Russian Digest

Blinken speaks to Russian foreign minister about WSJ reporter Evan Gershkovich and Paul Whelan

S Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke Sunday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and called for the “immediate release” of detained Americans Evan Gershkovich and Paul Whelan, according to the US State Department.

“Secretary Blinken conveyed the United States’ grave concern over Russia’s unacceptable detention of a U.S. citizen journalist,” a readout from the department said.
“Secretary Blinken further urged the Kremlin to immediately release wrongfully detained U.S. citizen Paul Whelan,” the readout continued, adding that the secretary and Lavrov “also discussed the importance of creating an environment that permits diplomatic missions to carry out their work.”
Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter based in Russia, was detained last week on charges of espionage – the first time an American journalist has been detained on such accusations by Moscow since the Cold War. US officials in Moscow had not yet been granted consular access to Gershkovich as of Sunday.

The Journal’s editor-in-chief, Emma Tucker, said Sunday that the call between Blinken and Lavrov was “hugely reassuring.”

The Washington Post: Putin bought an apartment in Israel for a former teacher through Abramovich's offshore

The American newspaper The Washington Post and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists have discovered documents that prove financial ties between Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

According to The Washington Post, we are talking about a gift agreement of the mid-2000s, according to which a company controlled by Abramovich in Cyprus transferred $245,000 to Israeli citizen Mina Yuditskaya-Berliner, former teacher Putin. On the same day, she became the owner of a small apartment in the center of Tel Aviv. Yuditskaya-Berliner immigrated to Israel in the 1970s. In 2005, Putin met with her during a visit to Israel. The media reported that Putin helped her get a small apartment, but it was not reported what kind of help was in question. According to The Washington Post, the money to buy the apartment did not come from Putin, but from an offshore account controlled by Abramovich.

The receipts add to the impression of an arrangement that both men have long denied — that Abramovich’s vast wealth, originally derived from the post-Soviet sale of state assets, came with strings that Putin could pull.

Abramovich has for decades disputed any financial linkage, demanding retractions from news organizations and even launching a lawsuit to quash stories that suggested he did Putin’s bidding. But the documents, part of a trove obtained by The Washington Post and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, include a “deed of gift” recording the transfer of $245,000 from an Abramovich-controlled company in Cyprus to Yuditskaya-Berliner on the same day she purchased a small apartment in central Tel Aviv.

In St. Petersburg, in the cafe of Wagner’s Prigozhin, "military propagandist" Vladlen Tatarsky died in an explosion

In the center of St. Petersburg, an explosion occurred in the Street Bar cafe on Universitetskaya embankment. According to a TASS source in emergency services, at least one person died as a result of the incident, and 16 more were injured of varying severity.

According to preliminary data, at the time of the explosion, a meeting was held inside the cafe with "military correspondent" Vladlen Tatarsky (Maxim Fomin). Tatarsky himself died, a source told RIA Novosti. According to eyewitnesses, there were a lot of people at the event, the explosion thundered near the stage, Readovka notes .

Mash reports that, according to preliminary data, a girl brought the bomb to the cafe - the explosive device was in a statuette that was presented to Vladlen Tatarsky. Its capacity was more than 200 grams of TNT, the law enforcement agencies told the Baza channel. The injured were taken to the hospital by ambulance.

Rescuers and gas service went to the scene. Police officers are investigating the circumstances of the incident and are looking for suspects in the attack.

According to witnesses, the explosion was so strong that its sound could be heard even on the Blagoveshchensky bridge, according to Fontanka. The cafe itself, the newspaper notes, belonged to the founder of Wagner PMC Yevgeny Prigozhin. On weekends, the Cyber Z Front discussion club gathers here.

https://www.moscowtimes.ru/2023/04/02/v-kafe-v-tsentre-sankt-peterburga-proizoshel-vzriv-a38761

Investigators completed a search in the apartment of Vladlen Tatarsky, a visitor to the evening, who is wanted in connection with the explosion

In the city of Pushkin, a search was completed in the apartment of the relatives of Darya Trepova, who is wanted in the case of an explosion at a meeting of Vladlen Tatarsky.

