What a Year…

First, let me wish all of you a happy 2025. May this be a better year than some of us fear? That out of the way, 2024 was not a good year for Russia. So let’s start with this summary via Important Stories:

2024 has become a year that I don’t even want to sum up

👉 The war has been going on for almost three years , but hopes for at least a truce have not come true. Russia has continued to strike Ukrainian cities all year. But the war has also come to Russian territory — the Ukrainian Armed Forces hold several districts in the Kursk region.

👉 On February 16, Alexei Navalny died at the age of 48 in the Polar Wolf penal colony. In total , at least 15 political prisoners died in 2024. The number of political prisoners continues to grow — there were almost 640 such defendants in a year. Rosfinmonitoring added 3,152 people to its list of “terrorists and extremists”, including 161 minors.

👉 In March, Putin’s next “election” took place, in which he “gained” a record number of votes : more than 76 million in absolute terms and 87.28% in relative terms.

👉 Russian women were forced to give birth all year, even by rapists — in many regions, abortions were effectively banned, and officials demanded that they “give birth while the maternity hospital is working.”

👉 The economy is on the verge of…