russian regions overnight on September 25, including the Ulyanovsk, Voronezh, and Rostov regions, as well as Perm Krai.

Russian drones hit residential buildings in Kyiv, killing teenager. Hospital damaged in Zaporizhzhia

Russia’s armed forces launched a massive overnight drone strike on September 25 against several regions of Ukraine, including Kyiv, the Kyiv region, Zaporizhzhia, and the Odesa region.

Proof that Russia’s 2026 State Duma elections were the dirtiest parliamentary elections of the Putin era

The final results of the State Duma election are not in yet. Russia’s Central Election Commission still has not published returns from every precinct: as of the evening of September 23, data for the Leningrad region and the occupied regions were missing. Even so, the available figures show how this election differs from previous ones. It was the least fair Duma election of the Putin era, yet it looks more “normal” than the 2024 presidential election.

Macron says France sees signs Russia is preparing to mobilize 300,000 more men

French President Emmanuel Macron told TF1 that tensions were rising across Europe as Russia stepped up hostile actions. “But yes, the situation really is growing more tense — for Ukraine, which has been at war with Russia since February 2022, and for us Europeans, because the number of hostile acts [by Russia] across Europe has risen sharply in recent weeks,” Macron said.

Russia’s mobilization law theoretically allows harsher sentences for nearly any crime. In practice, courts rarely invoke it

Exactly four years ago, an amendment to Russia’s Criminal Code, directly tied to mobilization, took effect. Under the amendment, courts could, in theory, treat almost any crime committed since September 24, 2022, as having at least one aggravating circumstance: it was committed “during mobilization” — a period that has yet to end.

Zelensky says the ‘spirit of Anchorage’ concessions are no longer on the negotiating table. He credits Ukraine’s battlefield position

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the “Anchorage agreements,” which included Russia’s demands for recognition of its sovereignty over occupied territories, are no longer on the negotiating table. He spoke at a meeting with representatives of the Ukrainian community in the U.S.

Dmitry Glukhovsky’s new novel ‘Registration,’ about Russians seeking to cash in on the war, has been called an émigré’s rebuke to those who stayed behind. Is that fair?

On September 17, Dmitry Glukhovsky posted his new novel, “Registratsiya” (“Registration”), online for free. Set in wartime Russia in the 2020s, it follows the pregnant girlfriend of a contract soldier as she tries to marry him as quickly as possible to qualify for benefits. The book is still stirring debate on social media. Many readers fault Glukhovsky, who has lived outside Russia since 2022, for judging those who stayed so harshly while he himself is relatively safe. Literary critic Liza Birger examines whom Glukhovsky condemns, and why.

‘No one needs more fuel on the fire.’ Italy pushes back on report that CIA warned of possible Russian sea-launched drone attacks

The CIA warned Spain, France, and Italy about a possible Russian operation to launch drones from civilian ships, the Spanish newspaper El Mundo said on September 24, citing sources.

Average household utility rates in Russia are expected to rise 11% in July 2027, up from the 8.7% increase authorities previously projected

Russia’s Economic Development Ministry forecasts an average 11% increase in utility rates on July 1, 2027. It projects average increases of 8.6% on July 1, 2028, and 7.6% on July 1, 2029.

Russian military marketplace Roy.Market, launched amid strikes on Wildberries and Ozon warehouses, is tied to former President Dmitry Medvedev and his son’s circle, investigation finds

Roy.Market, a Russian marketplace for military personnel whose launch was announced in mid-August, has ties to people close to Dmitry Medvedev, a former Russian president and prime minister who is now deputy chair of the Security Council, the outlet Vot Tak reports.

From Zelensky to Pezeshkian, five speeches that stood out at this year’s U.N. General Assembly debate

United Nations meetings on September 23 generated an unusually large number of headlines. Heads of state addressed the annual General Assembly debate at U.N. headquarters in New York, and the Security Council met there as well. Below are excerpts from some of the remarks that drew the most press attention: speeches by the presidents of Ukraine, Iran, and Argentina, plus an indirect exchange between the Russian and Polish foreign ministers over Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Russia’s new AI committee could be led by a lawmaker who helped write the country’s original ‘foreign agents’ law

United Russia leader Dmitry Medvedev said the next State Duma would have a committee on digital development and artificial intelligence.

Politico: Ukraine’s sanctions adviser urges EU sanctions on Russian billionaires Vladimir Potanin and Vladimir Lisin after Mikhail Fridman and Alisher Usmanov are delisted

The EU created a “dangerous precedent” by lifting sanctions on Mikhail Fridman and Alisher Usmanov, but could regain credibility by imposing sanctions on two other Russian billionaires, Vladimir Potanin and Vladimir Lisin, according to Vladyslav Vlasiuk, the Ukrainian president’s commissioner for sanctions policy.

Zelensky says the Trump administration proposes a halt to energy strikes, a Black Sea grain corridor, and three-way talks with Russia

The Trump administration is pressing for three immediate steps to de-escalate the war in Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told Axios.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko pardons another 15 people, including 13 convicted of what it calls ‘extremist’ crimes

Alexander Lukashenko has signed a decree pardoning 15 people, according to the Belarusian Telegraph Agency (BelTA).

Finland had planned to deport a Russian mother and son who helped Ukrainian refugees. Instead, it’s granting them asylum

Finland has granted asylum to Russian nationals Olga and Nikita Belov, former St. Petersburg municipal councilor Svetlana Utkina told TV Rain. Finnish authorities had planned to deport the mother and son to Russia this spring.

