Drone attack, VK returns employees from abroad and new restrictions for investors

What is known about the drone attack on the Russian regions and what it could be

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Drones today hit at least four regions of Russia, and in another one - St. Petersburg - the airspace was closed due to an unidentified flying object. Although there are no casualties or serious damage, the situation looks alarming and is perceived by both the pro-war and anti-war media and telegram channels as preparation for more massive drone raids on Russian infrastructure facilities.

What happened and where

• In the Belgorod region, for which Ukrainian drone strikes have become familiar, . three drones fell on the night of February 28, according to the governor The Telegram channel Baza writes about four: two of them fell near residential buildings and damaged cars, one crashed against the wall, and debris fell into one of the apartments, the fourth exploded on the roof of the store, causing a fire. It is possible that the drones did not reach the target, which could be an electrical substation, due to the opposition of Russian electronic warfare systems (EW). The photo and video of this attack show small-scale light drones with a wingspan of about three meters, with a load of a pair of checkers of plastic explosive with striking elements.
• Another drone crashed on the night of February 28 in the village of Novy Giaginsky district of Adygea. According to the head of the republic, there are no victims or injured, but there is "insignificant destruction of the outbuildings of the livestock farm." The photo from the crash site shows fragments of a Tu-141 drone jet engine. Anyway, the explosion was strong . In the past, the Armed Forces of Ukraine have used such devices to attack air bases in the depths of Russia, and this time from the likely launch site in Ukraine to the point of impact is at least 400 km.
• The most serious incident with drones occurred in the Krasnodar Territory. Two fallen drones caused a fire at a large Rosneft oil depot in Tuapse. Eyewitnesses filmed them on the approach - and, judging by these shots, the vehicles were high-speed and jet. But it is possible that the attack was more complicated and included an air defense distraction detachment: in the afternoon, appeared photos of the wreckage of piston-engined drones allegedly shot down on approach to the city . The fire at the oil depot was extinguished quickly, burned down only the outbuilding . Nearby oil tanks were not affected, and there were no casualties.
• On the afternoon of February 28, there were reports of a drone crash in the Moscow region, near the Gazprom gas compressor station near the village of Gubastovo in the Kolomensky district. The device was identified as a Ukrainian-made UJ-22 Airborne, capable of carrying a payload of 10–20 kg to a maximum range. Governor of the Moscow Region Andrey Vorobyov wrote that "the target was probably a civilian infrastructure facility, it was not damaged."
• The most bizarre incident, which may also have involved a drone, took place in St. Petersburg. At about 10:30, the city's airport stopped receiving and sending flights, 200 km of airspace over St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region was completely cleared of civilian aircraft. The media reported on the introduction of the "Carpet" plan - it is introduced when illegally crossing the border, as well as when unidentified objects appear in the airspace. Fontanka, citing a source close to the administration of St. Petersburg, wrote that the sky over the city was closed due to an unidentified flying object. Restrictions were maintained until 12:00, while the object was never found. The Ministry of Defense explained the closure of the space, the delay in flights and the rise of fighters as "training of the air defense forces." The main danger of the incident is that it could be the actions of enemy electronic warfare. The same Fontanka recalls that in mid-February, a UFO was also “chased” near St. Petersburg, changing its course and speed without taking into account the laws of physics (a false target created on the target radar screen looks something like this). Today, "everything was like last time," the source said.

What was it and what's next?

The Russian Ministry of Defense, in addition to the situation in St. Petersburg, commented on the attack in Adygea and one of the incidents in the Krasnodar Territory: these are drones of the “Kyiv regime”, which were suppressed by Russian electronic warfare and did not reach the targets. “Both drones lost control and deviated from their flight path. One UAV fell in the field, another UAV, deviating from the trajectory, did not harm the attacked civilian infrastructure object, ”the agency writes.

The Armed Forces of Ukraine have traditionally not commented on their involvement in drone attacks.

State TV channels focused on the least significant incidents. So, on the Russia 1 TV channel there was a story about a drone that flew into an apartment in a Belgorod high-rise building and landed on a bed (Baza writes that only fragments got into the apartment, the channel does not show frames with a drone on the bed). And on the website of Channel One there is a 30-second story telling about the arrivals of drones in Adygea, the Krasnodar Territory and the Belgorod Region.

There are several features in today's drone attack that make it different from previous raids. Firstly, regions were affected that drones had not previously reached - the Krasnodar Territory, Adygea, and even the Moscow region. This means that facilities in Moscow could also potentially be attacked. Secondly, the night strikes were carried out with a small difference in time. Even for a country with a developed air defense system, repelling a strike from several directions is more difficult than coping with a crisis in one place, the notes . BBC

In addition, different types of drones were used. “If earlier the Armed Forces of Ukraine used only Swifts and Mugins, now there are more variations. And the airfields from which they are launched are not limited to Shkolny in Odessa, but include Mirgorod, Dimitrov, Priluki, Korotych, Dnepropetrovsk, ” writes the Rybar telegram channel.

