The price of a “special operation” in Ukraine. Online

The Bell continues to conduct online, dedicated to the economic consequences of the "special military operation" in Ukraine, which began on February 24

SUPPORT THE BELL

The war completely changed our lives. We have been writing about its consequences for each of us online since February 24. We have never taken money from readers for content, believing that we can earn money ourselves. But now our business model, like so much else in the economy, has collapsed. Help The Bell keep going!

This online is complete. The new one, from May 30, can be read here .

18:34 Many EU countries still express doubt that Hungary will accept a compromise option for the expected sixth sanctions package, although it allows it to keep Russian oil supplies, told Bloomberg sources familiar with the negotiations Bloomberg. The day before, the European Commission sent new proposals for sanctions to the governments of the EU countries in order to settle differences with Budapest, which is blocking the adoption of the sixth package. It was proposed to include a partial oil embargo - a gradual refusal to import oil from Russia by sea in six months without restrictions on supplies via the Druzhba oil pipeline. The initiative was discussed on Sunday, May 29, at a meeting of European ambassadors in Brussels.

17:53 Serbia will conclude a new agreement with Russia on the supply of Russian gas within three years, announced the head of state Aleksandar Vučić. The "extremely favorable" price for Russian fuel, according to him , will be from $310 to $408 per thousand cubic meters.

15:52 Erdogan will hold telephone conversations with Putin and Zelensky on May 30. According to the Turkish leader, Ankara intends to give a new impetus to diplomacy and promote dialogue between the parties, but the situation is getting "worse every day."

The main thing for the night and morning:

• The European Commission has proposed EU countries to abandon Russian oil supplied by sea in six months (from oil products - in eight months) and to postpone restrictions on supplies via the Druzhba oil pipeline, Bloomberg interlocutors . told They clarified that Druzhba is a key source of Hungary's crude oil imports and that the new initiative will give Budapest, which is blocking the imposition of the sixth package of sanctions due to the oil embargo, more time to resolve the issue of the country's energy security.
• By the evening of May 27, holders of Russian Eurobonds had not received coupon payments on them in the amount of about $100 million, writes Bloomberg. This means that the countdown to a possible default of Russia has begun - a 30-day grace period. The authorities said that the Ministry of Finance made payments on coupons scheduled for May 27 to the National Settlement Depository (NSD) in advance, at the end of last week, and thus fulfilled its obligations. On Friday evening, NSD announced that funds had been debited from the account in favor of investors.
• The Federal Air Transport Agency has extended the restriction of flights to 11 airports in the south and in the central part of Russia. This applies to Anapa, Belgorod, Bryansk, Voronezh, Gelendzhik, Krasnodar, Kursk, Lipetsk, Rostov-on-Don, Simferopol and Elista. Russian airlines are recommended to use the airports of Sochi, Volgograd, Mineralnye Vody, Stavropol and Moscow as alternative routes.

Continued online May 28

15:42 Vladimir Putin held telephone conversations with Olaf Scholz and Emmanuel Macron. Kremlin theses :

• The Russian side is open to the resumption of dialogue with Kiev;
• Putin warned of the risks of further destabilization and worsening of the humanitarian crisis;
• Russia is ready to help in the search for options for the export of "Ukrainian grain from the Black Sea ports";
• Moscow will increase the export of fertilizers and agricultural products if sanctions are lifted.

UPD: During the conversation, Macron and Scholz called on Putin to release the Ukrainian military who left Azovstal and hold direct talks with Vladimir Zelensky, they said at the Elysee Palace.

14:04 Dmitry Medvedev urged to "stop being silly" with foreign agents.

“It must be admitted: the control over foreign agents was rather formal. And now is the time to clean up. If they are carrying out activities directed against the country at such a difficult time, and receive money from our enemies for this, the response must be quick and tough. Stop talking nonsense, especially during the period of a special military operation and unlimited anti-Russian sanctions.

And at the legislative level, a more precise classification and stricter liability of foreign agents should be introduced. A bill has already been submitted to the State Duma that will allow this to be done. The activities of foreign agents should be put under strict control, become transparent for our society.”

The bill that Medvedev is talking about expands the grounds for recognizing organizations and people as foreign agents, introduces new restrictions for them and orders them to be entered in the register of "persons affiliated with foreign agents." Here is his detailed analysis from the lawyers of the Center for the Protection of Media Rights (recognized as a foreign agent).

12:45 Vladimir Putin lifted the age limit for contract servicemen. Previously, Russians under the age of 40, foreigners under 30 could conclude the first military service contract. Now those who are older will also be able to go to serve in the army under a contract, provided that they have not reached retirement age. The State Duma and the Federation Council adopted the bill in one day.

The main thing for the night and morning:

• The security forces will check the information on the accounts of the ex-head of Rosnano, Anatoly Chubais, in European banks, according to a source from the state news agency TASS. In which banks the funds can be stored is not specified, but we are talking about "impressive" amounts of foreign currency (up to several billion), "possibly obtained illegally." TASS did not cite comments from Russian law enforcement agencies and representatives of Chubais.
• The Ministry of Finance plans to fulfill the obligation on eurobonds denominated in euros, "precisely in the single European currency," said Anton Siluanov, head of the department. The settlement mechanism for dollar Eurobonds without a US license will appear by June 23-24 and involves payments in rubles. As Siluanov stressed, Russia will interact on this issue not with the leadership of Western countries, but with investors.
• The European Union at the summit on May 30-31 will discuss the possibility of conducting a naval mission to help export Ukrainian grain, sources told El Pais. This will require Moscow to “lift the blockade of Ukrainian ports” and allow the export of food products (thousands of tons of corn, barley and, above all, wheat), including from Odessa. Europe fears possible incidents with the Russian fleet in the Black Sea.
• from May 28 Sberbank will reduce interest rates on consumer loans , the minimum is now equal to 15.9% per annum and will be available to payroll clients. From May 30, mortgage rates will also decrease. Under basic mortgage programs for the purchase of finished and under construction housing, it will be from 10.9% per annum. In addition, the return on investment is declining. For example, for SberDeposit, it fell below 10% even for short-term deposits: yesterday, the rate on such a deposit for three months was 11%, and today it is 8.5%.

Continued online May 28

22:02 In 2022, choosing a broker is a much more difficult task than before. Most of the major Russian players came under sanctions, some foreign brokers have limited their work with the Russians. Therefore, we decided, together with experts, to draw up instructions that will help investors take into account the main pitfalls when choosing. How to choose a broker in the new conditions, read here .

