0655GMT/ May 13 2025
AFRICA DIPLOMACY: A photograph appeared on Monday of General Sergei Surovikin, the former head of Russia's forces in Ukraine, laying a reef on Friday at a military cemetery in Algeria. A report from the reef-laying ceremony refers to Sirvoikin as "head of the group of Russian military specialists in Algeria". (NOTE: The ceremony was part of the Kremlin's propaganda project to mark the Soviet Union's victory over Nazi Germany. (COMMENT: Surovikin was sacked as a top Russian army commander after appearing to support a mutiny by the Kremlin's Wanger mercenary unit in 2023. This photo goes some way to backing up evidence that he has been re-deployed by the Kremlin as its military point man in Africa where it is trying to impress various regimes. Surovikin is noticeably thinner in the photo. His ill-fitting suit is particularly baggy.)
SILENCE ON PEACE TALKS: The Kremlin has not, yet, responded to Volodymyr Zelensky's insistence that a 30-day ceasefire be imposed on the war in Ukraine before potential peace talks in Istanbul on Thursday. (COMMENT: Pressure is mounting on Putin to fly to Istanbul for talks. Zelensky has said that he will go and Donald Trump has even said that he may turn up but, and this is the important issue, what has Putin got to gain from personally turning up?)
DEATH TOLL ADMISSION: Schools and libraries in Bashkorostan in Russia's Altai region near Kazakhstan are planning to hold an event to commemorate the 5,000 soldiers from the region who have died in the war in Ukraine. (COMMENT: This is important for two reasons. This is perhaps the first time that a region of Russia has officially recognised the high death toll that it has taken in the war in Ukraine. Usually, regions are ordered to keep numbers quiet. Secondly, the numbers are staggeringly high. The Kremlin has made a point of recruiting heavily from poorer regions, such as Bashkorostan rather than Moscow or St Petersburg, but, even so, 5,000 dead soldiers is a large death toll for a region with a population of around 4 million. Most people will know somebody killed or injured in the war. By comparison, 335 soldiers from Bashkorostan were killed in the Soviet Union's 1979-89 war in Afghanistan.)
A BLOODY EDUCATION: A Russian army commander known for ordering a battalion of Russian convicts into no man's land as cannon fodder has been given a senior position in Russia's Ministry of Education. Major Igor Yurgin, who was been regarded as a particularly brutal Russian army commander for refusing to retrieve the bodies of dead soldiers in his "Black Mamba" assault squad, will help shape Russia's education cirriculum. (COMMENT: Military veterans are being promised cushy jobs when they return to civilian life in Russia. This sort of appointment will have far-reaching implications.)
RIPPING OFF WAR VETERANS: Police in Moscow on Monday busted a taxi fraud racket aimed at ripping off Russian war veterans. Media reported that the taxi drivers targeted Russian war veterans arriving at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport to rip off and rob. Five traffic police officers were involved in the scheme, helping to identify victims or deliberately ignoring their pleas for help. (COMMENT: So much for eulogising the Kremlin's Ukraine war "heroes". This news item shows how they are being targeted for their cash.)
PARADE TV RECORD: A record 38.4 million people watched Vladimir Putin's military parade through Red Square on Friday. (COMMENT: This easily beats the 32.6 million watchers last year and highlights the Kremlin's drive to place the event at the centre of its propaganda push. Russian media reported that the parade was shown live on 21 TV channels, compared to just 14 in 2024, and also across the internet. It's not clear, though, what proportion of watchers were overseas. With a large contingent of foreign leaders, this year's parade in Red Square may have been broadcast more widely around the world.)
GOLDEN LOOS AND BRIBES: The former head of Stavropol region's traffic police, known for blinging out his mansion with golden loos, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for bribery on Monday. (COMMENT: Alexey Safonov was arrested in 2021 for running a bribery racket which made him wealthy. Photos of his gold-plated loos went viral after his arrest.)
ECONOMY SHRINKS: The number of apartments sold in Moscow in April fell by nearly 13% compared to a year ago, official data showed on Monday. (COMMENT: Moscow's real estate market is an important barometer of the state of the Russian economy. This data is telling.)
TAXES RISE: Russia's government pulled in 38 billion roubles ($470 million) of income tax in Q1 2025, a rise of 50% compared to the same period in 2024 because of a new tiered system, the federal tax service said on Monday. (COMMENT: This is good news for the Kremlin which needs the cash to pay for its war in Ukraine. The income tax system was altered last year, scrapping the near-single tax bracket for a five-tiered one. This is important for the Kremlin. It needs to pull in more income tax to make up for a fall in corporation tax. Corporation tax is falling in Russia because the economy is stalling.)