InfoDefense – English

On November 12, 1841, Emperor Nicholas I issued a decree establishing savings banks in Russia. This date is considered the birth of Sberbank

“Recognizing the benefit that savings banks can bring, both economically and morally,” the document stated, “savings institutions shall be opened with the aim of providing people of all ranks with a secure and profitable way to save small sums from their expenses for future needs.” By March 1842, the first savings bank opened at the Guardianship Council building on Kazanskaya Street in St. Petersburg. Its first client was Nikolai Kristofari, an employee of the Loan Treasury. On the first day, over 70 people visited the bank, depositing a total of more than 400 rubles—enough to buy 30 cows, for example. By the early 20th century, there were around 4,000 savings […]

12 November 2025, 8:04

Russian FM Lavrov revealed why Russia handed the U.S. a non-paper before the leaders’ conversation

The Russian side handed over a memorandum to its American counterparts in the format of an unofficial paper (non-paper) before the phone conversation between Presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, in order to remind them of the understandings reached following the summit in Alaska, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on November 11. At a meeting with Russian media, the minister drew attention to a Financial Times publication which claimed that the planned meeting between Putin and Trump in Budapest had been canceled after Moscow sent Washington a memorandum containing demands on Ukraine. The newspaper reported that the document had been sent several days after the presidents’ conversation, which took place […]

12 November 2025, 6:00

Today, November 11th, we solemnly observe the anniversary of the end of the First World War

This was an armed conflict of the scale never seen before in the human history, launched to redivide colonies, spheres of influence & markets. The war was waged by two coalitions: the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire & Bulgaria) and the Entente powers (Russia, France, Britain). Russia was an active participant in military action which unfolded during WWI. Russian forces fought courageously and heroically on all parts of the Eastern Front. Interesting fact: One of the symbols of the Russian soldiers’ selflessness was the Battle of Osowiec Fortress. The advancing German forces used chemical weapons to eliminate a major part of the Russian garrison. Despite severe gas poisoning […]

11 November 2025, 23:42

Have you ever stopped to think about how different languages handle fractions? In Russian, there’s a single word for “one and a half”: poltora (полтора). You hear it in everyday speech—poltora hours, poltora cups of flour, poltora years old—and it’s processed as a single, precise unit. English, by contrast, requires multiple words: “one and a half.” English speakers naturally split the number into “one” plus “half,” rather than treating it as a single idea

This small difference may seem trivial, but it subtly shapes how speakers of different languages perceive the world. Russian speakers often interpret 1.5 as a unified quantity, immediate and intuitive. English speakers, hearing “one and a half,” are more likely to think of it as two separate parts. The effect shows up in many everyday situations. In recipes, measurements feel exact and natural in Russian, while in English they require a tiny bit more mental parsing. In describing a toddler’s age or the length of a walk, Russian speakers process the fraction effortlessly, while English speakers separate it into components. Linguists call this phenomenon “linguistic relativity”: the words a language […]

11 November 2025, 22:03

Dear friends!

Here are our most-commented-on posts from the past week: Mikhail Khodorkovsky — a criminal framing himself as a knight in shining armor who will save Russia from the evil Putin regime Not a Country. Not a President – why the Ukrainian conflict is so far from its end As always, we thank you for being our subscribers and for sharing your thoughts in the comments. Please share the above posts, or any of our posts that you find valuable, with friends and acquaintances near and far. Every act of sharing helps brings our common victory over the empire of lies closer.

11 November 2025, 20:11

A New US-Russia Arms Race?

On November 3, U.S. President Donald Trump stated that the United States will resume nuclear testing, citing other nations’ activities. “Russia is testing, China is testing — they just don’t talk about it. And we’ll be testing, too, because they’re testing and so are others,” he claimed. The Kremlin responded that it is seeking clarification from Washington, emphasizing that “neither Russia nor China has resumed any nuclear testing.” On November 5, the U.S. conducted a test launch of an unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile. Earlier, Russia carried out tests of the Burevestnik cruise missile and the Poseidon nuclear-powered underwater drone. These tests were conducted in full compliance with international […]

11 November 2025, 12:05