A math and physical education teacher in St. Petersburg is suspected of two murders and an attempted murder. Local news outlets Fontanka and Rotonda reported that the victims were a 2-year-old boy and his 58-year-old grandmother.

The child’s mother survived. Passersby found her badly beaten near a building in the Solnechny Gorod residential complex in the city’s Krasnoselsky district. Fontanka reported that Anastasia, 32, escaped through a ground-floor apartment window. She is now in the hospital.

The suspect is a 40-year-old teacher named Dmitry. According to media reports, he worked at a school in the Krasnoselsky district where Anastasia taught history and social studies. Her mother taught English at another school.

Dmitry and Anastasia were not married. The child who was killed was their son.

The television channel 78 reported that Dmitry recently returned from the war in Ukraine. According to the channel, he “didn’t want to stand by during the special military operation” and went to the Kursk region after Ukrainian forces were driven out, serving there in a mobile fire unit. In August, after returning from the war, he suggested that he and Anastasia break up.

A friend of Anastasia’s told the channel that the couple’s relationship had soured even before Dmitry left for the war. She said he was intensely jealous of Anastasia and had “aggression issues.” After their son was born, Anastasia moved into her own apartment with the child and was afraid to be alone with Dmitry. He nevertheless came by almost every day to take their son for walks.

Dmitry is believed to have come over again on Sunday, killed Anastasia’s mother and the child, hidden the boy’s body in the refrigerator, and beaten Anastasia.

Fontanka reported that a note from the suspect was found at the scene of the killings. He wrote that “being a ‘weekend dad’ infuriated him” and that “it irritated him that while he was looking after the child,” Anastasia was “off somewhere enjoying herself.” Dmitry suspected his partner of cheating and doubted that he was the boy’s father.

The suspect fled, and a search is underway. According to Fontanka, police believe Dmitry may have died by suicide.

From Meduza’s archives

• ‘Mitigating factors’ Russian soldiers found guilty in domestic violence cases are getting off with just small fines
• ‘Society isn’t prepared’ The Kremlin fears ‘public discontent’ and a rise in crime as returning soldiers fail to adapt to civilian life
• Not talked about on TV Five years after Russia decriminalized domestic violence, women’s aid groups are busier than ever. Officials continue to sweep the problem under the rug.

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The Second Western District Military Court has sentenced Yuri Belenky, a 49-year-old IT specialist, to 13 years in prison for financing terrorism, the human rights group Department One reported.

Belenky will serve the first three years in prison before being transferred to a high-security penal colony. The court also fined him 500,000 rubles and ordered the confiscation of another 126,000 rubles.

News of Belenky’s detention emerged in late 2025. He had lived in Bulgaria since 2015 and regularly visited Russia. He was detained at Sheremetyevo Airport in September 2025, initially jailed for the administrative offense of petty hooliganism, and then charged with financing terrorism.

The case stemmed from donations to an account whose details blogger Arkady Babchenko had published. Russian investigators were able to prove that the transfers took place “thanks to a detailed report that the cryptocurrency exchange Binance sent in response to a request from the Investigative Committee,” Department One said.

Read more

• ‘He continues to support them’ Russia sentences former Yandex employee to 15 years in prison for donating $500 to Ukraine over three years ago
• ‘Yes, I regret going’: Russian IT specialist returned to Russia to visit his ailing father and was charged with treason over €30 sent to his ex-girlfriend in Ukraine.

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Mobile internet access in central Moscow could be restricted from October 27 to 29, Russia’s Digital Development Ministry said.

The restrictions are planned inside the Third Ring Road during the day, starting at 11:30 a.m. on October 27 and 28 and at 9:30 a.m. on October 29.

The ministry said the restrictions were needed to ensure security during the Russia-Africa summit and the Gas Exporting Countries Forum summit.

Websites exempt from the restrictions, voice calls, and Wi-Fi will remain available in Moscow on those days, the ministry said.

