A Z-blogger was detained in Russia after criticizing the military's recruitment of UAVs

In St. Petersburg, Russian security forces detained Z-blogger Alexander Vaskovsky, who had previously spoken out publicly about problems with the military’s procurement of unmanned aerial systems. 

This was reported by Russian media.

According to published information, the detention took place in the morning by police officers. The channel’s author, who also calls himself a deputy of the so-called “DPR” Supreme Council and co-chair of an independent trade union, was taken into custody by security forces following critical statements regarding the mobilization campaign.

The day before, Vaskovsky claimed that Russian authorities had allegedly failed to implement the program to recruit students into the unmanned systems forces created on Vladimir Putin’s initiative. According to him, instead of students, they began actively recruiting employees of state-owned enterprises and civil servants.

He also claimed that at the regional level, pressure had allegedly intensified on budgetary institutions and enterprise employees to sign contracts to participate in the war. Separately, Vaskovsky stated that after several months of a recruitment campaign in educational institutions, fewer than two thousand students had been recruited, mostly from among those who could be expelled from their studies.

Russia ranked second-to-last in the global internet freedom index following increased censorship and blocking measures, particularly targeting the Telegram messaging app.

In Russia, people were advisedto access Telegram via pagers.

Russia began blocking the Telegram messaging app ahead of schedule. Although a complete access restriction was officially announced for April 1, users are already experiencing widespread service disruptions. Technical issues are being reported in the country’s largest cities. According to intelligence reports, this may be linked to the promotion of the Max messaging app, which is controlled by the FSB.