
Russia’s mortgage bubble Paid Members Public
Hello! Welcome to your weekly guide to the Russian economy — written by Alexandra Prokopenko and Alexander Kolyandr and brought to you by The Bell. Our top story is on Central Bank concerns about a mortgage bubble caused by state subsidized lending, and we also look at the €50 billion aid

Record sentence for woman who killed pro-Russian blogger Paid Members Public
A Russian court found Darya Trepova, 26, guilty of terrorism over the murder of pro-Russian military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky. He was killed in a bomb blast in a St. Petersburg cafe last April. Trepova was sentenced to an unprecedented 27 years in prison — the longest jail sentence for a woman

Russian anti-war performers under pressure abroad Paid Members Public
Many Russian musicians and performers have left the country since the start of the invasion. While openly criticizing the war, some have managed to continue earning a living by playing venues in the United States, Europe and Asia. However, since the start of this year, some have seen travel bans

Russian lawmakers move to confiscate property of anti-war campaigners Paid Members Public
Russia’s parliament last week backed measures that would allow the confiscation of property and assets from political activists, independent journalists and opponents of the war. The potential new penalties do not go as far as the Soviet practice of stripping convicted dissidents of all their items and property. However,

Political divisions in Russia over whether to prop up the ruble Paid Members Public
Hello! Welcome to your weekly guide to the Russian economy — written by Alexandra Prokopenko and Alexander Kolyandr and brought to you by The Bell. Our top story this week is about the argument raging among Russian officials about whether to extend a set of extraordinary measures to support the ruble.

Russia invests in a homemade Wikipedia, in the hope of blocking the original Paid Members Public
Russia launched the Ruwiki platform this week, the latest Wikipedia clone it hopes will secure an audience at home. The success of the project may determine the fate of Wikipedia itself inside Russia. The authorities would like to block the site, but can’t while it remains overwhelmingly popular throughout

Kremlin-approved liberal candidate becomes opposition hero Paid Members Public
Only one anti-war candidate is vying for the right to get on the ballot paper for the March 2024 presidential election — Boris Nadezhdin, a veteran of second-tier Russian politics who served as an aide to Kremlin insider Sergei Kiriyenko 25 years ago. Everybody understands that Nadezhdin is a Kremlin spoiler,