Retail deals galore PRO Members Public
Hello! This week our top story is over $1 billion worth of major acquisitions in the grocery retail sector as market consolidation gathers pace. We also look at Elon Musk’s speech to an organization set-up by Stalin, the case of a successful businessman who died in prison, and why
Kazan school shooting sparks gun control debate PRO Members Public
Mercifully, school shootings are rare in Russia. But a 19-year-old student went to a high school in the city of Kazan with a gun Tuesday and killed nine people, most of them children. President Vladimir Putin immediately called on officials to come up with proposals to tighten the requirements for
Russia mulls how to boost inward investment via taxation PRO Members Public
Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin will soon have been in office for 18 months. His government was preoccupied with the pandemic for much of its first year, but now it can return to its main task – making President Vladimir Putin’s long-term goals a reality. One of these goals is an
Independent media pressured as VTimes made ‘foreign agent’ PRO Members Public
State pressure on independent media continues to increase. Just three weeks after media outlet Meduza was branded a ‘foreign agent’, business title VTimes received the same designation. VTimes was set up last year by journalists who left top business newspaper Vedomosti when it was bought out by shareholders linked to
Gun control strawman PRO Members Public
The most important stories on Russia this week Hello! This week our top story is a deadly school shooting and the subsequent gun control debate that seems unlikely to reduce the chance of future such incidents. We also look at how the government is eyeing a new tax to boost
Russia’s political crackdown continues to gather pace PRO Members Public
You may be getting tired of reading about Russia’s political crackdown, but it continues to gather momentum. Last week we wrote about how the authorities branded top independent media outlet Meduza a ‘foreign agent’, and the week before we described the attacks on supporters of opposition leader Navalny. This
The Russian from Perm who built a $3bln in-game payments company PRO Members Public
Xsolla is little-known in Russia — let alone abroad. Yet, the payment services company could be worth $3 billion, according to research from Goldman Sachs and Bank of America. Xsolla founder Alexander Agapitov gave an interview to The Bell founder Elizaveta Osetinskaya. It’s a fascinating story. * Agapitov founded Xsolla 15
Russia goes on vacation — again PRO Members Public
When the government ordered companies to send staff home on full pay amid the onset of the pandemic last year, many quipped that President Vladimir Putin had gone into someone else’s bar and announced: ‘the drinks are on the house!’. Now, the same gag is back. Putin revealed on
Populist vacations PRO Members Public
Hello! This week our main story is about why Russians have extra vacation days this May and who will pay for President Vladimir Putin’s ‘gift’ to the nation. We also look at a political crackdown that gathers pace with each passing day, and the story of Xsolla, a company
Crisis recedes as troops withdraw, Navalny ends hunger strike PRO Members Public
Fears of a geopolitical showdown faded this week as Russian troops withdrew from the Ukrainian border, opposition leader Alexei Navalny said he was stopping his hunger strike and President Vladimir Putin’s annual state-of-the-nation address was notably light on saber-rattling. In the space of just three days tensions that had
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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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