Meduza selection 20 – 26 February: How many fighters Russia's military is really losing in Ukraine

The Russian and English-language portal Meduza is one of the most important independent Russian media. In January 2023, Meduza was completely banned in Russia . But Meduza continues to raise its voice against the war - from exile. Since March 1, 2023, taz has been presenting a weekly selection of what Meduza is currently reporting on every Wednesday at taz.de/meduza. The project is funded by the taz Panter Foundation .

Between February 20 and 26, 2025, Meduza reported on the following topics, among others:

Officials in St. Petersburg are planning to use surveillance cameras to determine people's ethnic origins. This will then be used to "monitor" migrants. Human rights activists are criticizing the approach and warning that this will fuel xenophobia and discrimination. But apart from that, the authorities are probably facing another problem: It is unclear how this technology is supposed to work at all, Meduza reports in English.

Oleg Kapitanov, head of the relevant committee of the city administration, says that a contract has already been signed to purchase software licenses for "ethnic recognition technology". This is to be installed on 8,000 cameras. According to the Kommersant newspaper, the contract is worth more than 38 million rubles (430,000 US dollars).

Russian propagandist Alexander Dugin wants to change the way political science is taught in Russian universities. Meduza has obtained access to a 240-page series of lectures on political science, a 76-page teaching plan and a shorter presentation for the Russian Ministry of Science - all from Dugin's team. (English text)

According to the lesson plan proposed by Dugin, teachers should introduce the "concept of Orthodoxy, autocracy and nationality" as the historical basis of Russian statehood. And convey to students that "the Russian tsardom was the direct political successor of the Byzantine (Roman) Empire." The lectures should "emphasize the historical significance of the president's mission to strengthen the country's sovereignty, centralize its vertical of power and transform Russia into a strong and modern power." In this curriculum, the war in Ukraine should be presented as "a crucial stage on Russia's path to ideological sovereignty in political affairs."

The brutal war that the Kremlin unleashed against Ukraine three years ago has cost Russian society a high price. Meduza and Mediazona note that an estimated 160,000-165,000 Russian soldiers, officers, contract troops, mobilized personnel and other fighters have been killed since February 2022 (English text).

One thing we have learned from the past three years of war is that Russia's losses have steadily increased each year. Overall, Russia has lost almost twice as many soldiers each year as in the previous year.

The first wave of deaths began as soon as the war began. The Russian armed forces, unprepared for strong resistance from Ukraine and struggling with logistical and command failures, suffered heavy casualties. These were particularly high among professional soldiers and young contract soldiers. During this period, Russia lost about 500 soldiers a week, with almost a quarter of those killed being officers - a figure that has now fallen to three to five percent.

Russian authorities have put poet Vera Polozkova on the list of "terrorists and extremists." Polozkova's name is marked with an asterisk, meaning she is under investigation for a terrorism article, Meduza reports in Russian.

Vera Polotskova speaks out against the Russian invasion of Ukraine. She therefore left Russia in March 2022. In June 2023, Duma deputy Yelena Yampolskaya - now an adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin - demanded that the prosecutor's office investigate Polotskova under the article justifying terrorism.