Přátelé svobodného Ruska

06/06/2026

Důrazně se skupinou Přátelé svobodného Ruska odsuzujeme zařazení hnutí Memorial, všech jeho poboček a dalších spřízněných entit na seznam extrémistických organizací.

Na jeho obhajobě jsme ještě na konci roku 2021 iniciovali vznik celé naší iniciativy a v průběhu let toto výrazné občanské hnutí různými způsoby podporovali.

Celá záležitost je ukázkou, jak hluboko kremelský režim Vladimira Putina klesl při své touze o likvidaci kritických hlasů jasně pojmenovávajících problémy dnešního Ruska, včetně snahy o zahlazení problematických míst své historie.

https://www.ceskenoviny.cz/zpravy/tass-rusko-zaradilo-na-seznam-extremistu-memorial-vcetne-jeho-ceske-pobocky/2835330?utm_campaign=hp_box&utm_medium=seznam_distribuce&utm_source=www.seznam.cz

Via ČTK

Moskva - Ruské ministerstvo spravedlnosti zařadilo na svůj seznam extremistických organizací hnutí na ochranu lidských práv Memorial včetně jeho české pobočky. Informovala o tom dnes ruská státní tisková agentura TASS. Sdružení, které je nositelem Nobelovy ceny míru, na svém we...

31/05/2026

For more than three years, Russian drones and drone debris have repeatedly entered Romanian territory during attacks against Ukraine. Previous incidents largely involved airspace violations, debris fields, or uninhabited areas.

This time, however, a residential apartment building in Galați was hit, injuring civilians and forcing residents to evacuate.

Viewed in isolation, the incident can easily be dismissed as an unfortunate exception. Nevertheless, these exceptions have a tendency to repeat themselves. First Poland, now Romania. The more frequently they occur, the harder it becomes to treat them entirely in isolation from one another.

European leaders often describe Russia’s war against Ukraine as one of the central security challenges facing the continent. At the same time, incidents beyond Ukraine’s borders often continue to be treated as isolated occurrences rather than as part of that broader challenge.

Whether the drone reached Romania because of technical malfunction, navigational error, negligence, or even malign intent may ultimately be less important than the fact that it happened at all. Every such incident exposes civilians in neighboring states to risks they neither chose nor created, while gradually normalizing developments that would have been considered unthinkable only a few years ago.

A Russian explosive drone has now injured civilians inside a NATO and EU member state.

For the residents of Galați, the incident was not primarily a question of deterrence, proportionality, or alliance credibility.

It was a Russian drone hitting their apartment building.

https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2026/05/29/explosive-laden-russian-drone-hits-residential-building-in-romania-authorities-say

https://www.dw.com/en/russian-drone-crashes-into-romania-apartment-building/a-77338487

https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2026/05/29/russian-drone-hits-apartment-building-in-romania_6753929_4.html

https://meduza.io/en/news/2026/05/29/russian-drone-crosses-into-romania-crashes-on-residential-building-in-gala-i

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvgzyp93jq1o

People have just begun returning to check on their homes in the block that was hit early on Friday morning.

27/05/2026

Russia’s war is no longer confined to the battlefield.

It is returning home - in the form of knives, fists, torture, and acid burns inflicted on women.

This week in Saint Petersburg, a 26-year-old woman was ambushed at the entrance to her own home by her former partner, a veteran of the war in Ukraine. According to Russian media reports, he arrived armed with a pistol, pepper spray, a knife, and a container of nitric acid. He sprayed her in the face with acid, stabbed her repeatedly, and left her critically injured.

This is not an isolated incident.

Independent Russian journalists and human rights groups have been documenting for months how the war is fueling an explosion of gendered violence inside Russia itself. Women are being beaten, mutilated, murdered, and terrorized by men returning from the front with severe trauma, combat normalization, and - most dangerously - a growing sense of impunity.

And the Russian state is actively enabling it.