20:06 The German cosmetics manufacturer Wella is leaving Russia after 28 years of operation in the country, reports Kommersant . The publication obtained a letter in which the company notified partners of the cessation of supplies: it says that Wella no longer manufactures and sells products under its brands in Russia, and ownership of the business will be transferred to the local top management team. Wella care is critical for Russian beauty salons - Wella hair color products accounted for up to 40% of the market.

19:12 Tinkoff announced that from May 28 it will temporarily stop opening deposits in foreign currency. If a deposit in foreign currency is already open, it will be possible to replenish it until the end of the action, but it will not be possible to prolong such a deposit. When the currency deposit expires, the money will automatically be credited to the account in the currency in which the deposit was opened.

18:37 The McDonald's network under the new brand expects to open in Russia on June 12. What the updated restaurants will be called and what will be on the menu is still unknown. Finance Minister Anton Siluanov is sure that the new McDonald's will be even tastier. What the authorities managed to say about the departure of McDonald's and the future of the network in Russia - in our news .

What's with the name?

How McDonald's restaurants will be renamed has not yet been disclosed. The network (who bought the Russian business of McDonald's, we told here soon ) promised to introduce an updated brand . The company "Moscow-McDonald's" yesterday registered the domain "Veselo i vkusno" , so far it's empty.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade invited Telegram users to send their versions of a new name for McDonald's, promising to transfer them to the Russian owner of the chain. More than one and a half thousand proposals were received, including "MakZhrak", "PosleMak" and "MakDunya".

The Moskva agency wrote that five variants of names are being considered, including “Just like this”, “Fun and tasty”, “The same one” and “Free cash desk”. The agency failed to find out the last option. According to Izvestia , two Latin letters can be used as a sign - Ms, while M can remain branded.

15:54 Minister of Finance Anton Siluanov, lecture at the Financial University under the government:

• “Huge resources are needed to conduct a special operation”;
• Statements about Russia's default "have nothing to do with reality." Russia will make it possible to receive coupons on obligations even with external restrictions on payments, "in order to preserve the image of our country as a reliable country with which to do business."
• The ban on the export of capital for investors from unfriendly countries will remain until sanctions are lifted and reserves are unfrozen;
• Russia "launched" a total of 8 trillion rubles to support the economy in the current situation;
• Acceleration of inflation in the world occurred due to "thoughtless pumping of money into the economies of Western countries."

What's wrong here

Siluanov's words about "huge" resources do nothing to clarify their volume: estimates of the costs of the "special operation" vary from hundreds of millions to $20 billion per day. The Bell explained how the Russian economy can support additional spending for several years.

Russia can (and will) challenge the default rating, for example by citing clause a refund in other currencies. But that won't stop rating agencies from declaring it, which is bad even with a sharp contraction in borrowing .

Trillion-dollar "pandemic" aid packages to the US economy are considered by economists to be an important, but not the only factor in accelerating inflation in the world. On the supply side are deficits provoked by the pandemic, lockdowns in China and events in Ukraine.

13:46 Some EU leaders are inclined to believe that oil supplies through the Druzhba pipeline can be temporarily removed from the oil embargo, learned Bloomberg . This will give the European Union and embargo-resisting Hungary time to agree on all the details of the country's withdrawal from Russian oil. The option is far from guaranteed: some countries are dissatisfied with the new easing of the embargo, and some are dissatisfied with the fact that benefits will only apply to pipeline oil.

An alternative to Hungary's concessions (and the image defeat of the EU) will be a sixth package of sanctions against Russia without an embargo. At the insistence of Greece, a ban on the transportation of oil by European ships to third countries has already been excluded from it.

13:15 Russian cement producers predict a decline in consumption by 7% by the end of the year. This is the former pessimistic scenario, which is now becoming the baseline. The optimistic scenario included growth of 5%.

12:18 Over the past week, the volume of Russian oil in tankers and floating storage facilities has risen to a record 74-79 million barrels, writes Bloomberg. In early February, this figure was at the level of 27 million barrels.

The rise reflects rising supplies of Urals oil to India and China, which is causing tankers to spend much more than usual in transit - up to two months - and uncertainty about the European oil embargo. Asia outstripped Europe in deliveries of Russian tanker oil already in April, and the gap will grow in May: for many buyers in Asia, the discount is more important than political correctness, agency experts say.

In the Asian direction, China is increasing the import of ESPO oil from the port of Kozmino. in May instead of the usual two. To do this, the Unipec state trader chartered at least 10 tankers

11:00 The ruble continues to weaken against the dollar and the euro after yesterday's rate cut by the Central Bank. The dollar is more expensive than 67 rubles (even yesterday morning it was 57), the euro is more expensive than 71 rubles. Why the Central Bank needed to urgently lower the key rate, The Bell told in detail here .

10:44 Ozon reported for the first quarter at night. Free cash flow turned out to be negative - minus 46.9 billion rubles, a loss of 19 billion rubles (a year ago it was 6.7 billion rubles).

Turnover (177.5 billion rubles, + 139% year-on-year), the number of active buyers (28.7 million, + 79%) and the number of orders (93 million, + 173%) grew rapidly. The group's revenue grew by 90% to 63.6 billion rubles. The site has greatly increased its income both from commissions 169% year-on-year to 18.8 billion rubles, and from services: the same 169%, up to 24.3 billion rubles.

But I also spent Ozon at a faster pace. Operating expenses grew by 95% year-on-year, fulfillment and delivery costs by 147% (RUB 28.9 billion), marketing by 103% (RUB 7.4 billion), technology and content by 202% ( 5.3 billion rubles).

The company warned that due to the "geopolitical crisis around Ukraine" it sees great difficulties in raising capital. Sanctions have already hit businesses hard and continue to do so, so Ozon may not be able to meet its guidance.

What do you know about bonds?

• Ozon has entered into negotiations with bondholders and is trying to negotiate a redemption moratorium to try and negotiate a long-term restructuring
• The maturity date is May 31, but Ozon will most likely not be able to pay by that time due to regulatory restrictions and difficulties with transferring money. In addition, if you had to pay right now, it would hit the company's liquidity and growth prospects hard.
• Therefore, on June 14, the company may default on bonds and cross-default on other obligations.
• Bond trustee pulls out of Ozon, company assesses implications

10:30 The Supervisory Board of Sberbank recommended not to pay dividends for 2021 - for the first time since German Gref's leadership. banks to refuse dividends Quotes of the state bank fell, but not much: the Central Bank advised .

