In August last year, a group of Iranian nuclear scientists flew to Moscow, ostensibly as consultants.

It was a cover story. The Iranians were traveling on diplomatic service passports, some sequentially numbered and issued on the same day just weeks before the trip took place. The delegation was closely linked to Iran's SPND, or the Organisation of Defensive Innovation and Research. This secretive military research unit has been described by the US government as “the direct successor organisation to Iran’s pre-2004 nuclear weapons program.”

It’s time for the annual Putin presser and phone-in, combined into one – the first time he’s done it since the invasion of Ukraine.

Pavel Zarubin is showing off a huge pile of questions supposedly sent in by ordinary Russians. Expect this to be even more stage-managed than usual Zarubin, the Swiftie-esque Putin fanboy who is moderating this, says some questions have been resolved already. "In the morning I complained I hadn't been paid my salary, and by the evening I got it!", one ordinary Russian supposedly said.

As their yacht bobbed on the Mediterranean, the microchip executive snapped a picture of his Russian partner asleep on the deck.

He only knew the Russian by his first name, Maxim. But he knew Maxim was using a shadowy network to get the chips for the Russian defense industry. Marc Rocchi’s qcompany Ommic desperately needed Maxim’s business to stay afloat. A few months earlier Rocchi had flown to Greece to hand-deliver Maxim 230 microchips — €45,000 worth. Maxim had, at one point, offered Rocchi “cash and women” for more, though he declined.

Insane footage on Russian social media from Makhachkala in the North Caucasus region, where there have been several anti-Semitic protests this weekend.

A crowd of people, some with Palestinian flags, broke into the airport in search of passengers on a flight from Tel Aviv. Some of them tried to storm the plane, per Izvestia t.me/izvestia/149496

Putin is going to make a “number of important statements” this evening, per the Kremlin. t.me/rt_russian/163… Now Lukashenko’s press service says:

“⁉️⁉️⁉️ So many questions, versions, and suppositions…

Number One will TELL EVERYTHING and ANSWER them all. Very soon!

Follow the news!🔥🔥🔥”

I wish I were making this up t.me/pul_1/9281

🚨 Belarus says it has convinced Prigozhin to stand down his armed uprising.

Lukashenko spent "the entire day" negotiating with Prigozhin after "agreeing on joint actions" with Putin and "additionally clarifying the situation through his own channels."

t.me/pul_1/9275 No immediate confirmation from the Kremlin or Prigozhin.

“He added too much salt and pepper. What else do you expect from a chef?”

How Yevgeny Prigozhin went from Russia's favorite secret weapon to a Frankenstein's monster threatening the state – and how Putin's the one to blame.

ft.com/content/6f520b… For more on Prigozhin, may I humbly directly you to a few pieces, such as:

This story with @ChristopherJM @SameralAtrush and @felschwartz about how Prigozhin cobbled together a coalition against Russia's army, but then saw his star begin to wane

ft.com/content/ce9723…

Vladimir Putin has vowed to crush an armed uprising led by his former caterer, Yevgeny Prigozhin, that he says risks ruining his invasion of Ukraine and destroying the Russian state.

All the latest here, with comrades @NastyaStognei and @alexebarker

ft.com/content/a74409… @NastyaStognei @alexebarker We'll have all the developments, and reaction from around the world, with ace Moscow bureau colleagues @polinaivanovva and @NastyaStognei alongside the FT's global network of reporters. Here's our live blog:

ft.com/content/9cd093…

Putin is about to address the nation, the Kremlin says. t.me/rian_ru/206708 Meanwhile on state TV: dog grooming tips! There is also a groovy harmonica soundtrack

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov says Putin is aware of Wagner's Yevgeny Prigozhin basically declaring a coup against the army and claims "all the necessary measures are being taken." Whatever those are.

t.me/rian_ru/206666 Now the FSB appears to say Prigozhin is indeed launching a coup.

"In response to these statements, the FSB of Russia has launched a criminal case over calls for an armed uprising. We demand to stop these unlawful actions at once."

t.me/rian_ru/206667

The enormous Kakhovka dam, which spans frontlines across the Dnipro river in southern Ukraine, has been blown up.

The flooding could submerge areas downstream, putting parts of Kherson (controlled by Ukraine) and the nearby Zaporizhzhiya power plant (held by Russia) at risk. Flooding the area could also complicate plans for Ukraine's expected counteroffensive in the region. Ukraine accused Russia of mining the dam for these purposes last year. Zelensky has called an emergency security council meeting.

https://twitter.com/OleksiyDanilov/status/1665940121105977345

Russian media says Ukraine used at least 32 drones in a strike on Moscow this morning in possible payback for heavy drone and missile strikes on Kyiv.

