Day one of former Economy Minister Alexei Ulyukayev’s trial did not disappoint. The first serving minister to be arrested since the fall of the Soviet Union appeared in a Moscow court holding Anton Chekhov’s “The Murder.” From Pushkin to Oxxxymiron: Russia was enthralled by a viral rap battle, with some hailing it as “postmodern poetry.” After being booted by U.S. tech giants, the neo-Nazi website the Daily Stormer thought it had found a safe haven in Russia. But within one day media watchdog Roskomnadzor “asked" the Russian provider to suspend the website, too. Russia’s most popular social media site, VK, however, has fewer qualms. VK continues to host a Daily Stormer page, telling The Moscow Times it would not ban the group “only because of its name." Meanwhile, others are more eager to censor. During a highly anticipated press conference with Game of Thrones writer George R.R. Martin, his Russian translator twice censored questions that mentioned President Vladimir Putin. So we held our own Moscow Times poll on the question of which house Putin would have belonged to in Westeros and concluded: House Lannister. In another case of creative self-censorship, a Russian publisher removed a romantic scene between two LGBT characters in the hit American fantasy novel “Shades of Magic.” Too bad they forgot to tell the author. Nikolai Choles’ luxurious lifestyle turned into a “nightmare” this week after he was outed by opposition leader Alexei Navalny as the son of Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov. Maverick Pavel Durov has upstaged the Russian president at his own game, calling on Russian men to take to Instagram and publish bare-chested photos of themselves like a real “alpha.” And, speaking of Putin, the Russian president reappeared from his annual mysterious absence before most Russians even had a chance to notice he had gone. Editor's Picks If rhetoric between the White House and the Kremlin has recently ratcheted up, Russians in NYC haven't noticed. The Moscow Times spoke to emigres in Brooklyn's "Little Odessa" where morale is considerably higher than among the political elite. In a column in The Moscow Times, Pavel Luzin looks at the real state of that bulwark of Russian military prowess and patriotism, and what it should look like in a post-Putin Russia. And this week in The Word's Worth column, Michele Berdy gives you something to shout about — or rather, a batch of curious Russian expressions that let you shout more and louder. Have a good weekend! | 