The main thing for the night and morning:

• Canadian Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland proposed to the G7 to allow the Russian "oligarchs" to pay off the sanctions and direct the resulting assets to the restoration of Ukraine. According to AP, Russian businessmen themselves came up with this proposal to Freeland, and Ukraine is also not against it.
• The US Treasury Department's general license, under which holders of Russian sovereign bonds can receive payments from Russia, has expired , but Russia still has a way to avoid default, writes RBC. In the documentation of all issues there is a clause “Reimbursement in another currency” (Currency Indemnity): the obligation can be considered fulfilled when paid in another currency (ruble), if the recipient can immediately exchange it for dollars and he is compensated for transaction costs. This is not a normal decision, but it will give Russia the opportunity to prove the absence of a default.
• The Italian Corriere della Sera has learned that British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has offered Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky an alternative alliance to Brussels. According to his idea, the "European community" of countries that value independence and are irreconcilable to Moscow's aggression could include Great Britain, Ukraine, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and later Turkey.
• The United States is preparing to supply Ukraine with MLRS missile systems, which the Ukrainian side directly demanded, writes CNN. The question is what missiles they will be equipped with. If missiles with a range of 100 km roughly correspond to the “Points” already in Ukraine, then ATACMS missiles, which have high accuracy and a range of up to 300 km, will be a critical escalation, which the Biden administration has so far refrained from. This, for example, is the distance from Kharkov to Voronezh.
• The European Union is detailing plans in the event of a complete cessation of Russian gas supplies. It is already clear that in this case, a strict limitation of the industry that consumes 27% of gas raw materials, including chemical, food and glass, will be required. Exceptions will be for vital sectors of the food industry, as well as security and medicine.

Continued online May 27

19:16 The Central Bank continues to soften currency regulation. The term for the sale of currency for exporters has been increased from 60 to 120 business days.

18:12 Gazprom may pay record dividends for 2021 in the amount of 52.53 rubles per share. In total, this is 1.244 trillion rubles. After the announcement of the payments, Gazprom's shares rose by about 9%.

16:24 The historic restaurant on Pushkinskaya in Moscow will reopen on Russia's Independence Day - June 12. What name it will have instead of McDonald's is still unknown, but Sergei Sobyanin has already promised to support the new brand. The Bell talked about who bought the Russian business of a global company that left Russia here .

16:15 The dollar on the Moscow Exchange is more expensive than 64 rubles. The ruble, whose exchange rate remains artificial , has fallen in price by 10% since the beginning of the session, winning back the decision of the Central Bank to cut the key rate to 11%.

15:31 The UK will impose a one-time 25% tax on excess profits of oil and gas companies. The funds (the government is counting on 5 billion pounds) will go to one-time compensation for the rise in energy prices to the British - 650 pounds each for the 8 million poorest households. This is just part of a £37bn emergency welfare package: every pensioner in the country will receive £300, and all households will be subsidized for heating and electricity by £400.

This will barely cover the increase in energy tariffs, which in the UK are limited by the state. From September, the average annual household bill is expected to rise by £800 to £2,800. Inflation for the year in the country is projected at 13%, the highest level in the G7.

15:26 The Russians, at least for a while, were left without Italian visas . Visa centers VMS and AlmavivA stopped accepting documents the day before due to the order of the Central Bank.

14:09 Vladimir Putin at the plenary session of the Eurasian Economic Forum (remote):

• Not everything has been done in import substitution, but “in key areas that ensure our sovereignty, we have done the most necessary”;
• The departure of some companies from Russia is for the better, their niche will be occupied;
• Russian business “shows the best qualities”, quickly adapts to changes;
• Those who seek to harm Russia with sanctions are harming themselves: “there has not been such inflation in developed economies for 40 years, unemployment is growing, chains are breaking, global crises are intensifying”;
• Theft of other people's assets has never brought anyone to good (about the reserves of the Central Bank).

13:40 More Nabiullina:

• The Central Bank considered lowering the rate to 12% and to 11%, and settled on the latter;
• The Central Bank will revise the inflation forecast for 2022. It was predicted at the level of 18-23%, but the forecast will be lowered.

13:00 Meanwhile, the dollar is 63 rubles, the euro is 66 plus four rubles from the start of trading.

12:47 Elvira Nabiullina's speech:

• The Central Bank succeeded in protecting financial stability and preventing an inflationary spiral from unwinding. But it's too early to "breathe out";
• The slowdown in lending and even "signs of some decline" show that monetary conditions in the economy are tight;
• It is impossible to abandon the counter-cyclical policy [in the current conditions - lending support]. It allows you to maintain stability and return to economic growth after shocks;
• This year, corporate lending may grow by 5%, taking into account the reduction in the key rate and the growth of state support;
• The Central Bank admits the possibility of further reduction of the key rate at the next meetings;
• It is a good time for banks to convert all foreign currency mortgages into rubles;
• The coming quarters will be challenging for both companies and citizens.

12:10 After Apple Pay and Google Pay services were turned off in Russia, Russians switched to contactless cards (mostly) and cash (to a lesser extent), according to a study by the NAFI analytical center. According to data cited by Forbes, in January 2022, the share of cash payments in the total retail turnover was 39%, and in early April it was already 42%.

10:33 The Central Bank lowered the key rate by three percentage points at once - to 11% per annum.

• The step down coincided with the range of most expectations, the extreme decline - by 7-8 p.p. - not realized;
• The dollar exchange rate, which rose in anticipation of the decision from 59.5 to 60.5 rubles, after the announcement of the new rate, rose not so significantly - up to 61.4 rubles. By 10:35 the dollar was worth less than 61 rubles.
• The rate of price growth is slowing down, inflationary pressure is weakening due to the dynamics of the ruble exchange rate "along with a noticeable decrease in inflationary expectations of the population and business."
• There is an inflow of funds for fixed-term ruble deposits, while lending activity remains low. “This limits pro-inflationary risks and necessitates easing monetary conditions,” the Central Bank writes.
• The Central Bank admits the possibility of reducing the key rate at the next meetings, the next one will be held on June 10.
• Given the current monetary policy, annual inflation will decrease to 5.0–7.0% in 2023 and return to 4% in 2024.
• At the next meeting, the Central Bank may reduce the rate by another 50-100 bp, said Dmitry Polevoy, investment director at Loko-Invest, given that the real rate on inflation expectations remained negative (minus 0.5%). Even with our current expectations, the OFZ/bond market still has significant potential for lower yields over the next 6-12 months, he said.