State propagandists have publicly instructed women to “understand” violent veterans, “kiss their feet,” and tolerate domestic abuse as the price of patriotism. Courts increasingly treat participation in the war as a mitigating circumstance for violent crimes. Men accused or convicted of assault can avoid prison by signing military contracts.

The result is a grotesque state-sponsored cycle:

1) domestic violence => 2) prosecution => 3) volunteering for war => 4) suspension of charges or pardoning => 5) deployment to Ukraine => 6) return from the front => 7) renewed domestic violence against women => etc.

The Kremlin has effectively transformed the war into a laundering mechanism for violent men.

Russia already decriminalized many forms of domestic violence in 2017. Now the war has militarized that culture of impunity even further. The message sent to women is brutally clear: your safety matters less than the state’s need for soldiers.

The war does not end when soldiers come home.

For many Russian women, that is precisely where it begins.

https://novayagazeta.eu/articles/2026/05/24/vernuvshiisia-s-voiny-peterburzhets-iz-revnosti-oblil-byvshuiu-devushku-kislotoi-i-izrezal-nozhom-news

https://novayagazeta.eu/articles/2026/01/26/dom-v-kotoryi-prishla-voina

https://ru.euronews.com/2026/04/23/russia-home-violence-resurge-to-its-max

https://meduza.io/en/feature/2024/05/31/mitigating-factors

https://novayagazeta.eu/en/articles/2025/04/29/russian-tv-propagandist-tells-wives-of-returning-war-veterans-to-kiss-their-feet-and-accept-domestic-violence-en-news

NewsSocietyRussian TV propagandist tells wives of returning war veterans to ‘kiss their feet’ and accept domestic violenceNovaya Gazeta EuropeApril 29, 2025A presenter on a flagship Russian TV propaganda show has said on air that the wives of veterans of the war in Ukraine should kiss their husb...

23/05/2026

In Saint Petersburg, 84-year-old Siege of Leningrad survivor Lyudmila Vasilyeva continues to appear at anti-war protests despite repeated detentions and pressure from the authorities.

Born in 1941, she survived the blockade of Leningrad - one of the greatest human catastrophes of the Second World War and one of the central symbols of sacrifice and heroism in official Russian memory politics. Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, however, she has repeatedly appeared with anti-war signs calling for an end to the violence and bloodshed.

There is a certain irony in this image. A woman belonging to the generation that Soviet, and later Russian, official memory culture elevated as the generation of wartime survivors and heroes now finds herself confronted by police for publicly opposing war.

For many people who actually lived through the war, Victory Day was historically associated less with triumphalism than with the phrase “Лишь бы не было войны” - “If only there were no war.” The memory of war often carried a deeply somber dimension shaped by loss, hunger, destruction, and personal trauma.

Vasilyeva’s position therefore appears less detached from historical memory than contemporary official narratives sometimes suggest. On the contrary, her anti-war stance seems rooted precisely in the lived experience that the Russian state itself constantly invokes symbolically.

This creates a certain tension within contemporary Russian memory politics: one of the surviving witnesses of the historical experience on which the official narrative rests arrives at political conclusions that increasingly place her in conflict with the state itself.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvgv92gv1xwo

https://novayagazeta.eu/articles/2025/12/01/russian-pensioner-released-without-charge-after-solo-anti-war-picket-in-st-petersburg-en-news

NewsPoliticsRussian pensioner released without charge after solo anti-war picket in St. PetersburgNovaya Gazeta EuropeDecember 1, 2025An 84-year-old St. Petersburg activist who was taken into custody after she staged a solo anti-war protest outside the Hermitage on Sunday, was released from police c...

22/05/2026

From “Drug Addicts” to “Mr. Zelensky”: A Small but Potentially Revealing Shift in Kremlin Rhetoric

During the early phase of Russia’s full-scale invasion, Kremlin rhetoric routinely described the Ukrainian leadership as a “junta”, “neo-Nazis”, or even a “gang of drug addicts”. This language was not simply propagandistic or emotional in nature - it served a political function: to delegitimize the Ukrainian government and deny it the status of a legitimate negotiating counterpart altogether.

