Business
More trouble for Putin’s former aide Chubais PRO Members Public
Russian law enforcement agencies have stepped up their targeting of Rusnano, a state company that invested in promising tech projects. For the first time, Anatoly Chubais, one of the architects of Moscow’s 1990s economic reforms and long-time Rusnano chief, is himself coming under direct threat. Until recently, Chubais – who
VK posts huge loss, eyes massive cash injection PRO Members Public
Tech giant VK, which operates the country’s largest social media site and is often dubbed “Russia’s Facebook”, posted a staggering set of results for 2024: a billion-dollar loss and overall outstanding debt of more than $2 billion. Now the firm, which the Kremlin is backing heavily to create
Ahead of Trump call, Putin lets Western funds sell frozen Russian assets for the first time PRO Members Public
On the eve of a phone call with Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin unveiled his latest overture to the United States. For the first time in three years of war, he signed an order on Monday allowing major US investment funds to sell their holdings of frozen Russian securities. The move
Russian security forces come up with new ideological grounds for seizing assets PRO Members Public
Russia’s nationalization wave — which accelerated following the invasion of Ukraine — continues apace. Canned food magnate Leonid Smirnov is the latest to have fallen out of favor, but what makes this case different are allegations of military sabotage. * Leonid Smirnov was born in the USSR but emigrated to the USA
How Russia is losing the AI race PRO Members Public
Russia has its own self-driving technology, a search engine to rival Google, and voice assistants and smart speakers that are better conversationalists than Alexa or Siri. But it has no generative neural networks that can compete with the latest versions of ChatGPT or surprise everyone like China’s DeepSeek. How
Phantom hope for the return of foreign brands PRO Members Public
The first US-Russian talks since the invasion of Ukraine were greeted in Russia not by talk of the end of the war, but by the country’s potential return to the global economic order. Russian officials and propagandists began to interpret the possibility of normal relations between Moscow and Washington
The EU looks at how to lift sanctions on Russian oligarchs PRO Members Public
The EU’s Supreme Court last week discussed for the first time what Russian oligarchs need to do to have sanctions against them lifted. Namely, they will need to visibly part with any of their Russian businesses, not simply transfer them to other companies within the country. * The Court of
Russia’s white collar workers face job cuts despite chronic labour shortages PRO Members Public
Russia’s economy is expected to cool this year after months of overheating, with the pace of growth set to more than halve. The slowdown will happen against the backdrop of chronic labour shortages — but despite record demand for workers in many sectors, experts still predict job losses. Who is
Russia’s coal industry faces collapse due to sanctions PRO Members Public
Russia is preparing for the first major wave of bankruptcies since the invasion of Ukraine, with the coal industry being the key area of concern. The situation in the sector is so desperate that the government has already tasked Vnesheconombank with stepping in to save bankrupt companies. The bank has
Mass layoff of Russian IT staff spooks emigrants PRO Members Public
A round of mass layoffs at ABBYY, the IT company founded by David Yang, a businessman with Russian roots, was one of the big stories in the Russian business world last week. The firings affected only the offices in Cyprus, Serbia and Hungary. Russian citizens were featured heavily among those
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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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