10:07 The conflict in Ukraine and lockdowns in China this year in the baseline scenario will cost the EU 2 p.p. GDP and 1.7 percentage points of inflation growth, the United States is noticeably less - 1.1 percentage points each, showed Bloomberg modeling . The baseline scenario assumes a 2% growth in the Chinese economy, a 10% decline in Russia's GDP, a 35% decline in Ukraine's GDP, a commodity shock and a 12.5% ​​drop in global equity indices.

09:44 Google notified several Russian providers about shutting down servers that are used to speed up the download of content (including YouTube), RBC learned . This "theoretically could affect the price of the Internet for users" and increase the load on the network.

09:03 Russian oil deliveries to China increasingly include reloading at sea, writes Bloomberg. Now a typical scheme for ESPO oil includes loading onto small tankers at the Transneft terminal in Kozmino near Vladivostok and pumping onto supertankers in the roads of the South Korean port of Yeosu.

Offshore transshipment is a common way to disguise the origin of oil, but in this case, the reasons are rather different, the agency notes:

• Fewer owners are ready to put tankers under loading in Kozmino, and a reduction in the transportation distance allows increasing the effective capacity of this supply channel.
• Almost all ESPO tanker oil began to be taken by China, widely using the discount due to sanctions. So far, this oil has mostly gone directly to South Korea and Japan.
• Tanker logistics is beneficial to China: due to lockdowns, some supertankers have been released, which can now be hired relatively cheaply and used as floating terminals. Direct freight from Russia to China has tripled in price since February.

Chinese state-owned companies are participating in the scheme: the largest shipping company Cosco Shipping and oil trader Unipec, Bloomberg notes.

8:45 Highlights for the night and morning:

- The European Union for the first time named the amount of frozen assets of the Bank of Russia - € 23 billion (about $ 24.5 billion). This figure was expected to be much higher, notes Reuters . The Russian authorities stated that due to sanctions around the world, the assets of the Central Bank were frozen in the amount of about $300 billion, of which about $100 billion were in the United States. The European official also said that the EU countries have frozen the assets of Russian oligarchs in the amount of about €10 billion (we are talking about real estate and yachts).

— Russian metallurgists have warned the government about losses in the industry and a reduction in production if the authorities do not cut taxes and weaken the ruble. This is stated in a letter from the executive director of the Russian Steel Association (including Severstal, MMK, NLMK and Evraz) Alexei Sentyurin to the relevant departments, learned RBC . It follows from the letter that some enterprises are already suffering losses and reducing production, and without prompt action, there are serious risks of staff reductions. Sentyurin notes that due to sanctions, supplies have to be redirected to China and other Asian countries, where goods are sold at a discount, in some cases even below cost.

— Google has notified several Russian providers of the termination of contracts for the maintenance of Google Global Cache servers, which are used to speed up the loading of Google services, including YouTube content. It is reported by RBC with reference to market participants. This “theoretically could affect Internet prices for users,” because operators will have to compensate for the increased maintenance costs, the expert explained to the publication. The load on the network may also increase and the stability of the channels may decrease.

— According to the results of April, the export of Russian mineral fertilizers almost halved despite the absence of direct restrictions. The sanctions hit fertilizers indirectly, creating problems for Russian producers, writes Forbes. For example, an industry source told the publication that “Western banks are so intimidated by possible sanctions that they arrange additional reviews of contracts for the supply of fertilizers”, as a result, a number of consumers cannot transfer money to the delivery account on time. In addition, according to the source, manufacturers have had difficulty organizing the charter of large-capacity dry-cargo vessels, so they have to use vessels of lower carrying capacity, which leads to higher transportation costs and longer delivery times. At the same time, the problem of a shortage of fertilizers in the world is now acute, therefore, direct sanctions against this industry do not threaten Russia, analysts believe.

- The government is developing amendments that will prohibit the issuance of licenses to foreign subsoil users, this is provided for by the plan of priority measures to support the economy in the face of sanctions, writes Vedomosti . The law can be adopted before the end of the spring session of the State Duma. According to one of the sources of the publication, the amendments will make it possible to secure new projects from the withdrawal of foreign investors from them, as is happening now due to sanctions.

Continued online May 26

19:07 In the week by May 20, there was deflation in Russia - prices fell by 0.02% after decelerating their growth to 0.05% a week earlier, Rosstat reported. Since the beginning of May, prices have increased by 0.13%, since the beginning of the year - by 11.82%.

18:54 Today's statements of officials about the dollar and the default :

Vladimir Putin: “The dollar, as you know, is shrinking, the ruble is strengthening, so we need to recalculate all this and make payments accordingly” (on payments to Russian military personnel stationed abroad).

Anton Siluanov: “The current situation has nothing to do with the situation in 1998, when Russia did not have enough funds to pay off its debts. Now there is money and the willingness to pay is also present. This situation artificially created by an unfriendly country will not affect the quality of life of Russians.”

Vyacheslav Volodin: “We will pay in rubles. This is a sensible choice for the US. They themselves banned payments in dollars <...> Let the US and the satellites that support their decisions get used to the ruble.”

18:35 The London home of the billionaire co-owner of Alfa Bank Petr Aven was searched as part of an investigation into a possible violation of sanctions, confirmed Bloomberg . The billionaire's house was searched by 30 law enforcement officers, they seized about 30 thousand pounds in cash. No charges have been brought against specific individuals, but Aven has been invited for questioning in September.

The subject of the investigation is the transfers that Aven made from Russia to the UK after February 24. Part of the money was transferred to the account of the British company Avena and went to payments for the maintenance of his house. On February 28, Aven, along with other Russian businessmen, fell under British sanctions - now he needs to obtain special permission to spend money in the sanctions department. According to Bloomberg, Aven did not receive such permission.

17:49 Vladimir Putin at the State Council for Social Policy approved the indexation by 10% from June 1 of pensions for non-working pensioners, the minimum wage and the living wage.

According to the president, inflation growth has slowed down, and this year it will not exceed 15%. It is noteworthy that the current forecast of the Ministry of Economic Development is higher (17.5%), but the figure named by Putin corresponds to the recent statement by Maxim Oreshkin.

today that the government agreed to index these payments by 10% wrote Vedomosti . According to the publication's experts, the indexation of pensions will require 0.15% of GDP.