The Gas Exporting Countries Forum will take place in Moscow on October 27, followed by the Russia-Africa summit on October 28 and 29.

Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov previously said that 22 African leaders would attend the Russia-Africa summit. The presidents of Iran and Equatorial Guinea and the emir of Qatar will attend the Gas Exporting Countries Forum.

Mobile Internet blackouts in Russia

• The Kremlin says it’s cutting off mobile Internet access for security reasons. Muscovites say they’re resigning themselves to regular blackouts.
• ‘We’re back in the early 2000s’ Mobile Internet blackouts are now routine in many Russian regions. We asked readers how it’s upending their lives.
• Meduza’s readers in Russia on life without Internet

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After Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russian oil came under sanctions, and little-known intermediaries using shell companies and a shadow fleet of tankers took over a large share of its exports. A network of companies linked to Azerbaijani businessmen Tahir Garayev and Etibar Eyyub became one of Rosneft’s main oil traders. They are now in a legal battle with former Rosneft executive Igor Soglayev, who sought to make money reselling Russian diesel in Brazil. Documents from the litigation reviewed by The Wall Street Journal offer a glimpse into how Russian oil and petroleum products have been exported since the war began.

Soglayev is a former Deutsche Bank executive in Russia and former head of SamaraNefteOrgSintez, a petrochemical company that Rosneft bought in 2015. After the acquisition, he headed Rosneft’s petrochemicals department and, according to the Journal, also served as an adviser to its chief, Igor Sechin. In 2017, he left to pursue private ventures in the petrochemical industry.

After the war began, Soglayev decided to make money selling Russian diesel in Brazil. He wanted to act as an intermediary for buyers worried that, because of sanctions, dealing directly with Russia could cause problems with their banks. He planned to buy diesel in Russia and resell it at a markup to Brazilian distributors. In preparation, he leased fuel storage capacity at Brazilian ports.

According to Soglayev, his suppliers were oil traders known as the Coral network. The network took its name from Coral Energy, a company established in Singapore in 2010 to trade Azerbaijani oil. Its former executives, Garayev and Eyyub, became two of the leading sellers of Rosneft’s crude in 2022. Companies controlled by the two businessmen assembled most of the shadow fleet used to export Russian oil.

Soglayev founded a firm called Dia33 in Dubai and bought Russian diesel from another Dubai firm in late 2023. He alleges that the firm’s head, Andrey Romanovskiy, was linked to the Coral network and that the two men even discussed the possibility of Dia33 becoming Coral’s Brazilian division. But the relationship soured when a Brazilian port turned away an aging tanker carrying tens of millions of dollars’ worth of diesel. The ship waited for several weeks to be unloaded before another port accepted it.

The Journal does not specify whether the diesel reached the final buyer. Either way, the fuel sellers, allegedly linked to the Coral network, accused Soglayev of misappropriating the cargo. They filed a lawsuit in Dubai, resulting in an order requiring him to pay $42 million. He responded with lawsuits of his own in Dubai and Brazil, alleging that Coral had used the prospect of a partnership as a pretext to gain access to Dia33’s internal information and poach its clients. He estimated his lost profits at more than $500 million.

Soglayev said he also received threats. In particular, he took it as a death threat when Eyyub called and told him he had discussed their dispute with a “Chechen warlord,” the Journal reported.

The litigation is ongoing. In the summer of 2026, a Dubai court barred Eyyub, Garayev, and 13 other individuals and companies from disposing of assets worth up to $700 million as an interim measure in Soglayev’s lawsuit. The judge later questioned whether he had jurisdiction to hear the case. Soglayev appealed the judge’s decision, and the asset freeze remains in effect.

Russian energy exports

• Trump’s diesel deal with Putin, a rebuke from Brussels, and a squabble over Europe’s enormous Russian energy bill
• A long shadow How Russia uses a covert fleet of ships to ferry oil around the globe and what the West is doing to stop it

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Political scientist Alexander Kynev, who is in pretrial detention on charges of attempting to sell drugs, has gone on a hunger strike, the legal advocacy project Slovo Zashchite reported.

