Georgii Chentemirov

“The situation is catastrophic.” There is no one to work in Russia’s North

Russia, especially its “depressed” regions, is suffering from a labor shortage. The decline in the workforce is evidenced by both employers who are unable to find workers and updated statistical data. Statistics, among other things, show a decrease in the number of men – but the war may not be the only one to blame for the development.
January 10, 2024

Finnish Prime Minister: the border with Russia must remain closed

The head of the Cabinet of Ministers of Finland believes that the opening of the checkpoints on the eastern border still threatens the national security of the country.
January 10, 2024

“Do you need to eliminate law-abiding citizens?” Revelations of the wife of a mobilized soldier

Thousands of Russian women whose husbands have been sent to the war with Ukraine are demanding the return of their loved ones home. They create petitions, write to lawmakers and take to street protests. They are ignored and bullied on social media, while their husbands on the front line receive threats from commanders. Barents Observer spoke with a wife of a mobilized soldier and tried to understand how people in Russia support the state, knowing that it is deceiving them.
January 09, 2024

Bailiffs recruit debtors for war in Ukraine

A resident of Karelia, who owed 169 rubles (€1,70) for utilities, was offered to go to the front.
January 02, 2024

Karelian enlistment officers recruited illegal migrants to the war in Ukraine

People who ended up in a special detention center after an unsuccessful attempt to reach the Finnish border were offered to save themselves from deportation by signing a contract with the Russian Armed Forces.
December 18, 2023

Sociologist Boris Kagarlitsky is fined for video about Crimean Bridge blast. He was reported to police by Ukhta’s “chief pioneer”

The court believed that the video about the “explosive congratulations of the cat Mostik” justified terrorism. The hearing and the verdict took only 24 hours.
December 13, 2023

The ECHR awards compensation for inhumane conditions in Russian prisons

Prisoners are unable to have their basic needs met – from access to fresh air to privacy in the toilet.
December 01, 2023

“Maybe he would be dead already, but it wouldn’t be so disgusting.” Instead of treatment, wounded soldiers from Ukraine war are forced back to the front or persecuted for refusing to fight

Military doctors refuse to diagnose serious injuries among soldiers wounded in Ukraine while their commanders demand that they continue to serve, despite their poor physical condition. The Barents Observer tells the stories of two fighters from the Murmansk region who are now in hospital while their wives are trying to save their husbands from war and criminal prosecution.
November 24, 2023

FSB arranges transport to the border, motel in Kandalaksha claims

"Our services came and picked them up,” a receptionist with the motel in Kandalaksha said when called by the Barents Observer on Tuesday. A few hours later, 41 migrants crossed the border to Finish Lapland at Salla checkpoint.
November 21, 2023

He killed his drinking buddy with a stool and slept with a teenager. A school in the North Russian region of Komi will keep medals of the criminal turned “hero of the Special Military Operation”

Sergei Durkin, a native of the village of Ust-Tsilma in Komi, spent many years behind bars. From prison, he was recruited to fight in Ukraine where he was killed on November 9, 2022. A year later, the house he had lived in was decorated with a memorial plaque, while his awards, including those from the Wagner paramilitary group, were taken to a local school. The Barents Observer spoke with the soldier's sister and with the principal of the school where they intend to keep Durkin's awards, regardless of his past.
November 20, 2023

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