17:26 to the State Duma A bill has been submitted equating to treason going over to the side of the enemy in the context of an armed conflict or military operations against Russia. In accordance with article 275 of the Criminal Code, this means from 12 to 20 years in prison.

• "Confidential cooperation" of Russians not only with foreign intelligence services, but also with an international or foreign organization or with representatives of such will be punished by imprisonment for up to 8 years.
• True, such assistance must be deliberately directed against the security of the Russian Federation, and the organization must act in the interests of a foreign intelligence service, or be a private military / intelligence company.
• Public calls to action against the security of Russia with aggravating circumstances - up to 6 years with a fine of up to 2.5 million rubles.

The “Fake Law” already provides for liability of up to 15 years for distributing deliberately false information containing data on the use of the Russian Armed Forces under the guise of reliable messages, if this entailed serious consequences.

16:47 The Central Bank has scheduled tests of the digital ruble on real transactions for April 2023, Frank Media quotes a statement by Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank Olga Skorobogatova at the congress of the Association of Banks of Russia. This means that the project will accelerate by a year.

The Central Bank with selected banks began testing the digital ruble ecosystem at the beginning of this year. Such an asset is not a cryptocurrency, but it uses its basic mechanisms - for example, blockchain - and allows you to abandon transaction confirmation systems such as SWIFT. Last year, the Central Bank told how working with the digital ruble would look like for individuals. Market participants did not like the high centralization of this asset: the Central Bank will be both the issuer and the operator of the platform.

15:43 The dollar exchange rate on the Moscow Exchange rose by 5% from levels below 57 rubles, slightly above 60, a similar trend for the euro. An hour after the peak, the dollar returned to the levels of 58.6 rubles.

14:50 Reducing the key rate at tomorrow's unscheduled meeting of the Central Bank is inevitable, writes Bloomberg: the regulator cannot but react to the strengthening of the ruble, which has become painful for the economy, and this action will not give an immediate effect.

No one expects a step of less than 200 basis points, and some economists do not exclude that the rate will be lowered from 14% to a level even lower than what it was before the start of the “special operation” (9.5%). “There is no point in calling an emergency meeting if you are not thinking about a drastic rate cut,” Tatiana Orlova of Oxford Economics told the agency. “I wouldn’t be surprised by a 700-800 basis point decline.”

14:06 FAS terminated the antimonopoly case against Yandex - the company complied with the service's warning. We are talking about the ended world case of "sorcerers", claims on which the largest Runet companies declared to the search engine. The Bell talked about it in detail here .

13:52 Vladimir Putin signed a decree giving residents of the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions of Ukraine the right to obtain Russian citizenship in a simplified manner. Since 2019, residents of the DPR and LPR have had such a right; as of February this year, received 860,000 people, or almost a quarter of the population of the republics, Russian passports. Before the “special operation”, 1 million people lived on the territory of the Kherson region, and 1.7 million lived in the Zaporozhye region.

in three readings 13:29 The State Duma immediately adopted a bill that abolishes the upper age limit for concluding the first contract for military service. Until now, the threshold was 40 years. This should attract to the Armed Forces specialists in popular specialties related to civilians - medical workers, technicians, signalmen, engineering workers.

The co-author of the bill, former Deputy Minister of Defense Andrey Kartapolov, was more specific: “In order to use high-precision weapons, educated specialists are needed. They reach a high level of professionalism closer to 45 years.”

12:28 The Central Bank at an unscheduled meeting tomorrow may lower the key rate by 250-300 bp. p., that is, up to 11-11.5% per annum, says Dmitry Polevoy, Investment Director of Loko-invest. The regulator will take such a step “if it is confident in a downward trajectory for inflation, maintains a rather negative outlook on the economy in 2022–2023, and is seriously concerned about the ruble exchange rate.”

Polevoy notes that the announcement of the unscheduled meeting appeared immediately after the news about the reduction in inflationary expectations of the population in May from 12.5% ​​to 11.5% (the lowest since May 2021). The main factor behind the decline is probably the strengthening ruble. At the same time, estimates of current inflation have risen sharply (from 19.9% ​​to 25.1%) - this is the maximum since September 2015, and they are growing for the third month in a row.

“The growth of the ruble may be partially slowed down by lower rates in the hope that the “expensive deposits” of the population expiring in June will partially go into consumption (i.e. imports) and non-cash currency,” writes Polevoy. Although it is very difficult to spend the currency in the current restrictions, it could be a purchase solely for investment purposes, the analyst adds.

12:03 The Federation Council supported the candidacy of Alexander Kurenkov for the post of head of the Ministry of Emergency Situations. So far, Alexander Chupriyan, who was appointed in September 2021 after the death of Yevgeny Zinichev, has been acting head of the Ministry of Emergency Situations. According to RBC , Kurenkov, a former employee of the Federal Security Service, "worked as Putin's senior adjutant." And recently he was an adviser to the head of the Russian Guard, Viktor Zolotov.

11:28 The euro on Wednesday morning for the first time since June 2015 fell below 58 rubles, the dollar fell below 56 rubles for the first time since February 2018. At 11:07 Moscow time, the dollar cost exactly 56 rubles, the euro - 58 rubles. The ruble, which has been strengthening since mid-March, has accelerated growth since the end of last week. This is due to the tax period, analysts explained : May 25 in Russia is a day of large tax payments, several taxes are paid at the same time. Probably, because of this, exporters increased the volume of sales of foreign exchange earnings.

11:20 British clothing manufacturer Marks & Spencer has decided to finally leave the Russian market, follows from its financial report for the first quarter. In early March, the company stopped deliveries to Russia, and subsequently decided to completely exit the Russian franchise, the document says. Marks & Spencer estimated the costs associated with leaving Russia and interruptions in business in Ukraine at £31 million (nearly $39 million).

10:03 Russia will pay its external debt in rubles after the US decision not to renew the license to service it, State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said. “By artificially banning payments in dollars, Washington is trying to create problems for Russia. Our country has a solution to this challenge. Firstly, all the necessary funds for payments are available. Secondly, we will pay in rubles,” he wrote in his Telegram channel.

The day before, the US Treasury officially announced that it would not renew a license that allows receiving foreign currency from Russia through sovereign bonds. This means that in July the country can expect a default. We talked about this in more detail here .

9:53 The Central Bank decided to hold an extraordinary meeting on May 26 at the key rate. According to the plan, it was supposed to take place only on June 10th. The last time the Central Bank reviewed the key rate was on April 29, when it immediately lowered it by 300 bp. up to 14% per annum.

