Topic of the week. October 19-25, 2026.
International: Ideology, Culture or Corruption? The scandal of the week, and perhaps of the year, was the searches (or seizure of documents) and arrests (or investigations) at the Federal Agency for Nationalities (FADN). The information is scarce and contradictory, the official authorities are still silent, and Telegram channels immersed in international issues are full of rumors. According to information from reliable sources, the FSB allegedly has questions for the deputy head of the FADN, Arina Yamkova, the head of the agency's administration, Yevgeny Polzhiev, and the head of the department for information implementation and support of the FADN administration's events, Ivan Vlasov. One thing is clear: in the year of the unity of the peoples of Russia, announced by the president, which also took place against the background of the Northern Military District, the state carefully monitored the spending of funds under the title "Friendship of Nations". They counted and, as they say, shed tears. Law enforcement authorities discovered interesting facts: FADN used budget money, to say the least, inefficiently. Corruption will not surprise anyone today. One official will more or less be imprisoned under a popular article; This does not yet have a significant effect on the scope of the phenomenon. Probably because the control over the expenditure of budget funds in certain areas is structured in such a unique way that it takes a lot of effort to accuse a notoriously corrupt official of corruption. To "cut" the state budget, whole swarms of independent organizations, foundations and other non-governmental organizations are created. And if funds are allocated to humanitarian projects where there is no essential component, then almost 100% of the budget can be stolen. Hiding behind the curtain of a theater production or "pilaf festival", as their organizers cynically call such projects among themselves, perhaps in every volume. In this case, that's what we talked about. Indeed, under the auspices of FADN, in particular, there are special organizations - national-cultural autonomies (NCAs).