His lawyer, Mikhail Biryukov, said Kynev began the hunger strike because he cannot use the toilet in his overcrowded cell, which he shares with 34 other people.

“There’s a hole in the floor [of the cell] instead of a toilet, and he can’t use it because his leg is in a cast after being broken in two places,” Biryukov said. “That’s why he’s not eating. We’ve done everything we can to get him moved today to a place that meets his medical needs.”

Kynev has been in custody since September 25. Slovo Zashchite previously reported that he was severely beaten during his arrest, leaving him with a leg broken in two places. According to political scientist Ekaterina Schulmann, Kynev was beaten to force him to confess to treason.

Kynev denies the charges of attempting to sell drugs.

Read more

• Russian elections expert Alexander Kynev stayed in the country to keep studying its politics. After criticizing the latest vote, he was arrested on drug charges.
• Russia’s FSB security service publishes dramatic videos of political arrests. A human rights group says roughly a quarter of the arrest scenes it examined were staged.

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The Industry and Trade Ministry has recommended that Russian food service businesses add a separate “Russian breakfast” item to their menus, the Russian state news agency TASS reported.

The recommendation covers any cafe or restaurant that serves breakfast, as well as hotels, resorts, and boarding houses. The ministry itself said it will design a special emblem for the “Russian breakfast.”

According to the Industry and Trade Ministry’s recommendations, a “Russian breakfast” may include

• dairy products and dishes made from them (cottage cheese, baked milk, local cheeses, cheese pancakes), as well as cold cuts of meat and poultry (ham, roast pork);
• cold fish appetizers and hot dishes made from meat, poultry, and fish (beefsteak, cutlets, boiled and fried fish, sausages);
• broths served with pirozhki and rasstegai pastries (chicken broth, fish soup, borschok);
• pastry items (pirozhki, kulebyaka, kurnik pies);
• other flour-based items (vareniki, vatrushki, sochni, gingerbread);
• pancakes and fritters, porridges, and casseroles;
• Russian kissel and other traditional drinks (kvass, fruit drinks, herbal teas);
• bread and bakery products, and eggs prepared in various ways.

The Industry and Trade Ministry has instructed regional and municipal authorities to carry out “the relevant work,” stressing that the effort should not involve “ethnic cafes and restaurants with a clearly defined specialization.”

The ministry maintains that this is “not a matter of forcibly replacing the range of dishes offered”: authorities merely need to “explain the benefits and financial advantages” of the new breakfast category to business owners.

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Moscow’s Lefortovsky Interdistrict Prosecutor’s Office has gathered materials to open a criminal case against human rights activist Anna Karetnikova.

Prosecutors said she is suspected of “evading the obligations of a foreign agent” and “participating in the activities of an extremist organization.”

According to prosecutors, Karetnikova, whom Russian authorities designated a foreign agent, distributed materials outside Russia without the required “foreign agent” disclaimer and had previously received administrative fines for it:

Karetnikova, as a member of an organization that a court has ruled extremist and banned from operating in Russia, also systematically distributes materials on the organization’s behalf and takes deliberate steps to help ensure it continues operating.

The prosecutor’s statement does not specify which “extremist organization” is meant, though Karetnikova has worked with the human rights group Memorial for more than 20 years. Russian authorities designated Memorial an “extremist organization” in April 2026.

There have been no previous reports of criminal cases over cooperation with Memorial.

Anna Karetnikova is one of Russia’s best-known human rights activists. In addition to her work with Memorial, with which she has collaborated since 2002, Karetnikova spent eight years working on Moscow’s Public Monitoring Commission (ONK). Starting in 2016, she also served as the lead analyst in the Moscow department of Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service. Karetnikova was removed from that position in January 2023, after which she left Russia.