9:12❗️Sobyanin announced a “covid amnesty” in Moscow.

1. The executive authorities of Moscow will stop work on the collection of fines imposed but not paid for violating covid restrictions.
2. The Moscow government will pay subsidies to businesses and citizens to compensate for previously paid fines.

“In total, we will stop collecting or return about 13.6 billion rubles,” the mayor said.

UPD: All fines are subject to amnesty, except for those that were imposed for non-compliance with the isolation regime during the COVID-19 period (“if a sick person left the house, he deliberately endangered the lives and health of those around him,” Sobyanin explained).

8:45 Highlights for the night and morning:

- Nike leaves Russia. The company has not extended the franchise agreement with Inventive Retail Group, which owns the country's largest mono-brand chain of American retailer stores, reports Vedomosti . In a letter from the IRG president to employees, Nike is unable to arrange shipments of goods to Russia "for the foreseeable future." In March, the company already stated that "it cannot guarantee the delivery of goods to customers in Russia." She stopped deliveries, stopped the work of the Russian online store and delivery to the region, and also temporarily closed all stores under direct control. Nike products, most likely, will not disappear from the Russian market at all, but it will be possible to buy them only in some multi-brand stores.

- The head of "Discovery" Mikhail Zadornov is against the bank's merger with VTB. According to RBC , he sent a letter to Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, in which he listed the disadvantages of such a deal. First, Zadornov believes that the accession of Otkritie to VTB will not significantly improve the latter's performance and does not guarantee an increase in the operating efficiency of the business. He cites VTB's past experience in consolidating its subsidiary VTB24 as an example, noting that "the announced synergies from the bank merger in 2018-2019 have not been confirmed in practice - total costs, on the contrary, have risen sharply." Secondly, Zadornov points to legal risks (VTB was a shareholder of Otkritie with a 7% stake before its reorganization, and the legislation "contains a direct prohibition for owners of more than 1% of the shares of rehabilitated banks to participate in their subsequent acquisition," the letter says). And, thirdly, according to Zadornov, the consolidation of two large banks "does not solve the problem of increasing the capital stability of the banking sector."

- The Ministry of Labor proposes to pay extra to employers for hiring refugees and Russians laid off due to the crisis. It is reported by RBC with reference to the explanatory note to the draft government decree. It follows from the document that it is proposed to include three new categories of workers in the recruitment subsidy program: 1) “citizens of Ukraine, the DPR and LPR and stateless persons who arrived on the territory of Russia on an emergency basis” and received a certificate of recognition as a refugee or a certificate of provision of a temporary asylum in Russia; 2) unemployed citizens whose employment contract was terminated in 2022 due to the liquidation of the organization/individual entrepreneur or downsizing; 3) employees at risk of dismissal, namely those for whom the regime of part-time work, simple, temporary suspension of work was introduced. The Ministry of Labor estimates that the program could affect 15,000 refugees and 60,000 of the 1.2 million at risk of being fired.

- The authorities of the Zaporozhye region announced their intention to become part of Russia and the introduction of a dual-currency zone. “There can be only one future for the Zaporozhye region – it should be part of Russia, should become a full-fledged subject of the Russian Federation. We don't need gray zones, we don't need the Zaporozhye People's Republic. We want to be part of Russia, as we have always been for hundreds of years,” Vladimir Rogov, a member of the main council of the military-civilian administration of the region, told RIA Novosti. He added that a dual-currency zone has been introduced in a part of the Zaporozhye region. “You can pay both in hryvnias and rubles. All benefits will be paid in rubles. The arrival of the ruble has significantly revived the economy of the region,” said Rogov. In addition, according to him, the International Settlement Bank has entered the region.

- Users of Wildberries in the last month began to complain that the company began to massively prescribe sanctions for the return of goods. Many received a notification that in case of refusal of the ordered goods, the site will take 100 rubles for each, wrote RBC . Wildberries assures that the measure affected no more than 10% of customers. Forbes found out exactly by what criteria the marketplace chooses from whom to take money for the return. From the memo, which the publication has read, it follows that 100 rubles for each refusal will be withheld from customers whose percentage of the purchase of goods is less than 50% and / or the amount of the purchase is less than 40,000 rubles. The data is taken from the year prior to the purchase. At the same time, the client cannot find out this data, because the application contains only the total amount of his ransom (for the entire period of presence on the marketplace). Thus, the buyer cannot know in advance whether he belongs to the category of those who will be charged 100 rubles for a return.

UPD: The representative of Wildberries denies the information that buyers with a paid return are not informed that the cost of the service is 100 rubles. According to him, customers learn about paid returns at the time of ordering.

Continued online May 25

22:21 ❗️ The US Treasury announced that it will not renew the license that allows you to receive currency from Russia through sovereign bonds. The current license expires tonight. This means that Russia still faces a default. Coupon payments scheduled for May 27 were made by the Ministry of Finance in advance, at the end of last week, clarifies RBC . The next payments are scheduled for June 23-24. If they fail to carry out, a formal default of Russia can wait at the end of July - after the expiration of the 30-day grace period.

We talked about how the Russian authorities tried to avoid default and what will happen if it occurs here .

21:50 The authorities of Jersey, one of the largest offshore companies in the world, have launched a preliminary investigation against Roman Abramovich, told sources familiar with the situation the WSJ. It concerns how the billionaire acquired Russian oil companies in the 1990s, whether some of the assets registered on the island were obtained illegally, as well as possible attempts to hide them from Western sanctions. The newspaper, citing sources and documents, notes that most of Abramovich's assets (companies that own real estate, helicopters and a businessman's yacht) have been registered in Jersey in recent years.

21:18 The State Duma proposed to give the president the right to restrict the movement of capital in the financial market, reports Interfax . Part of the powers can be delegated to the government or the Central Bank. According to the bill, the president will be able to establish a special procedure for currency control and regulation, transactions with foreigners from "unfriendly" states, as well as the payment of dividends to them from Russian legal entities.

20:15 The Ministry of Education and Science confirmed to Kommersant its intention to abandon the Bologna system (“bachelor-master”). Russia will develop its own system of higher education.

