Eldar Marchenko, a teacher at a business management school who dabbles in political commentary, was sentenced to 16 years in prison earlier this year on charges of terrorism. His case was examined by the Memorial Human Rights Defense Center, whose experts concluded that the charges were likely fabricated by Russian security services.
Marchenko was apparently in the wrong place at the wrong time in the summer of 2023, when he traveled to Kursk on business with the aid of a GPS navigator. A year later, authorities accused him of conspiring with a group of Ukrainians to orchestrate a drone attack on an aerodrome in the southern city. But no evidence was presented at his trial tying him to the drones or any other people in Kursk.
The drones were only used for surveillance, rather than attacking the aerodrome, and the notion that he was in Kursk to use his GPS navigational system to “point” to the aerodrome was nonsensical, as the site is clearly visible on Google Maps.
Marchenko, who accused the security services of torturing a “confession” out of him while he was being held in detention, has two sons, one of whom is a teenager. At 53, being given a 16-year sentence could well mean he will not come out of prison alive. He delivered this speech in the courtroom during the “last word” allowed to Russians on trial, one of the last traditions of free speech in the country. Below is the translation of his words, published in Russian on the Telegram channel of the Pervy Otdel human rights group. (t.me/deptone)
Esteemed court, during the investigation, no one had asked me any questions regarding my view of terrorism. The Russian Federation, a descendant of the Soviet Union, views terrorists with great respect. City streets and even entire oblasts bear their names. The country’s leaders watch military parades from atop the tomb of one of the world’s best-known terrorists, the brother of the tsar-killer (Alexander) Ulyanov.[1]
I personally don’t share their enthusiasm, and, in the current historical context, find terrorism pointless. This is why. What is the goal of terror? By definition, terror is directed against civilians, but its goal is to put pressure on those in power. The process is supposed to work as follows: responsible citizens concerned about the country’s wellbeing observe that the government cannot ensure security and enact or try to enact a change in government, because keeping people safe from external threats is the state’s primary function, and this function makes the state possible and desired.
However, does this mechanism work in Russia? To answer this question, I will tell you the story of Marcus. Marcus is a young American who, as is very common in US universities, tries to be of use to the global community. Despite what many Russians think, there are people who feel they are responsible for every injustice they observe, due to their internal ethical convictions, not because it’s their job or something they do for money. FSB operatives would label him an agent. However, he was just an ordinary student who reacted to the news at the beginning of the war about Russians who were fleeing mobilization by going abroad. Marcus reached out to me, seeing me as someone who might enjoy a degree of authority among well-heeled business school students. He suggested that I organize a sort of picnic that could be used to raise funds for Russians who have fled mobilization.
After I stopped laughing, I had to explain to Marcus that Russian students could care less about the troubles of some compatriots they have no personal connectiuon to, in fact, they could care less about the public good as a whole, including the fate of the country. To make my case, I cited the sardonic curiosity and total indifference exhibited by Russians when Prigozhin’s troops passed through their cities en route to Moscow. A security-services agent would know these basic facts about Russian social consciousness, but the ordinary American Marcus could not comprehend why his idea was so ridiculous. I think he must have been very hurt by my reaction, and we have not spoken since.
To come back to the topic of terror. Terror against Russian civilians is doomed to failure for the same reasons Marcus’s picnic was. For terror to be effective, you need Russian civilians to actually care about how the government’s actions will impact strangers that happen to be their compatriots. This logic does not work here, so terror has zero chance in Russia. Using the opportunity of speaking in public, I would like to address the young people who might be ideologically motivated to use terror tactics in the way that members of the Narodnaya Volya [People’s Will] used it in the second half of the nineteenth century. No matter what you destroy or burn down, you will only harm yourself. This is not America or Imperial Russia. We are protected by a shield of social apathy and aloofness. Under usual circumstances, attacking unarmed people is unethical. But in our case, it is also pointless. There is no higher purpose to justify shameful actions, especially if they don’t serve this purpose at all. The only goal that this terror achieves is to further fortify totalitarian power. So, committing terrorism in Russia only makes sense if you’re an idiot or an enemy of freedom in Russia.
To wrap up, a few words about justice. People who have followed my trial know how many individuals, including judges, had to go against their principles just to keep me in detention for 40 days prior to coming up with charges. But here, in the military tribunal, I suddenly came across radically different procedures. The court did everything possible to identify what actually happened in Kursk. Several experts were questioned, including those working at the Kursk aerodrome. Their testimonies were enough to demonstrate the utter senselessness of what I’m being charged with doing. In brief, their testimony was basically that “it doesn’t work that way.” The volumes contained in my case file exemplify the careful and thorough work of the court’s investigation.
Nevertheless, I have no doubt that I will be sentenced to a long time behind bars. The FSB promised this in the very beginning, before the probe was launched. And they have every means at their disposal to keep their word, come what may.
I am thankful that I have been put in prison. Here I have come to understand what it means to think about the collective good every minute. In one 10-man cell at the Fourth Central Jailhouse I have seen more bravery, honor, and care for one another than in many other places where I have lived and worked.
I am thankful to this court for treating this process professionally and, Your Honor, I hope you will live to see a day when you can judge without taking people in balaclavas into consideration, relying solely on the law and your conscience.
[1] A reference to Lenin’s Tomb on Red Square.
