Georgii Chentemirov

Arkhangelsk authorities take people’s benefits to support the Ukraine war

The Barents Observer has found the main “sponsors” of the war in the Arkhangelsk region. These turned out to be the socially vulnerable: hundreds of millions of rubles are taken away from medical students, foster children, retired workers and the like to redistributed to soldiers going to Ukraine.
May 07, 2024

Tourist charged with Nazism rehabilitation after criticizing war memorials in Murmansk

The owner of a coffee business from Izhevsk complained that there is nothing to see in Murmansk except places associated with World War II. Ekaterina Mizulina reported him to the police, Governor Andrei Chibis demanded that he leave the region, local residents threw him out of the car on the way to the airport, and it all ended with an apology on camera and a criminal case.
May 03, 2024

Karelian flag spotted in exhibition of “NATO trophies” from Ukraine in Karelia

May 03, 2024

North Russian region of Arkhangelsk spends hundreds of millions on aid to occupiers of Melitopol

A non-profit called the Directorate of Social and Infrastructure Projects is modernizing boiler houses, renovating residential buildings and changing water supply networks in the occupied Ukrainian city. It is all tacitly funded by public money from the Arkhangelsk regional budget.
April 24, 2024

Moscow adds awarded theater producer and play writer to list of ‘extremists and terrorists’

Renowned theater producer Yevgenia Berkovich and scriptwriter Svetlana Petreychuk face up to seven years in jail.
April 16, 2024

"Stop the war. People die on both sides". Kirkenes supports Ukraine two years after war began.

February 24, 2024

Destroyed hopes and thoughts of suicide. How opponents of Putin regime in Russia perceived the death of Aleksei Navalny

The death (more precisely, murder) of Aleksei Navalny has deprived the Russian opposition of an informal leader. However, this tragedy reverberates far beyond politics: some Russians, who wanted change for their country, perceive this as a personal loss. There also are those who still see Navalny as a “Kremlin project” – even after the three hundred days the politician spent in a segregation unit. The Barents Observer spoke with opponents of the Putin regime who remain in Russia about how they feel after the death of the opposition leader and whether they are ready to accept his wife as the new leader of the protest movement.
February 23, 2024

"Pain, disappointment, despair.” Norway’s Kirkenes mourns the death of Russia’s opposition leader

Alexei Navalny died in high security penal colony in northern Russia on Friday. The day before, the exhibition “Faces of Russian Resistance” opened in Kirkenes. The Barents Observer spoke to people who came to pay tribute to the politician after hearing of his death.
February 18, 2024

With the right president "we have a better chance to stay out of war". Video report from a polling station in Arctic Finland.

February 11, 2024

Russians stand in lines and travel hundreds of kilometers to sign up for Nadezhdin, the presidential candidate with an anti-war agenda

The Barents Observer spoke to those collecting signatures for Boris Nadezhdin, the only Russian presidential candidate who promises to end the war in Ukraine and free political prisoners. The police are interested in activists, people travel from other cities to sign for Nadezhdin, and the procedure itself is called a legal way to protest against the war and the Putin regime.
January 25, 2024

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