19:14 The Hungarian government declares a state of emergency in connection with the situation around Ukraine, said . Prime Minister Viktor Orban

16:56 Russia has banned the entry of 154 members of the House of Lords in response to sanctions against "almost the entire" composition of the Federation Council. The British, who were on the stop list, "made a direct contribution" to the development of sanctions "for the political isolation of Russia and the destruction of its economy", "used their authority to whip up anti-Russian hysteria in the UK" and "condoned the Russophobic political course," the Russian Foreign Ministry . said

15:41 Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban refused to discuss the embargo on Russian oil at the EU summit next week, writes the Financial Times. He has notified the European Council that he will not support phasing out Russian oil without specific proposals to compensate Hungary for it. So far, Brussels has earmarked 2 million euros for these purposes - but for the entire union, and not directly, but through the mechanism of the Rescue and Recovery Fund (RRF). Hungary fears RRF funding will conflict with funding from the giant (€210bn) REPowerEU plan, which aims to cut the EU off Russian energy by 2027.

15:18 Americans' electricity bills this summer will be the highest they've been in decades - up 40% year on year . Record oil and gas prices, combined with record drought and heat waves, are to blame. If you can still try to save money on car trips, then turning off the air conditioner at forty degrees in Florida is impossible, Bloomberg notes.

15:11 “Mr. Bondarev is no longer with us, rather, he is against us,” Peskov commented on the dismissal of the Russian diplomat at the UN. On the eve it became known that Boris Bondarev, adviser to the Russian Permanent Mission to the UN in Geneva, resigned and sent a letter to foreign colleagues in which he condemned the "special operation" in Ukraine and criticized the actions of the Russian Foreign Ministry.

According to Peskov, since Bondarev “condemns the actions of the Russian leadership,” it means that he “opposed the general consolidated opinion,” because “the actions of the Russian leadership are supported by almost the entire population of our country.”

13:56 food supplies have limited Since the end of February , almost 30 countries . Agricultural protectionism is now at its highest level since the global food crisis of 2007-2008. This means nothing but the prospect of rising prices. Since the beginning of the year, futures for wheat rose by 56%, for palm oil - by 38%, for dairy products - by 14%.

13:05 Following Nikolai Patrushev, who said that Russia "is not chasing deadlines" during the special operation, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said that the offensive is slowing down "deliberately in order to avoid civilian casualties."

12:36 Now, 62 million barrels of Russian Urals oil are "on the water" - three times more than the average before the "special operation", reports Reuters . Moreover, 15% of tanker shipments do not have a specific addressee. Shipments of Russian oil by sea in May fell to 6.7 million b/d from 7.9 million b/d in February, data on oil in transit significantly refine this statistics.

12:12 Germany has developed a plan in case "if Vladimir Putin decides to cut off her gas," writes Bloomberg. Economics Minister Robert Habeck is to present an emergency decree today allowing decommissioned coal-fired power plants to be reactivated. It will be valid until March 31, 2024.

11:54 The Swiss industrial group Sulzer, which was once controlled by Viktor Vekselberg, announced the complete curtailment of business in Russia. In 2021, it gave her 2.7% of revenue, and fell by 80% in the first quarter of this year. The company produces turbines and pumping equipment - from medical to marine.

11:27 Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev in an interview with Arguments and Facts:

• About the protracted “special operation”: “We are not chasing deadlines. Nazism must either be 100% eradicated, or it will rear its head in a few years, and in an even uglier form.”
• About the goals: “All the goals set by the President of Russia will be fulfilled. It cannot be otherwise, since the truth, including historical truth, is on our side. It is not for nothing that General Skobelev once said that only our country can afford such a luxury as to fight out of a sense of compassion.
• On the future fate of Ukraine: “The fate of Ukraine will be determined by the people living on its territory. I would like to remind you that our country has never controlled the fate of sovereign powers.”

10:34 The ruble continues to strengthen, despite yesterday's decision of the Ministry of Finance to reduce the level of mandatory sale of export earnings from 80% to 50%. The dollar after the opening of trading briefly fell below 57 rubles for the first time since March 2018. Euro - below 59 rubles, to a minimum since June 2015.

09:57 MTS started selling discounted and used smartphones of the "Like new" category - so far in Moscow. The devices are under warranty, the price can be half as much as for new ones. Svyaznoy and Citylink have similar offers.

09:50 The Russian representative office of the consulting Deloitte began to work in Russia under the Business Solutions and Technologies brand, Kommersant writes. The company was registered on May 20, the general director of the organization is Ekaterina Ponomarenko. International Deloitte announced the cessation of all operations in Russia and Belarus in March.

The main thing for the night and morning:

• Apple's monobrand retailers re:Store and iPort are closing some stores. Stocks of already imported equipment are limited, and parallel imports threaten to permanently ruin relations with the American company if it returns to the Russian market. Retailers not dependent on one brand have already begun parallel imports of smartphones, but so far the devices imported in this way are noticeably more expensive.
• How abundant the dollar is now and how expensive the ruble is (we devoted the evening mailing to the limits of its strengthening ), demonstrates the anomalous situation in the interbank market. The exchange of dollars for rubles began to cost banks more than direct loans in rubles.
• Two-thirds of the fall in oil production in Russia fell on Rosneft, learned Bloomberg . The company's share in Russian production is half that, which means that Western sanctions have affected it the most. However, Rosneft led the rebound in production in May, which is most likely due to the reorientation of supplies to Asian markets.
• the Chinese domestic booking market after five years of struggle Airbnb has decided to exit . The globally successful company has not taken root in the country, because of which it was accused of passing user data to the authorities, and the last straw was the policy of zero tolerance for the coronavirus and the collapse of domestic tourism caused by it.
• Samsung is increasing its already gigantic five-year investment program by 30% to $360 billion, concentrating on chip manufacturing. Chip maker Broadcom, meanwhile, is preparing to buy VMware for $60 billion in one of its largest M&A deals. Dell founder Michael Dell will continue to lead VMware.

Continued online May 24

20:28 Vladimir Litvinenko transferred to his wife Tatyana Litvinenko a 20.6% stake in Phosagro. After that, he was left with a stake of 0.39%, the company said .

20:19 A criminal case has been opened against Russian businessman Pyotr Aven in the UK, TASS reports , citing a source. According to him, the entrepreneur is accused of violating the sanctions imposed on him: due to the restrictions imposed on him, Aven can spend no more than £2.5 thousand a month, but the British authorities believe that he spends much more. There is no confirmation of the information.

In March, Aven gave an interview to the Financial Times, in which he spoke about the difficulties he faced due to the sanctions imposed on him by the European Union and the UK. “Our business is completely destroyed. Everything that we have been building for 30 years is completely destroyed. And we have to start a new life somehow,” he said. The businessman also complained that he did not know "whether he would be allowed to hire a cleaning lady or a driver" and "does not understand how to survive."

