Underwater sanctions against Russia, the final plan of pension reform and the new Uber strategy

The United States imposed on Russia new sanctions on suspicion of attempts to violate the work of transatlantic cables. Details - in the mailing room The Bell

Photo: Flickr

On the eve of Russia's Day, the US Treasury imposed new sanctions against Russian companies and citizens. Under the sanctions was the supplier of underwater equipment, specialists in the field of information security with headquarters in the Palo-Alto and the inexpressive research institute from the Moscow district of Khovrino. We learned a lot of interesting things about them:

Divers with scissors

• Under the sanctions of the United States, the largest supplier of submarine equipment “Dayvtekhservis” , its owner, captain of the first rank of the Navy Vladimir Kagansky, general director Alexander Tribun and “Program manager” Oleg Chirikov, fell.
• “Russia has actively examined underwater communication cables that transmit most telecommunication data in the world,” the US Treasury explains. In December, the commander of the underwater forces of NATO Rear Admiral Andrew Lennon spoke about this: “We are faced with such Russian underwater activity near the places where the cables are leaning, which we have never seen.” Western officials and the military described the possible consequences of damage to transatlantic cables as catastrophic.
• "Divetekhservis", indeed, works a lot with the structures of the Ministry of Defense. Since 2014, the company has received contracts from it in the amount of over 3 billion rubles, and among them there is, for example, the supply of a kit for underwater exothermic cutting. In addition, the company supplied deep -sea devices for the vessel of the Northern Fleet "Amber", which in the West is considered spy.

SAP supplier

• The companies of Ilya Medvedovsky, a graduate of the faculty of technical cybernetics of the St. Petersburg Polytechnic, also suffered for work at the FSB. In the field of information security, he has been working since 1994. In open sources, Medvedovsky is called the author of the first “hacker” dissertation in Russia and the organizer of the hacker conference Zeronights.
• The sanctions were not only his St. Petersburg company Digital Security, advising on cybersecurity issues, but also two foreign companies of Medvedovsky- Erpscan with a headquarters in the Palo Ealito, which analyzes the safety of SAP, one of the main suppliers of ERP systems in the world, and Embedi, which is engaged in Embedi, which is engaged in Embedi , which is engaged in Embedi. The safety of smart devices - from gadgets to cities.
• Medvedovsky himself commented on the sanctions on Twitter, in fact, calling them the machinations of competitors.

Special Institute

• Closes the sanctions list of the Kwant Research Institute from the Moscow district of Khovrino. The institute was created in the late 1970s on the basis of the KB, which developed the first computers in the USSR. In 2008, Kwant transferred to the FSB. Its website says that its development has “public and state significance”.
• The Medusa and Forbes have already written about this mysterious Research Institute. For example, they found out that Quantum interacted with the Italian Hacking Team structure and even bought it for hundreds of thousands of euro software. One of the systems purchased by the structures of the Institute of Systems allows, for example, to track all the actions on the infected device: take screen pictures, connect to the webcam and microphone, intercept correspondence in instant messengers and e-mail, recognize which keys the computer or smartphone, etc.

Details about everyone who fell under new sanctions, we wrote here .

What am I to me?

The Russian Foreign Ministry tradition said that sanctions will not force Russia to change an independent course in the international arena (the statement begins with the words: “Washington will not calm down with its sanctions”). But thanks to them, we learn a lot about what the authorities are understood by cybersecurity and what tools in this area possess.

MONEY

Day before pension reform

The government is ready for a bill on raising the retirement age - it can be submitted to the State Duma tomorrow, writes Vedomosti. According to them, the hardest option has been selected - 65 years for men (now 60), 63 years for women (now 55). An increase is proposed to be carried out for a year every year since 2019. Such a tough initial option will allow, if necessary, to go during the discussion in the State Duma for certain concessions - for example, in terms of increase in the increase. The Duma Law on Pension Reform should adopt this session - that is, until the end of July.

Musk reduces workers

The tweets that Elon Musk spends the night at the Tesla factory is touching, but the position of the multiple loss of the company requires a real reduction in expenses - and now it has begun. On Tuesday, Musk announced that Tesla will reduce 9% of employees who are mainly not engaged in the production of the main model of Model 3, which will still not reach the design capacity. The company's shares jumped 7%, having completed the day with 3 percent growth.

Mail against duties

A decrease in the duty-free threshold for parcels from online stores from € 1000 to € 200 is unprofitable even “Russian Post”-the company asked the government to postpone an unpopular measure until 2021. “Post” fears that this will significantly reduce its revenue, and when decorating premises due to the lack of a new administration system, congestion will occur. The Ministry of Finance offers to reduce the duty-free threshold-to € 500 from July 1, 2018, to € 200-from January 1, 2019. The main lobbyists of this proposal are Russian online stores who believe that a high duty-free threshold gives foreign online retailers an unfair competitive advantage.

Signals

What Trump and Kim agreed

On Tuesday, Donald Trump still held a historical meeting with the head of North Korea Kim Jong-un (and even showed him a video about the beautiful Korea of ​​the future). After that, the leaders signed the most unconnected agreement on new peaceful relations between countries and denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, and then Trump promised that now the leaders of both countries would exchange visits and announced that he would not introduce already prepared new sanctions in relation to the DPRK. This means that Russian companies will not fall under them (and there was such a risk))

20 years for Syria

There will be no new sanctions against Korea, and old sanctions against Syria remain - and on Tuesday the United States first brought official charges of violations to Russian citizens. Five employees of the Council of Complex are threatened (in absentia) up to 20 years in prison for the supply of air fuel to Syria bypassing American sanctions. Unpleasant news for employees of Russian companies actively working in Syria.

PRACTICE

Gazing with grass

For large manufacturers, sales of soda soda are falling - the young generation caring about their health avoids its health. Coca-Cola (so far emphasized as an experiment) has already released the first alcoholic drink in Japan. Sahara can be replaced by marijuana, we hear the news about the legalization of which (outside Russia) more and more often, and sales of drinks with it, on the contrary, are growing. The creators of drinks with marijuana components try literally everything - from non -alcoholic wine from TGK to cold coffee. Inc. He talks about the gaining revolution of the market.

Light uber

In April, we wrote about our own browser from Amazon with the simple name Internet-it works only on Android, optimized for unstable Internet connections and is intended primarily for India. Uber went along a similar path: especially for Indian and other developing markets, the company launched an application with the minimum functionality of Uberlite - a lightweight, made for Android only, which does not use a standard card and allows you to travel along popular routes without connecting to the network. This is a forced measure - a local competitor released a lighter version of his service (even easier than Uber) back in January.

Peter Mironenko