Putin intimidated Europe by stopping gas supplies if it does not abandon plans to abandon Russian fuel Vladimir Putin used the war in Iran to force the European Union to reconsider its plans to abandon Russian gas. The Russian President said that... pic.twitter.com/MwxwMbb6sw — Agency News (@agents_media) March 4, 2026 Vladimir Putin used the war in Iran to force the European Union to reconsider its plans to abandon Russian gas.

Since the beginning of the year, at least 34 books have been withdrawn from Russian bookstores on the initiative of publishing houses, according to the Agency’s analysis. This is already the fifth wave of book seizures since the beginning of the war. Details . The first books in 2026 were confiscated by the Read-City - Bukvoed network.

Moscow budget expenditures will be reduced due to an unplanned slowdown in revenue growth, city mayor Sergei Sobyanin said. The authorities plan to reduce civil servants and employees of institutions subordinate to the mayor’s office, as well as optimize costs for the investment program. About 3 thousand people may lose their places. The last time the city budget was cut was 2013. Details .

The share of global brands in the Russian passenger car market in January-February 2026 increased to 15%, Sergei Tselikov, director of Avtostat, told the Agency. The last time such a share of foreign brands was in mid-2023, he specified. Details. Throughout last year, the share of global brands remained within 10%. The minimum was in January last year - about 6%. In 2022 and early 2023, remnants from pre-war times were still being sold.

Germany's Federal Intelligence Service (BND) said on Wednesday that Moscow is hiding the real cost of the war in Ukraine, and that the real Russian budget deficit in 2025 exceeds officially announced figures by more than 2.36 trillion rubles. Details. According to BND estimates, the Russian federal budget deficit is 8.01 trillion rubles (3.7% of GDP) against the officially announced 5.65 trillion rubles (2.6% of GDP).

In bookstores and marketplaces, labels have appeared indicating that books contain information about drug use. A photo of marked books in the Phalanster store in Moscow was published on Tuesday by its co-founder Boris Kupriyanov. The photo showed a collection of articles “Pushkin and Finance” and the diaries of the poetess Olga Berggolts. Similar markings appeared on these books on marketplaces, the Agency was convinced.

Iranian authorities secretly acquired and deployed facial recognition software developed by the Russian company NtechLab, associated with the state corporation Rostec, according to a joint investigation by Forbidden Stories, Le Monde, Paper Trail Media, Der Spiegel and ZDF, with the participation of The Signals Network. In Russia, this technology has been used to spy on the opposition, including supporters of Alexei Navalny, and independent journalists. Details.