The Tolyatti attack, the deprivation of medication in pretrial detention centers, and the suspension of the Russian Chess Federation's membership: NeMoskva's nightly review
Major overnight incidents in the Samara region, the critical condition of a woman convicted of treason in the Kursk prison, the persecution of a Krasnoyarsk journalist, and international sanctions against Russian chess. We've compiled the top news from Russia's regions over the past night in our traditional digest.
Explosions and smoke in the Samara region: a chemical plant in Tolyatti is under attack.
On the night of June 12, residents of Tolyatti, Samara Oblast, reported a series of powerful explosions and a plume of thick smoke rising above the city. According to preliminary information, not yet confirmed by official agencies, the drone attack may have targeted the large chemical plant Tolyattikauchuk, one of the largest enterprises in Russia's petrochemical industry.
Regional authorities have not yet provided detailed comments on the scale of the destruction or casualties. As a reminder, similar drone strikes in the Samara region the day before completely paralyzed and shut down the Kuibyshev Oil Refinery.
Torture-like conditions in Kursk pretrial detention center: a woman sentenced to 15 years is losing weight and is deprived of painkillers.
At Pretrial Detention Facility No. 1 in Kursk, the facility's administration stopped providing life-saving painkillers to 39-year-old Svetlana Savelyeva, a native of Irkutsk. In April 2026, a court sentenced her to 15 years in a general regime penal colony on charges of treason and attempting to join the Ukrainian Armed Forces. According to Savelyeva's mother, during her eighteen months in custody at the Kursk facility, her weight dropped to a critical 40 kilograms, she turned completely gray, and developed a number of severe chronic illnesses.
Svetlana Savelyeva was detained by security forces in the Kursk region back in October 2024. Russian investigators and the court deemed her private visit to her fiancé, an active Ukrainian military service member, and the receipt of personal money transfers from him as preparation for defection. The confiscation of her medications puts the convicted political prisoner's life at risk.
Pressure on the press in Krasnoyarsk: journalist Dmitry Polushin is being stripped of his right to run for office.
Dmitry Polushin, editor-in-chief of the Krasnoyarsk independent Telegram channel "Krasnews," was urgently summoned to the prosecutor's office for an official administrative report under the article on "incitement to hatred or enmity" (Article 20.3.1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation). The official notice he received, as usual, did not specify the specific grounds or reasons for the prosecution.
The journalist himself links this sudden activity by security forces to the upcoming regional elections. According to Russian law, finding a citizen guilty under this article automatically disqualifies them from running in any elections for one year.
FIDE has suspended the Russian Chess Federation's membership due to tournaments in occupied territories.
The International Chess Federation (FIDE) Board has temporarily suspended the Russian Chess Federation (RCF) from membership. This harsh sporting decision was made after the Russian side ignored and failed to comply with the official ruling of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne within the established deadline.
Following a lawsuit filed by the Ukrainian Chess Federation, the CAS ordered Moscow to completely cease holding any official chess tournaments in the occupied Ukrainian territories within 90 days. This deadline has now expired, but the FIDE has made no changes. FIDE clarified that the sanctions are directed against the organization and do not restrict the participation of individual Russian grandmasters in their neutral status. Former Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich remains the head of the International Federation.
The State Duma reminded that private clinics are obligated to provide free treatment in life-threatening situations.
Russian private medical centers and clinics are legally obligated to provide emergency medical care to citizens free of charge. The State Duma of the Russian Federation issued a corresponding clarification.
These are medical conditions that pose a real and immediate threat to the patient's life. These include heart attacks, strokes, severe physical injuries, acute poisoning, severe bleeding, sudden loss of consciousness, critical breathing difficulties, as well as thermal burns and deep frostbite. Commercial clinics face liability for refusing to provide assistance.
Mordashov's business is sounding the alarm: the economic restrictions have exhausted all resources
The Russian economy, under restrictions, has completely exhausted its previous resources and now urgently needs to develop a fundamentally new development model. Major domestic businesses have expressed serious concern about the continuous annual increase in the tax burden and the government's strategy of artificially cooling the economy. Alexey Mordashov, Chairman of the Board of Directors of PAO Severstal, publicly called on federal authorities to restore predictability to business conditions and ease current financial policies.
Market experts identified targeted partnerships between private businesses and the state, the aggressive expansion of domestic technology products into accessible foreign markets, the development of competencies in transport logistics infrastructure, and the creation of a high-quality environment to stimulate domestic consumer demand as key drivers and enablers of survival during isolation.