Patriotic channels believe that this is not yet a massive attack from Ukraine, but already a test of the possibility of a mass launch of various types of drones. Another goal was to continue to uncover the actions of the Russian air defense and ways to bypass its positional areas. Pro-war channels expect that today's attacks will almost certainly be followed by more serious and massive raids.

SIGNALS

VK limited udalenka to the territory of Russia

VK asked employees to decide on working locations. Remote work is still allowed, but is now only possible from the territory of Russia, the company said in a statement published on the internal network (The Bell has read its content). The post says that it is important for the company to “find a balance between the comfort of employees and business efficiency.” Therefore, VK retains the ability to work remotely, but only from the territory of Russia. Employees are invited to choose a suitable location for further work and coordinate it with management.

An interlocutor of The Bell, who is familiar with the situation, explained that most companies in the market are trying to localize work with data and key IT systems in Russia for security reasons. This is also required by customers when it comes to outsourcing. “But companies do not fire valuable employees working from abroad, and agree with them on the format of work individually,” he says.

The fact that VK is going to fire all the employees who left if they do not return to their homeland was written in January by the We Can Explain telegram channel. But then the interlocutor of The Bell, who was familiar with the situation, said that there was no talk of layoffs of all the employees who left, and they offered to return to specialists with certain specifics of work due to data security issues.

INVESTIGATION

"Project" wrote about Putin's connection with the Cyprus offshore and Kabaeva's real estate

The Proekt publication (its predecessor was recognized as an undesirable organization in Russia), in its new investigation, claims that it was able to connect the Cypriot company Ermira with Vladimir Putin, whose structures in the past owned large stakes in the National Media Group, Gazprom and the bank "Russia", as well as the brand "Putinka". Ermira offshore was previously associated with Arkady Rotenberg, a close associate of the president, and this company gained fame due to the fact that it paid for the construction of the so-called "Putin's palace" near Gelendzhik. As evidence of the connection of the offshore directly with Putin, the Project cites the words of an anonymous source. Also, the connection of the offshore with the president, according to the publication, is indicated by real estate, which at various times was purchased with the money of Ermira or structures related to it. In particular, this is an apartment for Artur Ocheretny, the husband of Putin's ex-wife Lyudmila, as well as real estate for the "former gymnast" Alina Kabaeva. The second part of the investigation is devoted to where and how Kabaeva lives now. We retold the main theses from the investigation here .

INVESTMENTS

Investors face new restrictions due to sanctions

Tsifra broker (formerly Freedom Finance) will set a threshold for withdrawing dollars to third-party banks from March 1 - at least $15,000, reported RBC . The reason was the decision of Raiffeisenbank, which services the company's special brokerage accounts. The restriction does not apply to the withdrawal of funds to accounts in Tsifra Bank and Raiffeisenbank, as well as to other currencies. A similar decision was also made by Finam, follows from the client mailing list (the Bell has it).

After a series of new sanctions against Russian banks, Raiffeisenbank doubles the minimum amount of transfers in foreign currency from March 6. The bank explained that this is necessary “so that, in the context of increased requirements for verification procedures and payments on the side of correspondent banks, not to exceed the limits set by them on the number of such payments.”

In addition, Veles Capital will temporarily restrict access to trading in foreign shares on the St. Petersburg stock exchange. Over the weekend, the company came under US blocking sanctions.

We write about what is happening in the markets, what the largest investment banks recommend to their clients, and how to look at the markets through the eyes of a long-term investor in the weekly Bell.Investments mailing list (this is a paid product, but worth it).

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WHAT ELSE HAPPENED

• The amount of the contribution that the Russian authorities are discussing with large businesses could be 5% of the difference between the total profit of companies for 2021-2022 and 2018-2019, said Interfax sources . One of the interlocutors clarified that the range of 4-5% is being discussed, and we are talking about profit before tax. The formula is not yet final, the agency emphasizes. Calculations are expected after official data for 2022. The fact that a single contribution for business will be calculated on the basis of the difference between the total profit for two periods, was confirmed by the head of the RSPP Alexander Shokhin. The fact that back in December the government offered businesses, united by the RSPP, to make a one-time payment to the budget of 200-250 billion rubles, The Bell wrote here .
• Ukraine may surrender Bakhmut in the near future, writes Bloomberg. The publication notes that this is indicated by the changed tone of the Ukrainian authorities, who used to say that they would defend the city at any cost, and now they call the situation very tense. Fierce battles have been going on around Bakhmut for a long time. At the same time, according to Bloomberg, the city is not an important logistics center and will not bring a significant advantage to Russian troops. The United States advised Ukraine to play for time while waiting for heavy equipment to arrive, the newspaper notes.
• Vladimir Putin signed a law suspending Russia's participation in the Strategic Offensive Arms Treaty. START (or START-3) is the last treaty between Moscow and Washington to reduce nuclear potentials. It follows from the text of the decree that only the head of state will be able to make a decision on the resumption of Russia's participation. The law comes into force on February 28. Putin announced the suspension of Russia's participation in the nuclear weapons treaty on February 21 in a message to the Federal Assembly. What it threatens, we understood here .