Russia ties family mortgage rates to the number of children. In Moscow, the rate for one-child families doubles to 12% on October 1

Starlink ground station catches fire near Warsaw. Polish security services suspect Russian sabotage

A Starlink satellite communications ground station caught fire on the evening of September 23 in the village of Wola Krobowska, in Poland’s Masovian Voivodeship, less than 50 kilometers (31 miles) from Warsaw.

Russia plans higher taxes on passive income and foreign online purchases as budget deficit continues

Russia’s Finance Ministry has submitted a draft 2027 budget, along with spending plans for 2028 and 2029, to the government.

Russia detained an Estonian, accusing him of trying to join Ukraine’s armed forces. He had come to see his wife, whom Estonia had denied asylum

Officers from Russia’s Federal Security Service detained an Estonian citizen in Vladimir in spring 2026 and accused him of trying to join Ukraine’s armed forces, according to iStories, an independent Russian investigative outlet, and Delfi.

Russia’s state-backed messaging app Max can secretly change how it surveils individual users, researchers at InterSecLab find

The Kremlin-backed Max messenger has broad capabilities for tracking users, but their configuration can vary from account to account and is controlled by its developer, the Russian social media company VK. That’s according to a new report from the digital security lab InterSecLab, which Meduza has reviewed. For nine weeks, the report’s authors observed how the messenger worked using real accounts, intercepted its network traffic before the point of encryption, and checked each observation against the app’s code.

Head of Russia’s Central Election Commission Ella Pamfilova got a multimillion-ruble apartment from the state and put it in her granddaughter’s name, Team Navalny finds

Ella Pamfilova, the head of Russia’s Central Election Commission, received a free apartment from the state in downtown Moscow, according to an investigation by Team Navalny. She registered it in the name of her granddaughter, 27-year-old Irina Kezina.

Ukrainian man attacks people with knife at Polish monastery, killing two and injuring three

A 31-year-old Ukrainian citizen attacked people with a knife on the grounds of a Benedictine sisters’ monastery in Jarosław, a city in southern Poland’s Subcarpathian Voivodeship.

Putin’s Sochi residence was demolished and rebuilt from scratch. A contractor linked to his friend Arkady Rotenberg is behind the project, BBC’s Russian Service reports

Construction of a new Bocharov Ruchey residence for Vladimir Putin is nearing completion in Sochi: the old buildings there were demolished in 2024, and by the fall of 2026 new ones had already gone up in their place. The general contractor for the construction is the Crimea-based Transstroyinvest Group of Companies, which is tied to Putin’s friend Arkady Rotenberg, BBC Russia reports.

Father of Latvia’s Sovereign Power party leader supplied ‘dragon’s teeth’ anti-tank barriers to Russia and occupied Donbas, The Insider reports

The father of Julija Stepanenko, leader of the Latvian party Sovereign Power, owns a company that has supplied anti-tank obstacles, among other things, to Russia’s Belgorod region and the Russian-occupied part of Ukraine’s Donetsk region.

Russians are leaving the country again amid fears of another mobilization. In Georgia, Serbia, and Armenia, the housing rush has already begun

Since the summer of 2026, rumors have been circulating in Russia that the authorities might announce a new wave of mobilization. Vladimir Putin has called the rumors “nonsense” and says there’s no need for a draft right now, but many Russians are leaving the country anyway, just in case. Since the start of the full-scale invasion, Georgia, Armenia, and Serbia have remained the most popular destinations for relocation. Local real estate agents are among the first to notice the mass emigration of Russians to these countries.

Russia’s Communist Party says half a million votes were ‘stolen’ from it in one region. At one polling station, cameras allegedly caught ballots being swapped overnight

Alexander Safronov, secretary of the Krasnodar regional committee of Russia’s Communist Party (KPRF), said widespread fraud marred elections to the State Duma, the lower house of Russia’s parliament, held September 18–20.

‘On a rocket, ****,’ Zelensky responds to Russian state TV propagandist shouting, ‘When are you coming to Moscow?’

A correspondent for the Russian state broadcasting company VGTRK, Valentin Bogdanov, tried to ask Volodymyr Zelensky on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York when he would visit Moscow. The Kremlin has set that visit as a condition for a one-on-one meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian presidents.

Ukrainian drones strike Russia’s Rostov region and Krasnodar Krai, damaging oil depot and industrial facility

Ukrainian drones again attacked Rostov region overnight on September 24, Rostov Governor Yuri Slyusar said. Air defenses shot down the drones over Taganrog and the Kagalnitsky and Neklinovsky districts, he said. In Kagalnitsky district, administrative buildings at an oil depot were damaged by the “falling of drone debris”. There was no fire, and no one was injured, Slyusar said.

Russian strike on Kyiv kills two and damages maternity hospital

Russian forces struck Kyiv again with ballistic missiles overnight on September 24. According to the latest data, two people were killed and eight were wounded, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.

‘Putin is patient zero. He must be stopped,’ Zelensky tells U.N. General Assembly

On Wednesday, September 23, 2026, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed the United Nations General Assembly in New York City. He spoke in English for roughly 25 minutes. Below, Meduza reproduces key excerpts from Zelensky’s remarks.

Kremlin welcomes U.S. invitation for Putin to attend December G20 summit in Miami

Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the Kremlin welcomed the U.S. decision to invite Vladimir Putin to the G20 summit in Miami.

Drone sighting briefly closes Berlin Brandenburg Airport’s runways. Controllers recorded 28 drones there in the first half of 2026

Berlin Brandenburg Airport briefly suspended operations after a drone was spotted nearby, German news agency dpa reported.

Sergey Sosedov, Russian music critic and TV presenter, dies at 58

Music critic and television host Sergey Sosedov has died at 58, journalist Vadim Takmenev reported on Wednesday.