ON MY MIND
Protesters in the Siberian city of Kemerovo held signs with slogans like "Corruption Kills" and "Tell The Truth" in the aftermath of a deadly fire this weekend in a shopping mall that killed at least 64 people -- many of them children.
In the town of Volokolamsk earlier this month, angry residents clashed with government officials after dozens of children were taken to the hospital due after breathing gas leaked from a garbage dump.
Throughout last year, long-haul truckers continued their protests against a road tax that would benefit Vladimir Putin's closest cronies.
The Achilles heel of the Putin regime will probably turn out to be localized protests like these in which ordinary Russians begin to connect the dots between rampant corruption and their own standard of living, their safety, and that of their children.
IN THE NEWS
The United States, European Union member states, Ukraine, and Canada have ordered the expulsion of dozens of Russian diplomats in response to the poisoning of a former Russian double agent in England -- a move the Kremlin vowed to match with "the principle of reciprocity."
The Russian ambassadors to Poland and the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania have been summoned to meetings at those countries' foreign ministries, Russian news agencies report.
Britain's defense chief says that many countries are united behind Britain over the poisoning of a former Russian spy and his daughter and are pushing back against Russian efforts to divide the West.
Thousands of people have demonstrated in the Siberian city of Kemerovo, demanding answers and calling for the regional government's resignation as grief mixed with anger after a fire at a busy shopping mall killed 64 people, many of them children.
Vladimir Putin met with the leader of the small Persian Gulf state of Qatar in Moscow on a day when scores of Russians were reported killed in a shopping mall fire and dozens of Russian diplomats were being expelled around the world.
Putin also traveled to the Siberian city of Kemerovo overnight and early on March 27 and blamed "criminal negligence and carelessness" for the deadly fire that killed more than 60 people at a shopping mall over the weekend.
Blocked fire exits, a shut-down alarm system, and "glaring violations" of safety rules exacerbated the human toll of a fire that swept through a busy Siberian shopping mall, killing 64 people as panicked visitors jumped from windows and banged on doors in an attempt to escape, Russian investigators say.
Russian businessman Sergei Mavrodi, whose MMM pyramid scheme deprived millions of Russians of their savings in the 1990s, has died of a heart attack, according to Russia media.
Britain's anti-doping authority has reassured athletes that no personal data was stolen as a result of a hacking attack on the authority over the weekend.
The European Union has called on Belarus to immediately release all the opposition activists who were arrested at the weekend as they attempted to hold an unsanctioned rally in the capital.
WHAT I'M READING
The Kemerovo Fire
Meduza has a live blog chronicling the aftermath of the deadly fire that killed more than 60 people at a shopping mall in the Siberian city of Kemerovo.
And Republic.ru has an editorial responding to the fire.
Bolton And Moscow
In his column for Republic.ru, Moscow-based foreign affairs analyst Vladimir Frolov weighs in on John Bolton's appointment as U.S. national-security adviser.
Forecasting Putin's Foreign Policy
Kadri Liik of the European Council on Foreign Relations looks ahead to Putin's foreign policy during his fourth term. "Moscow has undergone a lively debate on the future course of its foreign policy – which may now become obsolete by the poisoning of Sergei Skripal," she writes.
Putin's Expat Supporters
In an op-ed in The Moscow Times, political commentator Artemy Troitsky explains why Russians living in the West support Putin.
Reviewing The Death Of Stalin
New York-based writer John Ganz reviews Armando Iannucci's film The Death of Stalin for The Baffler.