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Senior Democrats are preparing to investigate Donald Trump’s diesel deal with Moscow and have demanded that American companies preserve all documents related to imports of Russian fuel, Axios reported.

If Democrats win the November 3 elections, they could regain control of one or both chambers of Congress and take over key committees on foreign relations, banking, finance, and the judiciary. Investigating Trump’s agreements with Russia would then become a top priority, the outlet reported.

A group of senators and representatives sent letters to the leadership of major U.S. banks and several ports, demanding they preserve all documents related to possible deliveries of Russian fuel.

They sent the letters to JPMorgan, Bank of America, Citi, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley, as well as to port authorities in Houston, Beaumont, and Corpus Christi, Texas, and the ports of New York and New Jersey.

In the letter, the lawmakers call on the recipients not to assist in the “purchase, transportation, importation, unloading, storage, financing, or distribution,” of Russian diesel fuel within the United States, and not to participate in its delivery to other markets.

Donald Trump announced on October 9 that he had agreed with Vladimir Putin on deliveries of Russian diesel fuel to world markets. To enable the deal, the U.S. Treasury Department temporarily eased sanctions on Russian diesel until April 7, 2027. Trump said Russia is to deliver more than 300,000 tons of diesel immediately, another 500,000 tons in November, and an additional one million tons after that.

Reuters reported that the first tanker carrying Russian diesel fuel already left the port of Primorsk on October 22. It is expected to deliver 40,000 tons of fuel to New York by November 7.

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Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine has turned the Black Sea into the world’s most dangerous waters for commercial shipping, the Financial Times reported. At least 40 sailors have died there since the start of 2026, compared with 24 who died in the Strait of Hormuz, where the war the United States and Israel are waging against Iran has complicated shipping.

More than 570 ships have come under attack in the Black Sea since the start of the year, according to the maritime security firm Ambrey and the International Maritime Organization. Some ships were hit by accident, while others were deliberately targeted. Both Russia and Ukraine try to disrupt each other’s maritime shipping to reduce export revenues.

War-risk insurance for the Black Sea now costs as much as 15% of a ship’s hull value, almost twice the rate for ships in the Persian Gulf. Nearly the entire Black Sea is now classified in the highest war-risk category, except for the territorial waters of Romania, Bulgaria, and Turkey.

Shipping oil from the Middle East through the Strait of Hormuz is now cheaper and safer by comparison. As a result, shipping companies increasingly refuse to operate in the Black Sea or use older vessels that are cheaper to insure.

Crews are recruited from Syria, Egypt, and Azerbaijan. The FT found that Syrian sailors earn about $800 a month working in the Black Sea. They are promised double pay for each day spent in the combat zone, and their families are to receive $25,000 to $50,000 in compensation if a sailor is killed.

Ukrainian forces struck more than 300 Russian vessels over an 11-week period, Robert Brovdi, commander of Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces, said in September. The targets included sanctioned tankers as well as cargo ships carrying grain.

Russia has responded by stepping up strikes on ships entering Ukrainian ports. Russian attacks accounted for about 90% of strikes on commercial vessels over the past 45 days, according to Ambrey’s estimates.

The strikes are affecting global fuel and food supplies. Russian wheat exports fell 52% in September compared with a year earlier, while Ukraine is exporting only half its projected volume of agricultural products. Russian diesel exports fell by 467,000 barrels a day in September compared with a year earlier, according to Kpler.

The global effects of the war in the Black Sea are difficult to separate from those of the conflict in the Persian Gulf, Bloomberg reported. High global wheat stocks have kept disruptions in grain supplies from significantly affecting prices, while diesel fuel grew more expensive even before Russian–Ukrainian attacks escalated, because of the war the United States is waging against Iran.

The war in photographs

A family from Oleshky starts a new life in the Kyiv region

Vitaliy and Iryna fled the Russian-occupied city of Oleshky in September with their 13-year-old son, Vlad, and their cat, Marsik. By then, residents had been left in complete isolation, without food, water, electricity, or medical care.

