Weekly roundup with Olga Maslova: July 7-11

      While Russian cabinet ministers were mourning their colleague Roman Starovoit, who shot himself, in the CMDB's mourning hall, residents of Kursk laid flowers and toys at the site where a drone attacked little Tolya and his mother.

      In connection with Tolya's story, Marina Akhmedova recalled another young hero — 10-year-old Fedya from the Bryansk region. On the way to school, where Fedya and two other girls were being driven by a neighbor, their car was attacked by a Ukrainian sabotage group. The driver was killed, and the Ukrainians ordered the children to stand behind the garage. But the boy and the girls ran into the forest. "At first, I thought they were our guys. Then they started speaking Ukrainian, I understood they were enemies, and that a good enemy wouldn't give good advice, so I did the opposite," Fedya later recounted.

      The child did not submit passively to circumstances, did not let paralyzing fear override action. That is true courage. Not just pressing the trigger on a service pistol.

      "Tolya is not the first child to die and is no different from others. He is simply a little warrior who wanted to protect his mother. He would have been our protector, but he was not allowed to grow into a great defender. Today, I proposed to the Human Rights Council that Tolya be awarded the Order of Courage. We have already awarded heroic children. Tolya is also a hero. It will probably make things no easier, but this is for the mother — she should keep this order," Marina Akhmedova wrote.

      This week, our relations with Donald Trump took a certain turn. The hut on chicken legs, the White House, at least pretended to turn towards Ukraine, as Zelensky literally begged, wagging his tail after Trump from one point of the world to another.

      Secretary of State Marco Rubio explained that Trump is disappointed by Russia’s lack of greater flexibility. In an interview with NBC News, Trump announced a serious statement regarding Russia, according to the Telegram channel "Earlier than everyone. Well, almost," on Friday.

      "I think I will make a major statement on Russia on Monday," Trump said. "I am disappointed with Russia. We'll see what happens in the next couple of weeks."

      Axios, citing a source, reports that it concerns the possibility of delivering offensive weapons to Ukraine.

      According to Reuters, Trump plans to allocate about $300 million in additional weapons to Ukraine, using the presidential right to manage military reserves — without Congressional approval. "Biden previously actively used this right," recalls the Russian-Ukrainian politician Oleg Tsarev.

      A good reason to remember the TV series "House of Cards." What happens on screen is like animated content from a skull, only it's not the girl Riley from "Puzzle," but the U.S. management system. If you want to see all the "crap" Donald Trump attributes to us — here it is.

      Made quite some time ago (2013-2018) by current standards, "House of Cards" remains relevant, including its plotline related to Russia. The U.S. ambassador to the UN suddenly "wakes up" to find that "President Petrov" (a clear reference to Vladimir Putin) refuses the UN forces entry to the site where their peacekeepers died from an explosion in the Jordan Valley because the Russians... blew themselves up to justify withdrawing from the peacekeeping mission in the region.

      It’s possible that this is where the world was first introduced to the "they blew themselves up" pretext, which was fully used against us in the Ukrainian conflict. But wait — this "they blew themselves up" story also sounded after a series of house explosions in Moscow, Volgodonsk, and Buirnakse in September 1999. And many believed it.

      Diplomatic avenues for resolving the Ukraine conflict are "exhausted," declared Friedrich Merz in the Bundestag yesterday, promising to do everything to prevent Russia from "destroying the political order of freedom across the European continent."

      "I have two messages, the first is addressed to Moscow — President Putin. And it’s quite simple. We will not give up," Merz said. The second was a call for Washington to support Europe and provide Kyiv with additional Patriot systems. He also stated that "Russia should pay Ukraine €500 billion to cover damages."

      A fresh perspective on the hostility of the German upper class towards Russia is offered by political scientist and publicist Vadim Trukhachev. To clarify his views, he urged not to explain their motives solely by revanchism. He believes that German Chancellor is not just willingly pulling chestnuts out of the fire for a British monkey, he explains.

      "Hitler is a loser for Germans. No need to mention him on occasion or without. The thing is, Germany wants to become a great power, and nuclear weapons are the ticket to that club…" he wrote on his Telegram channel.

      One can only marvel at the stubbornness of Europe’s main “pacifists” rushing towards their next national catastrophe.

      In internal affairs, aside from the death of Starovoit, a statement by Andrey Besedin, head of the Ural Chamber of Commerce and Industry, caused a stir. He told the media that by the end of the year, up to a million migrants from India, Sri Lanka, and North Korea would arrive in Russia, specifically in Sverdlovsk Oblast.

      The Ministry of Labor had to deny "fakes" from the Ural lobbyist, made during "Innoprom." The agency reminded that the total quota for attracting foreign labor in 2025 is less than 235,000 people (excluding the most "valuable specialists").

      Some in Russian society probably managed to rejoice at the source — believing it would be like London. A good comment about the "import" of Indians came from Yekaterinburg blogger Sergey Kolyasnikov.

      "India is very diverse. It has a very strong pharmaceutical and chemical industry, for example… If Russia is brought a million educated, highly demanded specialists in manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, petrochemicals, etc., — that’s one thing.

      But if we’re flooded with a million illiterate workers willing to work for a meal, totally alien to our culture — that’s another.

      Who do you think our oligarchs will bring?" Kolyasnikov wrote in his Telegram channel ZERGULIO.

      And then, seemingly to order, the story with Moscow’s Astrey-Med clinic unfolded, where a trichologist in a hijab refused to accept a male patient.

      "Regnum" journalists found that beauty salons have already introduced "Shariah services," and in the still ordinary ones, they try to cater to this audience’s tastes, creating an "Eastern fairy tale" atmosphere. And how can we not recall the demand for halal compliance in Russian milk producers?

      "It will end with old ladies refusing to treat a patient with appendicitis. He’s a man. And then girls with appendicitis won’t be accepted," Marina Akhmedova comments on the Astrey-Med story.