«50 засоров в день — это результат безответственности жителей. В прямом смысле в унитаз спускают что ни попадя. Научились пользоваться смартфонами, советуются с искусственным интеллектом каждую минуту, а с унитазом... к сожалению, проблема»
“Fifty clogged pipes a day is an illustration of residents’ lack of responsibility. They are flushing literally anything and everything down the toilet. They have learned to use smartphones, they consult with AI every minute, and yet the toilet… the toilet is unfortunately a problem.”
tinyurl.com/rl2504-toilet
«Умножитель русских земель. Казанское ханство, Астраханское ханство. Это миссионерство православное. Символ русского мира, динамика, где-то суровое, в хорошем смысле агрессивное движение вперед. Мощный богатырь, самодержец, завоеватель. Не вправо, не влево, а вперед»
“A multiplier of Russian lands. The Kazan Khanate, the Astrakhan Khanate. This is Orthodox missionary work. A symbol of the Russian world, dynamism, perhaps harsh, but aggressive movement forward in the most positive manner. A powerful hero, an autocrat, a conqueror. Not right or left, but forward.”
tinyurl.com/rl2504-ivan
Russian scientists have been tasked with dusting off an old plan to reroute Siberia’s Ob River to Central Asia, a region increasingly suffering from water scarcity and associated environmental problems.
In the Soviet era, rerouting rivers from the Russian North to arid Uzbekistan was a grand project seen as a way to replenish the Aral and Caspian Seas and supply irrigation to agricultural lands. The massive scale of this endeavor foresaw use of nuclear explosions as part of the rerouting. The “project of the century” would have created a new canal 2550 kilometers long and up to 300 meters wide, costing some R32.8 billion (at the current exchange rate, a mere $4.5 billion).
Opposition to the scheme cited forecasts of an Arctic Ocean that would be saltier and cooler due to the decreased fresh water supply. The idea was dropped eventually in the 1980s, for environmental and, more likely, economic reasons. It was later revived in 2000. Currently, the idea is being touted from inside the Russian Academy of Sciences itself, which plans to ask for funding in order to look into an updated project (envisioned as a closed pipeline rather than a canal), once again to understand its potential wide-ranging effects.
tinyurl.com/rl2504-ob
The Climate Change Performance Index, a study ranking countries for their climate change policies and progress, has put Russia near the bottom of its list, in 64th place out of 67, and exactly one spot above the United States. No country achieved a “very high rating,” leaving the first three slots empty and placing Denmark as the highest-rated country, in the fourth slot, followed by the United Kingdom.
tinyurl.com/rl2504-climate
66% of Russians say they like to read, which is up from 48% in 2014.
Of people who enjoy reading, 71% say they usually read hardcopy books, 40% use their phones, and 13% is the percentage for both computer screen and tablet readers. 61% prefer fiction, while 36% say they like self-help or practical books about hobbies. 28% like reading about history, art, and culture. 27% read educational and professional literature. 21% read non-fiction and 13% read religious or philosophic literature. Women are more likely to be into reading than men (71% vs. 58%). 29% of readers say they read every day, while 26% say they never read.
tinyurl.com/rl2504-reading
Proekt, a website known for publishing journalistic investigations into Russia’s ruling class, has been publishing articles for seven years, and during that time Google received 1,351 demands that Proekt articles be deleted. Editor-in-chief Roman Badanin wrote in a recent editorial that the desire of Russia’s rich and powerful to effectively erase history is pervasive and particularly consequential in the twenty-first century.
tinyurl.com/rl2504-rich
Only 5% of taxi drivers in Russia plan to switch to Russian cars next year, as required by a new law. 42% said they will keep working in their current car; 24% plan to use a taxi company car; and the rest said they will probably stop working.
The new law, which requires taxi drivers to use only registered, Russian-made vehicles, goes into effect in March 2026. Russia currently has some 286,000 taxi companies (many are sole proprietors) driving some 1.17 million cars. Only six brands are listed in the register of “approved” cars: Lada, UAZ, Sollers, Evolute, Voyah and Moskvich.
tinyurl.com/rl2504-taxi
Soju, the Korean spirit made from rice, has been skyrocketing in popularity in Russia, with sales growing by 105% year on year this fall. This was partly due to the growing popularity of lower alcohol drinks (soju is typically around 20%) and Asian culture, as well as the launching of local production in Russian factories, which brought prices down.
tinyurl.com/rl2504-soju
Arctic cities and towns in Murmansk Oblast have experienced a demographic collapse, unprecedented even in comparison with the population losses of COVID-19. Settlements important for the Northern Fleet, upon which Russia is relying in its plan for Arctic development, have been shrinking, according to statistics agency data.
Severomorsk, the main city in the area, has declined 19%, from 55,000 residents to about 44,486, and the villages of Safonovo, Polyarny, Gadzhiyevo, Snezhnogorsk and Vidyaevo all shrank by around 25% on average. This is a much greater decrease than the 10% decline for Murmansk Oblast as a whole. The regional news website Chronicles.Media said experts struggle to explain the trend.
tinyurl.com/rl2504-murmansk
In 2024, 963 women died from domestic violence in Russia, according to data provided by the Russian government to the UN. This is 47% of all women who were killed in the country that year, and the highest number since 2010. Partly, this increase is due to more detailed data filed by the police, who now include relationship status between victim and perpetrator.
tinyurl.com/rl2504-violence
In 2024, over 1.4 million Russians experienced poor health due to a lack of clean water, and some 10,800 died. Approximately every 9th person in Russia lacks access to clean drinking water, though the number of Russians with access has been growing, reaching 88.7%.
In terms of fatalities, polluted water is the number one environmental cause of death in Russia. The worst-affected regions are in the Volga and Ob river basins, where 56% of cases of freshwater pollution were registered, according to Rosgidromet, Russia’s hydrometeorology and environmental monitoring agency.
tinyurl.com/rl2504-water
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