A drone damaged Vitaliy and Iryna’s home, prompting them to leave Oleshky and walk more than 20 kilometers (12 miles) along a mined road. The family traveled through Russia and Belarus to reach Ukrainian-controlled territory and is now rebuilding its life in the Kyiv region.

Russia and Ukraine agreed last week to a ceasefire in Oleshky for the evacuation of residents. It is set to take effect at 4 a.m. on October 27.

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Ukraine is pushing to move up the three-way talks, which sources had previously said would take place in Abu Dhabi “in mid-November,” by at least a week.

Ukraine persuaded U.S. officials to move up the date, though they did not initially understand why Kyiv was insisting on it, sources who spoke to the Ukrainian news outlet Ukrainska Pravda said.

”They ask, ‘What’s the big deal about moving it by one week?’ And our side explains to them that this week isn’t worth anything right now. But by December, every week will matter. When you have no electricity, water, or heating, every day matters,” a source on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s team told Ukrainska Pravda.

As of the evening of October 25, Russia had not confirmed the rescheduled start date for the talks, Ukrainska Pravda reported.

Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov had previously said the three-way talks would begin “in mid-November” — a week after the U.S. midterm elections. Neither the date nor the location of the talks has been officially announced yet.

Ukraine views it as “the minimum necessary success” that U.S. presidential special envoy Steve Witkoff secured Russia’s agreement to resume negotiations before spring, according to Ukrainska Pravda.

Ukrainian negotiators do not expect a breakthrough at the first three-way meeting and are proceeding on the assumption that it will take at least several rounds “for concrete agreements to emerge.”

A source who spoke to Ukrainska Pravda said a peace agreement “could be put together before the New Year,” though he doubted Russia would agree. “They believe they’ll be able to wear us down this winter,” he said.

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Yandex has moved all three of its supercomputers — Lyapunov, Galushkin, and Chervonenkis — to new locations, its press service said.

The supercomputers were not damaged during the Ukrainian drone attacks, Yandex said.

“They have been moved out of the locations where they previously were and are now being deployed at new computing sites. The supercomputers will continue to serve as infrastructure for Yandex’s services and for training foundational language models,” the company said.

According to data from a source close to the company, cited by Forbes Russia, the supercomputers do not depend on one another: they can be located in different places, because they form three independent nodes rather than a single supercluster.

Ukraine has been striking Yandex’s data centers since early October. Within one week, Ukrainian drones hit three of the company’s six data centers: one in Sasovo, in the Ryazan region, and others in Kaluga and Vladimir.

The data center in Sasovo housed two of Yandex’s three supercomputers, which are used to train neural networks. The most powerful of the two, Chervonenkis, ranked 19th among the world’s top 500 supercomputers in 2021, according to the independent science-focused outlet T-invariant.

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Lokomotiv soccer players were riding in a train car hit during a Ukrainian strike in the Voronezh region, Russian media outlets including Mash and MSK1 reported, citing sports journalist Ivan Karpov. Zvezda, for its part, said Lokomotiv’s press service had confirmed the information.

None of the players were injured, and they will travel to Moscow by bus.

Lokomotiv’s players were returning from Rostov-on-Don, where they had played against Rostov on Sunday, October 25.

Russian Railways, the Russian state rail operator, said earlier that Ukrainian drones struck the Somovo station in the Voronezh region, damaging a car on the Anapa–Moscow train. Preliminary reports said five people were injured, and the attack delayed 18 trains.

Ukrainian strikes overnight on October 26 killed two people and injured 17 in Voronezh, regional authorities said. Astra, an independent Telegram channel, analyzed eyewitness photos and videos and concluded that Ukrainian drones struck the Voronezhsintezkauchuk plant. Ukrainian strikes had targeted Tolyattikauchuk and Omsky Kauchuk in the preceding several days.

