July has been a particularly bad month for Russian elites, as Putin's crackdown appears to be turning ever more violent and vicious.

The Russian navy plays a crucial role in Moscow's conflict, but it has suffered significant losses since the war began in February 2022, with approximately half of the Black Sea Fleet damaged or destroyed by Ukrainian maritime drones and long-range anti-ship missiles.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is stalling over a ceasefire. Meanwhile, Trump has changed his mind about sending weapons to Ukraine.

President Vladimir Putin joined mourners on Thursday to say farewell to his former classmate Irina Podnosova, the head of Russia's Supreme Court, who died earlier this week aged 71.

In July alone, Andrei Badalov, the vice-president of state-owned pipeline company Transneft, fell to his death from a balcony at his home. A former deputy defence minister was sentenced to 13 years imprisonment on charges of corruption, only for a fellow military official to go down for 17.

Moscow’s Domodedovo International Airport, one of Russia’s busiest air hubs, is facing a deepening financial crisis marked by mounting debt, declining passenger traffic and state intervention, the facility’s new leadership told the RBC news website this week.

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard on Wednesday declassified additional materials on the intelligence community's assessment of Russia's actions in the 2016 election, claiming in a social media post and at a White House press briefing that they showed Obama administration officials "manufactured" information in order to undermine then-candidate Donald Trump.