Against this background, Putin’s recent reference to “Mr. Zelensky” is noteworthy. On its own, the shift should not be overstated - Russia’s broader political and military objectives do not appear to have fundamentally changed. At the same time, rhetoric in highly centralized systems is rarely entirely accidental, particularly during wartime.

What makes the change interesting is less the formulation itself than the political logic surrounding it. A rhetoric centered around the idea of an illegitimate “regime” leaves very limited room for negotiations or political compromise. More formal language, by contrast, potentially creates space for direct talks without requiring an explicit revision of previous narratives.

This does not necessarily indicate moderation or a genuine readiness for peace. The war itself remains fundamentally unchanged. Nevertheless, changes in rhetoric can still reflect changing political constraints, expectations, or calculations behind the scenes - especially in systems where public language is tightly managed and politically instrumentalized.

In that sense, the shift may reflect a gradual adaptation to realities that have become increasingly difficult to ignore: a prolonged war, the absence of decisive victory, military and economic attrition, and the need to preserve a certain degree of strategic flexibility. Some of the assumptions and certainties present at the beginning of the invasion may simply be becoming harder to sustain over time.

Vladimir Putin has said he will only meet Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky once a lasting peace deal is agreed as he claimed the conflict is “coming to an...

18/05/2026

Přímo strašné zprávy z Moskvy, kde režim diktátora Vladimira Putina pokračuje nejen v masakrování Ukrajinců, ale také vnitřních represích, které se v poslední době ještě znitenzivňují.

Fyzicky i psychicky a morálně to dopadá na celý národ.

Velmi nás to mrzí :(

Via Gulag.cz

Předevčírem 13. května v Moskvě spáchala sebevraždu 80letá obhájkyně lidských práv Nina Litvinova ⚫️ Hlavním důvodem jejího rozhodnutí byl pocit zoufalství z války proti Ukrajině a represí uvnitř samotného Ruska.

▪️ Nina Litvinova byla sestrou 85letého Pavla Litvinova, jediného dosud žijícího účastníka slavné demonstrace na Rudém náměstí z 25. srpna 1968 proti invazi do Československa.

▪️ Příbuzní Niny Litvinovy dnes 15. května zveřejnili úryvek z jejího posledního dopisu ⤵️

💬 „Mám vás všechny ráda a myslím na vás. Ale musím odejít, život je pro mě nesnesitelný – od té doby, co Putin napadl Ukrajinu, zabíjí nevinné lidi a u nás neustále posílá do vězení tisíce lidí, kteří tam trpí a umírají jen za to, že jsou proti válce a proti zabíjení. Nemohu jim nijak pomoci. Snažila jsem se, ale došly mi síly a ve dne v noci trpím svou bezmocí. Stydím se, ale vzdala jsem to. Prosím, odpusťte mi.“

▪️ Nina Litvinova se po celý život angažovala v lidskoprávním hnutí a aktivně pomáhala jak sovětským disidentům, tak později i ruským politickým vězňům.

▪️ Nikdy netoužila po slávě, téměř neposkytovala rozhovory médiím a vědomě zůstávala ve stínu svého bratra i dalších známých disidentů.

▪️ Její strategií byla tichá, téměř „neviditelná“ každodenní podpora nespravedlivě pronásledovaných lidí. Těm pomáhala všemi dostupnými prostředky – navštěvovala soudní procesy, psala dopisy, nakupovala potraviny a dělala mnoho dalších věcí.

🕊️ Nina Litvinova je další nevinnou obětí Putinova režimu. Její odkaz nesmí být zapomenut!

📷 Nina Litvinova s plakátem „Ne válce s Ukrajinou“ v centru Moskvy. Zdroj: sociální sítě

13/05/2026

S Přátelé svobodného Ruska rezolutně odsuzujeme kriminalizaci ruských nezávislých médií a jejích představitelů, včetně šéfredaktora Телеканал Дождь Tichona Dzjadka, který od ruského "soudu" dostal 8 let trestanecké kolonie za šíření "lživých informací" o ruské armádě a jejích zločinech na Ukrajině.