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Alexander Kondratov, the production designer for the Russian TV series Likvidatsiya (Liquidation”), has died at Botkin Hospital in Moscow after being arrested on treason charges, the Russian human rights group Department One said.

Kondratov, 52, was taken to the hospital from a pretrial detention center on October 23, human rights activists said. Department One did not specify the cause of death or the source of that information.

Kondratov was born and raised in Moscow but had lived in Kyiv since 2012. He had traveled to Russia to renew his foreign passport and was detained at Vnukovo Airport. After a series of so-called “carousel arrests,” authorities opened a criminal case against him on treason charges. The case was based on “at least six publications” posted online. Their contents remain unknown.

The detective series Likvidatsiya premiered in 2007 and follows criminal investigators fighting crime in postwar Odesa in 1946. The cast includes Vladimir Mashkov, Mikhail Porechenkov, Sergei Makovetsky, and Konstantin Lavronenko. Kondratov received the Golden Eagle Award and a TEFI Award for his work on the show.

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Serbia held snap parliamentary elections on October 25. Among the candidates was former president Aleksandar Vučić, who had resigned just a month earlier but was hoping to return to power as prime minister.

Aleksandar Vučić served as president of Serbia for six years, becoming the country’s head of state in May 2017 and winning reelection to a second term in 2022.

Serbia has seen continuous protests demanding Vučić’s resignation for the past two years. They began after a concrete canopy collapsed at a railway station in the Serbian city of Novi Sad on November 1, 2024, killing 16 people.

Vučić called early elections to the National Assembly, Serbia’s parliament, in early September 2026 and resigned on September 27, saying he would take part in the upcoming vote “as an ordinary citizen.”

Vučić ran at the head of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party. His main challenger was the Student List, a leaderless movement formally established just a month earlier but rooted in the mass protests that began in 2024.

The movement’s candidate list, registered with the election commission, included 250 people. None of them were students. Instead, the list included scientists, university professors, experts, and athletes. Cardiologist Ilija Srdanović, a professor at the University of Novi Sad, topped the list.

Movement representatives described how they built the list:

We weren’t looking for people who would look best on billboards, and we weren’t looking for those who have known for years how to negotiate a spot on an electoral list. We were looking for people who, in our view, are capable of entering government institutions, doing their jobs responsibly, and not forgetting why they’re there.

The Student List’s 11-point platform was organized into three main sections. The first, titled “Serbia or the Mafia,” focused on stepping up the fight against corruption; the second addressed adapting the education system to modern needs; and the third covered socioeconomic issues.

Polling stations across Serbia closed at 8 p.m. local time. Less than two hours later, Vučić spoke at Serbian Progressive Party headquarters and conceded defeat.

“We don’t have final results yet. Based on a stratified sample, it’s clear that we lost this election. Student List has won: they will have between 135 and 140 seats, and we will have 105,” Vučić said. After Vučić conceded, people poured into the streets across Serbia to celebrate the Student List’s victory.

According to the latest election commission data, the Student List received 52.54% of the vote, while Vučić’s list got 39.29%. Turnout was a preliminary 68.78% — higher than in any parliamentary election over the past decade, when turnout never exceeded 60%. The highest turnout on record came in Serbia’s first multiparty elections in 1990, when 71.49% of voters cast ballots.

Ilija Srdanović, who leads the Student List, said Serbia had won, adding that he was proud of the people who had managed to say “no” to a tyrant. “We are moving toward a civilized and better Serbia,” he said.

Who will seek the post of prime minister remains unclear. Dejan Šoškić, a Student List candidate for parliament and former governor of the National Bank of Serbia, said before the vote that the makeup of the future government would be discussed after a possible election victory.

Whether Serbia will change its foreign policy toward Russia remains a separate question. Less than a week before the election, Vučić gave an interview to Ksenia Sobchak, saying that if his party lost the election, “within 10 days of the new government’s formation, we would see sanctions being imposed against Russia.”

