Gazprom turns off the taps PRO Members Public
Hello! This week our top story is Gazprom’s decision to shut-down its main gas pipeline into Europe. We also look at the draconian 22-year prison sentence handed down to a Russian journalist and the passing of the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev; as controversial in death as in life.
Economic resilience PRO Members Public
Hello! This week we focus on the state of the Russian economy — data from the first half of the year suggests it is coping with sanctions and international isolation much better than anticipated. The decline in GDP has not, so far, come close to pessimistic predictions of up to 10%
Measuring Russians’ Views of the War PRO Members Public
Hello! This week, we look at how a closed, state-run poll reveals more than meets the eye about the Russian public’s attitudes towards the war in Ukraine. We also look at why Putin’s gas war with Europe has only just begun and why Russian lawmakers are eyeing a
Import substitution delusion PRO Members Public
Hello! This week we look at Russia’s plans to reduce its dependency on Western-made goods amid the war in Ukraine and international sanctions. But history suggests that significant success will be very difficult to achieve. New Deputy PM and Putin’s Daughter to Kickstart ‘Import Substitution’ Rumors were flying
Divisions at Yandex PRO Members Public
Hello! This week we look at how the war in Ukraine has roiled Yandex — the ‘Russian Google’ — amid different approaches to strategy and many top managers leaving the country. We also look at why the state decided gas giant Gazprom would be making no dividend payments this year, and why
How the war divided Arkady Volozh and the Yandex management PRO Members Public
Five months into the war, Yandex is split in two, with founder Arkday Volozh and the company’s leaders in Russia on opposite sides of the barricades. Part of the senior management stayed in Moscow and decided to save the ‘Russian Google’, the rest left, believing there is no future.
Moral dilemma PRO Members Public
Hello! This week our top story is a look at the difficult choices faced by many of the political technocrats who have worked as economic managers for President Vladimir Putin over the last 20 years. While staying in government after the start of the invasion led to allegations of collaboration,
4 months of sanctions PRO Members Public
Hello! This week we look at the effect of sanctions on Russia as the war in Ukraine enters its fifth month. In the West, there are concerns about the effectiveness of sanctions: they have not prevented Moscow from raking in record foreign currency earnings from the sale of energy resources
Showcasing isolation PRO Members Public
Hello! This week we look at Russia’s lavish annual display for foreign investors – the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. Never before has it been so odd. Westerners stayed away altogether: instead, the star attractions were the leader of Ukraine’s breakaway Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR) and a representative
Stock market reeling PRO Members Public
Hello! This week we look at millions of struggling private investors amid the wreckage of Russia’s financial markets. Not only have most lost money, but the chances of recouping losses fades with each week. Russia’s Central Bank last month froze a large batch of shares in foreign companies
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The Bell was founded in 2017 by journalists Elizaveta Osetinskaya, Irina Malkova and Peter Mironenko as a news outlet independent from the Russian authorities, after its founders have been sacked as top editors at the largest Russian news website RBC because of pressure from the Kremlin.
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