Ivan Belyaev is a correspondent for RFE/RL's Russian Service.
President Vladimir Putin has declared the week between the May Day holiday and the Victory Day holiday to be a nonworking period, meaning many Russians will have a rest from May 1-10. Many social-media commentators welcomed the move, although some saw it mostly as a preelection populist gesture.
Russians on social media have reacted with shock, anger, and humor after Aleksei Navalny said on December 21 that he had tricked a Russian secret agent into disclosing details of the botched poisoning plot to kill him.
After Russian National Guard commander Viktor Zolotov challenged opposition politician Aleksei Navalny to a duel in which he pledged to turn the lawyer into "mincemeat," Russians on social media took up the challenge, offering Zolotov duels in competitions from swimming to wearing high heels.
Commentators on Russian social media have not been shy about expressing their views on the evolving scandal over the poisoning in England of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter.
Russian newspaper editor Roman Romanenko made a lot of people laugh when he posted a letter on Facebook jokingly asking Russian President Vladimir Putin to stage a Crimea-style military rescue in his hometown of Vologda. But not everyone's amused.