“But I don’t want to talk this way in front of Russian media, because it comes across as if I’m speaking badly about someone from my own country,” he added. Vučić repeated his warning about possible sanctions even after his election defeat, saying he expected them to take effect by March or April 2027.

In their foreign policy platform, released in late September, representatives of the student movement said Serbia would maintain its principled position against imposing restrictive measures on Russia.

Student List representative Aleksandar Baucal confirmed this position during preelection debates in mid-October. “We have taken the position that sanctions against Russia will not be imposed; on the other hand, there is a need to coordinate foreign policy [with the European Union], but, I repeat, all of this is a matter of negotiation,” he said.

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Germany is preparing to buy Ukrainian-made Bars cruise missiles for its armed forces, the Financial Times reported. An agreement for the first batch is expected to be signed in the coming weeks, and Germany could order several hundred missiles if technical tests succeed.

According to the FT, the missile Germany has chosen is the Bars, which has a range of up to 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) and a payload of up to 105 kilograms (231 pounds). Ukraine uses the missiles to strike military facilities and energy infrastructure in Russia.

Experts say the Bars is the most widely produced of Ukraine’s low-cost missiles. It accounts for the largest number of launches, and its use has been the most thoroughly refined.

Germany already produces the Bars at a joint Ukrainian-German enterprise created under the Build with Ukraine program. Ukraine received the first batch of missiles made there in October.

Politico reported in late August, citing German Defense Ministry documents, that Berlin plans to spend almost 12 billion euros building an arsenal of long-range weapons to deter Russia.

Under the plan, Germany would spend 1.8 billion euros on low-cost cruise missiles, with three options under consideration: Ukraine’s Bars and Flamingo missiles, and missiles from the American-Israeli startup Covenant Industries.

The agreement would mark the first known instance of the Bundeswehr buying offensive weapons of Ukrainian design for its own use. NATO countries are increasingly considering Ukrainian military technology, the FT said. Denmark, Estonia, and Latvia have also said they are ready to buy Ukrainian weapons.

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Russia’s Digital Development Ministry has approved recommendations for protecting data centers from drone attacks and other aerial threats, the Russian business daily Kommersant reported, citing a document it had reviewed.

The ministry wants to divide critical data centers into three categories based on the consequences a potential attack could cause. The first category, K1, covers strategic facilities whose damage could disrupt key government functions for an hour or more.

Security requirements will vary by category. For strategic facilities, the recommendations call for underground or bunker placement, Kommersant reported.

The recommendations also call for reducing data centers’ visibility from the air, combining “physical reinforcement” with electronic warfare equipment and systems to counter aerial threats.

The recommendations, which Kommersant reviewed, apply to data centers in Russia that are being designed, built, or already operating, regardless of ownership or operator.

In October, Ukraine began striking similar facilities in Russia in response to Russian military strikes on data centers in Kyiv. Within a week, Ukrainian strikes hit three of the six data centers belonging to Yandex, in Sasovo in the Ryazan region, in Kaluga, and in Vladimir. Ukraine then struck a data center belonging to Sberbank in the Saratov region.

IT market sources cited by Kommersant estimated that replacing equipment knocked out by the Ukrainian strikes on Yandex’s data centers will take up to six months.

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The Belgorod branch of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has opened a criminal case against Nikita Parmenov, editor-in-chief of the outlet Pepel, on charges of justifying terrorism, Fonar reported, citing a statement from the security service.

According to the FSB, Parmenov voiced support for the Russian Volunteer Corps and the “Freedom of Russia” Legion, both designated terrorist organizations in Russia.

The FSB’s press release does not include the actual statements, when they were made, or links to them, Fonar said. The security service did not name Parmenov but said the person named in the case has been designated a “foreign agent” and “is located in one of the South Caucasus countries.”