Fontanka and Channel 78 published footage of a woman in a black down jacket being taken out of the entrance and put into the car. Her face is covered with a medical mask.

The woman moves freely, there are no handcuffs on her. In her hands, presumably, the keys and a pack of cigarettes. According to Fontanka, this is not Daria herself, but her mother, and the girl's stepfather was also taken away with her.

https://zona.media/chronicle/ttrsk#53448

‘Absurdity to a new level’ as Russia takes charge of UN security council

In Ukraine, Moscow is pursuing an unprovoked war of aggression. In The Hague, Vladimir Putin is facing an arrest warrant for war crimes. But at the UN, Russia is about to take charge of a powerful international body, the security council.

From April 1st, it will be Russia’s turn to take up the monthly presidency of the 15-member council, in line with a rotation that has been unaffected by the Ukraine war.

The last time Russia held the gavel was in February last year, when Putin declared his “special military operation” in the middle of a council session on Ukraine. Fourteen months on, tens of thousands of people have been killed, many of them civilians, cities have been ruined and Putin has been indicted by the international criminal court for the mass abduction of Ukrainian children.

In such circumstances, putting Russia in the driving seat of a world body tasked with “maintaining international peace and security” seems like a cruel April fools joke to many, not least the Ukrainian mission to the UN.

A mobilized man took his military colleagues hostage in the Bryansk region

In the village of Plavna in the Bryansk region, a mobilized man took his colleagues hostage. According to the Baza telegram channel, a 35-year-old man from the Samara region did this when he learned that his relatives had died in the war in Ukraine.

The man took hostage three officers and three to five mobilized in the local cultural center. Military unit 44073 was temporarily stationed there. He had a machine gun and grenades, which he threatened to use if necessary. However, he did not make any demands. Presumably, one of the hostages contacted emergency services.

The Zarya plan was introduced in the area. The place of capture was cordoned off, the movement was blocked.

After the house of culture was surrounded by the police, the commander of his military unit tried to negotiate with the mobilized. As a result, the man released the hostages and surrendered.

Mobilization in Russia was announced by President Vladimir Putin on September 21, 2022. Since its inception, military courts across Russia have received at least 536 cases of “arbitrary abandonment of units,” “desertion,” and “failure to follow orders, ” Mediazona calculated . 247 of them have already been sentenced.

The articles under which the mobilized are accused were tightened after the start of the mass conscription. In September last year, President Vladimir Putin signed a law that doubled the penalty for leaving a unit without permission, from five to ten years. The relevant amendments were submitted to the State Duma the day before the announcement of mobilization.

https://www.moscowtimes.ru/2023/04/02/mobilizovannii-vzyal-v-zalozhniki-voennih-v-bryanskoi-oblasti-a38745

Justice Dept. said to have more evidence of possible Trump obstruction at Mar-a-Lago

Justice Department and FBI investigators have amassed fresh evidence pointing to possible obstruction by former president Donald Trump in the investigation into top-secret documents found at his Mar-a-Lago home, according to people familiar with the matter.

The additional evidence comes as investigators have used emails and text messages from a former Trump aide to help understand key moments last year, said the people, who like others interviewed for this article spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing criminal investigation.

The new details highlight the degree to which special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into the potential mishandling of hundreds of classified national security papers at Trump’s Florida home and private club has come to focus on the obstruction elements of the case — whether the former president took or directed actions to impede government efforts to collect all the sensitive records.

Finland's PM Marin concedes defeat as right-wing NCP wins election

Finland's left-wing Prime Minister Sanna Marin conceded defeat on Sunday in the Nordic country's parliamentary election as the opposition right-wing National Coalition Party (NCP) claimed victory in a tightly fought contest.

The pro-business NCP was expected to win 48 of the 200 seats in parliament, narrowly ahead of the nationalist Finns Party with 46 seats and Marin's Social Democrats on 43 seats, justice ministry election data showed with all ballots counted.