Even thousands of kilometres away from Tatarstan, their homeland, during the summer Tatar communities in the United States held cultural training camps for children and young people aged 5 to 20. The message: you can belong to this Russian people anywhere, in Russia as well as in America.

Gazprom's CEO announced a “legally binding agreement" with the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC). The pipeline, which Russia has been pushing for years, could supply up to 50 billion cubic metres of gas per year to China over 30 years. For Russia, it would be vital to offset lost markets in Europe. Chinese media have been silent on the details that have blocked the agreement so far.

In one of Russia’s most important cities, the local governor, Gleb Nikitin, made an unprecedented move by including the Catholic church among the historic buildings slated for restoration, and by returning it to the city’s small Catholic community of several hundred multiethnic believers. The goal is to show that in today's Russia, the "state religion," in addition to promote militant Orthodoxy, also aims to unite other confessions and religions.

To limit the damage to strategic targets from Ukraine’s remote-controlled drone counterattacks, Russia is shutting down mobile networks in many areas. In some regions, signals have been cut off indefinitely. People try to adapt as best they can, but some businesses now accept only cash.

Patriarch Kirill praises the “expression of goodwill” by the two leaders of "the most powerful countries on the planet." Meanwhile, Russian bloggers and propagandists praise the “magnificent achievement” of peace with America “while in Donbass we continue to advance”. And for Moscow, Zelensky can come to the Kremlin to acknowledge his defeat.

Speaking to the State Duma Committee on Development of Civil Society, Issues of Public Associations and Religious Organisations, Abbess Xenia, head of the Moscow Patriarchate's legal department, said that the most fervent senior officers and generals who adhere to traditional religions should be promoted to command positions in the military. She also called for an explicit ban on “atheism”, deemed “unworthy and immoral”, diametrically reversing the principles of Soviet censorship against religion.