Pepel itself suggested the case was likely triggered by a livestream on the YouTube channel Vremya Nakazhet “Time Will Punish.” Asked by the host during the stream about his attitude toward volunteer units fighting on Ukraine’s side, Parmenov said he could not condemn Russians who join them. In the same stream, he also said he “unequivocally condemns” the actions of units that have shelled civilians in the Belgorod region.

The outlet said the pro-war Telegram channel Zapiski Veterana “A Veteran’s Notes” had previously written that Parmenov allegedly supports the Russian Volunteer Corps and the “Freedom of Russia” Legion. According to Pepel, the channel’s authors had edited the stream, cutting out the part where Parmenov condemns the units for shelling Shebekino.

Pepel launched in the fall of 2022. Its Telegram channel now has 170,000 subscribers, and the outlet covers the war and its aftermath in the Belgorod border region without censorship.

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Update: Voronezh Governor Alexander Gusev said two people were killed and 17 others, including a child, were injured in the attack on Voronezh, according to preliminary data.

Ukrainian forces struck Voronezh with missiles and drones overnight on October 26.

According to the independent Telegram channel Astra, drones hit several apartment buildings and the 25-story Galereya Chizhova business center. Eyewitness video shows damaged buildings and cars burning in parking lots nearby.

Residents of Voronezh told the outlet that air raid sirens did not go off in the city.

Gusev said 117 drones were shot down over the region, including more than 70 over Voronezh itself.

The press service of Russian Railways, Russia’s state rail operator, said a railcar on the Anapa–Moscow train was damaged in a Ukrainian drone attack at the Somovo station in the Voronezh region. Five people were injured, according to preliminary data.

The Ukrainian military last struck Voronezh on October 23, when drones hit the Baltimor military airfield.

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Maria Davydova, a 31-year-old Moscow mother of eight, has been arrested on charges of financing terrorism.

The case was opened in July under Russia’s criminal statute against financing terrorism, and a court authorized her arrest. Davydova was added to Russia’s list of terrorists and extremists.

Citing a source in law enforcement, the Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported in July that investigators believe Davydova transferred about 15,000 rubles to the Islamic State.

Case materials cited by the Russian state news agency TASS on October 26 state that Davydova “is self-employed, has eight dependent children, including young children and minors, is not married, and has a specialized secondary education.”

Russia’s criminal statute under which Davydova is charged allows for a sentence of up to life in prison.

A military court will hear Davydova’s case. The trial’s start date has not been announced.

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At least 15 new towers appeared in October within a 50-kilometer radius (31 miles) of Vladimir Putin’s residence in Valdai, likely intended to carry Pantsir or Tor surface-to-air missile systems, RFE/RL’s Russian service reported, citing satellite images it examined.

1/19v
It is autumn in Valdai, and time for the latest manifestation of Putin’s paranoia.
A new air defense ring of ~16 SHORAD towers so far, was constructed in September.
The total number of towers for the protection of Valdai is now 49 or 50.
⚠️the towers are not yet confirmed! pic.twitter.com/hRlnohwthP

— jembob 🇺🇦 (@jembobineuse) October 25, 2026

A ring of towers appeared south of the residence, facing Ukraine, according to the journalists. One tower in the “outer ring” was built as early as March 2026 on the grounds of the Khotilovo military base, which is connected to the residence by a dedicated railway line that allows travel by train.

According to an OSINT analyst who posts on X under the handle @jembobineuse, Russia now has about 177 towers equipped with short-range air defense systems. About 98 are in and around Moscow, and about 50 are near the residence in Valdai.

Russian authorities claimed that more than 90 Ukrainian drones attempted to attack Putin’s residence in Valdai in late December 2025. Ukraine denies attempting such an attack. The CIA concluded that the target of the Ukrainian drone attack in the Novgorod region was an unspecified “military facility” not located near Putin’s residence.

The first air defense system near Putin’s residence in Valdai appeared in January 2023, and a second arrived in July 2024. By April 2026, satellite images examined by RFE/RL’s Russian service showed that at least 27 air defense units already ringed the residence.

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