20:10 For the restoration of the infrastructure of the capitals of the LPR and DPR, most likely, the Moscow authorities will be responsible, RBC reports , citing sources. According to them, the funds will be directed from the Moscow budget, it is not yet clear how much will have to be spent. The press service of the Moscow mayor's office declined to comment.

19:12 The Starbucks coffee chain has announced that it has decided to leave the Russian market. The American company, which has 130 coffee shops in Russia, noted that it will continue to provide support to its two thousand Russian employees - they were promised employment assistance and payments within six months. The company stopped doing business in Russia and shipping products to the country back in March.

18:20 The Ministry of Finance has reduced the level of mandatory sale of export earnings from 80% to 50%. “This is due to the stabilization of the ruble exchange rate and the achievement of a sufficient level of liquidity in foreign currency in the domestic foreign exchange market,” the ministry said in a statement.

16:09 Putin proposed to appoint Alexander Kurenkov to the post of head of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, TASS and RIA Novosti report , citing sources. His candidacy will be considered by the Federation Council on May 24-25. According to RBC , Kurenkov, a former employee of the Federal Security Service, "worked as Putin's senior adjutant." And recently, he was an adviser to the head of the Russian Guard, Viktor Zolotov.

13:19 RIA Novosti announced the departure of the parent company of the Swedish manufacturer of multilayer aseptic packaging Tetra Pak from Russia.

At the end of March, Tetra Pak drastically reduced the range of food packaging, but retained its main production in Lobnya, Moscow Region. Among the consumers of its products are PepsiCo (House in the Village, J7, Lyubimiy), Coca-Cola (Dobry, Rich), Danone (Prostokvashino, Alpro) and many other brands.

UPD: Tetra Pak continues to work on the Russian market, the rumors about leaving are not true.

13:11 which became state-owned AvtoVAZ, , was headed by the former Minister of Transport in the government of Dmitry Medvedev, the former vice-governor of St. Petersburg Maxim Sokolov. In the 2000s, he worked in the government of St. Petersburg on the investment committee, overseeing the attraction of the largest automakers to the city, including Hyundai and Toyota.

13:06 the board of directors of Rosneft . left became famous thanks to the dance with Putin, Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl, who

On Friday, The Wall Street Journal confirmed that not only Gerhard Schroeder and Matthias Warnig are leaving the board of directors of Rosneft , but also Igor Sechin's "most qualified associates" - first vice presidents Didier Casimiro and Zeljko Runye. In addition, some sources know about the resignations of Vice President for Commerce and Logistics Otabek Karimov and Eric Liron (Oil Service).

12:24 ECB President Christine Lagarde believes that the main rate can begin to be raised in July and withdraw from the negative area in September. Such a statement corresponds to two rate increases of 0.25 percentage points, the euro strengthened by 1% against the dollar on her statement.

12:01 The Central Bank is considering reducing the mandatory sale of foreign exchange earnings for exporters from 80% to 50% in order to curb the strengthening of the ruble, Bloomberg learned . According to HSE professor Yevgeny Kogan, the consequences of the dollar exchange rate at the current level for the economy will be “extremely unpleasant” already on the horizon of six months, and the “comfortable” level will be 75-80 rubles per dollar.

10:48 The Central Bank denied information about the indirect purchase of foreign currency from exporters to contain the ruble. The fact that the Central Bank returned to the market, probably through intermediary banks, was reported today by Vedomosti.

10:25 Poland prematurely terminated the 1993 intergovernmental agreement with Russia on gas supplies via the Yamal-Europe gas pipeline. “Russia's aggression against Ukraine has confirmed the correctness of the Polish government's course towards complete independence from Russian gas. We have never considered Gazprom a reliable partner,” Anna Moskva, the country’s climate minister, wrote. In fact, the Polish section of the gas pipeline has not been used since the end of 2021, and recently it was also blocked by the Russian side with retaliatory sanctions against the operator, EuRoPol Gaz.

Poland is better than other EU countries ready to refuse long-term contracts with Gazprom - it has significant reserves in UGS facilities, its own LNG terminal in Swinoujsc, reverse gas pipelines with Germany and the Baltic Pipe gas pipeline under construction from Norwegian fields. Without supplies from Russia, the country is already practically gaining the required volume of gas, wrote . Forbes

10:20 At the opening of trading at the Moscow Exchange on Monday, the dollar is cheaper than 59 rubles, the euro is cheaper than 62 rubles. Both currencies lost about 1.5 rubles by Friday's close.

The main thing by the morning of May 23:

• Despite the desire of the West to isolate Russia in the oil market, the EU oil embargo looming over it and the fall in production, Russia will enter the new OPEC+ deal. This was announced in an interview with the FT by the Minister of Energy of Saudi Arabia, who actually heads the cartel.
• Passenger traffic by Russian airlines in April fell by 30% year-on-year to 5 million people after falling 20% ​​in March. In the current conditions, this is not the worst result, and in any case not a disaster, argues Kommersant . For example, Aeroflot, which previously focused on international transportation, returned to second place. The question is how long Russian companies will be able to maintain the carrying capacity without imports - Bloomberg writes that there are three months before the dismantling of Aeroflot liners for spare parts.
• Russians may be allowed several individual investment accounts (IIA) with a single tax deduction. This is a response to the difficulties of clients after the transfer of their securities from sanctioned brokers, which in some cases turned out to be partial and deprived the owners of part of the benefits.
• Another brand that came to Russia in the 1990s is leaving it for good - Levi's, famous for its jeans, is getting rid of stores. The Turkish Fiba Holding (Gap, Marks & Spencer) may become a buyer, but the fate of the assets has not yet been determined. The “levises” of Russians, like a quarter of a century ago, will be provided by gray imports.
• Tinkoff Bank has launched a service for paying for purchases from a smartphone Tinkoff Pay, writes RBC. Potentially, this is a powerful solution at the level of Google Pay, which can support third-party bank cards and offline payments. But these functions will be added in stages, but for now, the system's assets include payment in online stores connected to Tinkoff Kasa acquiring.
• The first face-to-face World Economic Forum in Davos since the beginning of the pandemic opened with the “end of globalization” agenda after 30 years of what seemed to be an unshakable and final trend, writes FT. Geopolitics has become a decisive factor in investment decisions, and the language of economics has shifted to the concepts of regionalization, renationalization and onshoring.

Read online for May 16–22 here .