Jsou to právě ruská média, která pomáhají tyto zločiny odhalovat a informovat o průběhu ruské agrese proti Ukrajině.

Více informací v článku Seznam Zprávy níže:

https://www.seznamzpravy.cz/clanek/zahranicni-rusky-soud-vymeril-sefredaktorovi-stanice-dozd-osm-let-za-zpravy-o-buci-305988 =0&dop_source_zone_name=zpravy.sznhp.box&source=hp&seq_no=4&utm_campaign=&utm_medium=z-boxiku&utm_source=www.seznam.cz

11/05/2026

A recent investigation by IStories/Meduza points to growing paranoia and tension inside the Kremlin itself.

According to European intelligence sources cited in the report, Vladimir Putin increasingly fears not only external threats, but also the possibility of an assassination attempt or even a coup involving parts of the Russian elite. Security measures around the Russian leadership have reportedly been tightened significantly in recent months - including reinforced air defence around Moscow, expanded personal protection, stricter internal controls, and growing surveillance within the political and security apparatus itself.

What is particularly striking is the direction of this growing fear. The regime’s attention appears to be shifting increasingly inward. The main source of anxiety no longer seems to be limited to NATO, Ukraine, or the “collective West”, but potentially Russia’s own elite circles, security structures, and political apparatus. The picture that emerges is one of growing mistrust, fragmentation, and latent fear at the very center of the system.

This broader atmosphere may also help explain Russia’s recently announced “Victory Day ceasefire”. The proposal may reflect not only political messaging, but also concerns surrounding the security of the Victory Parade itself - one of the central symbolic events of the Russian political system. The very fact that such measures appear necessary could itself be interpreted as a sign of growing nervousness about the regime’s ability to fully guarantee security even in the Russian capital. In that sense, the ceasefire proposal may also be linked to a desire to avoid any public demonstration of vulnerability or weakness during one of the Kremlin’s most important political spectacles.

Authoritarian systems often appear strongest externally precisely when internal confidence is already eroding. Expanding security measures, growing internal surveillance, and visible nervousness at the top are not necessarily signs of stability - they can also indicate a system becoming increasingly preoccupied with its own internal vulnerabilities.“

29/04/2026

There is something symbolic in how rituals change under pressure.

For decades, Russia’s May 9 Victory Day parade has been a performance of power - tanks on Red Square, a display of military strength. This year, that image is quietly shifting.

The Kremlin says the scaled-down 2026 parade is due to Ukrainian attacks and the fact that the date is “not a jubilee.” But the explanation feels secondary. What matters is the change itself.

For the first time since the full-scale invasion, the parade will reportedly proceed without military hardware.

Officially, it’s about “operational conditions.” In reality, it points to something more: vulnerability.

Victory Day has long linked past and present, reinforcing a narrative of strength. But when current events begin to reshape even this ritual, the message changes.

The absence of equipment speaks louder than its presence.

It suggests that the war is no longer distant enough to keep appearances intact - and that reality is beginning to break through even the most controlled symbols.

Решение провести Парад на 9 мая в «усеченном формате» принято из-за «оперативной обстановки», заявил журналистам пресс-секретарь президента России Дмитрий Песков....

12/12/2025

Na začátku tohoto týdne jsme s Přátelé svobodného Ruska uskutečnili další uzavřenou akci v Poslanecká sněmovna Parlamentu České republiky.

Tentokrát jsme řešili situaci v ruských regionech, kde dochází nejen k masivním represím, ale také ekonomické deprivaci a likvidaci místní identity a všech zbývajících forem autonomie.

Své nám o tom přišly říct dvě prodemokratické aktivistky a dlouholeté bojovnice proti režimu Vladimira Putina.

Děkujeme paní poslankyni Kateřině Demetrashvili za milé pozvání a záštitu nad tímto meetingem :-)