All but 3 of them were shot down, per cop-aligned Telegram channel Shot – this one over Rublyovka, the home of Russia's elite Here's a downed drone reportedly blowing up in a field outside Moscow.

“If the goal of the assault was to stress out the population, then the fact of Ukrainian drones appearing in the skies over Moscow has done enough already,” wrote popular pro-war blogger Rybar

Shocked by the horrifying news of Russia's absurd espionage charges against @evangershkovich, an excellent reporter and friend.

Evan is accredited by Russia's MFA and was simply doing his job. Journalism is not a crime. Russia should release him at once.
ft.com/content/b774ca… @evangershkovich Russia's MFA says: “Unfortunately, this is not the first time a journalistic visa and accreditation are used by foreigners to cover up activities that are not journalism. This is not the first time a well-known westerner has been caught red-handed.”

t.me/MariaVladimiro…

Pomp and circumstance in the Kremlin as Putin's talks with Xi get underway. Putin says his talks with Xi were “successful” and “held in a constructive atmosphere.” But judging by his vague statement they haven’t agreed on much.

The Kremlin says Vladimir Putin visited Mariupol, the Ukrainian city Russia’s invading army razed to the ground, overnight by helicopter.

This is a show of defiance after the ICC arrest warrant – Ukraine says 1,000 of the 14,700 children Russia abducted are from Mariupol. Here Putin is apparently driving around Mariupol semi-incognito as Marat Khusnullin, a senior official in charge of construction and redevelopment, tells him about Russia’s efforts to rebuild what its army destroyed.

“He has three advisers. Ivan the Terrible. Peter the Great. And Catherine the Great.”

On the imperial hubris and intelligence failures that led Putin into Ukraine – and his determination to see the invasion through.

with @felschwartz and @ChristopherJM
ft.com/content/800025… @felschwartz @ChristopherJM With the scale of the disaster clear, Putin is seeking new rationales to justify the war.

“He tells people close to him, ‘It turns out we were completely unprepared. But it’s good that we found out about it this way, rather than when Nato invades us’.”

ft.com/content/800025…

Invasionpalooza is underway in Moscow's Luzhniki stadium, the site of the 2018 World Cup final, to mark the first anniversary of Russia's war in Ukraine.

Mafia-linked crooner Grigory Leps, seen here, was only just recently taken off the US sanctions list In a sign of how the Kremlin believes spontaneous public outbursts are impossible, you couldn't even buy tickets for this concert.

Per Russian media, state employees and students were paid or forced to go. They shut the doors to stop them leaving before Putin's speech at the end

Putin's state-of-the-union address on the war in Ukraine is underway.

He starts by insisting his decision to invade a year ago was justified. "Step by step, we will accomplish all our tasks carefully and consistently." Putin says it's the west's fault he invaded Ukraine, because the US and Europe spent years supporting Kyiv.

"Western elites have become a symbol of total, unprincipled lies to their own people," he says.

"They're the ones who started the war. We are using force to stop it."

Russia's foreign ministry confirms the US and Moscow have swapped basketball star Brittney Griner for Viktor Bout, a notorious convicted arms trafficker.

Paul Whelan, another American languishing in Russian prison, was not part of the deal.

t.me/rian_ru/188057 "Washington categorically refused dialogue on including the Russian in the exchange," the Russian foreign ministry says of Viktor Bout. "But Russia nonetheless continued to actively work for our countryman to be freed."

t.me/MID_Russia/245…

Latvia's media regulator says it is revoking @tvrain's broadcast license because of "threats to national security and social order."

Russia's only independent news channel set up in Riga just this summer to much fanfare. But the welcome wore out quickly.

https://twitter.com/Ivars_Abolins/status/1600016821142233088

@tvrain This will take TV Rain off cable networks, but they'll still continue to broadcast on YouTube.

"We are continuing to work and consider all the accusations against us unfair and absurd," the channel says.

https://twitter.com/tvrain/status/1600047429625126912

The Russian foreign ministry says this is a "top-class fake."

"Sergei Viktorovich and I are reading the news in Indonesia and can't believe our eyes: turns out, he's been hospitalized 😹," his spox Maria Zakharova writes

t.me/MariaVladimiro…

https://twitter.com/AP/status/1592082594946248704

yes she really did use the cat emoji