The ruble exchange rate on the morning of Monday, December 29, at trading on the Moscow Exchange immediately fell by 4 rubles against the dollar and the euro, as a result of which the dollar exchange rate again exceeded 58 rubles, and the euro exchange rate exceeded 70 rubles, according to exchange data. As of 10:26 Moscow time, the dollar exchange rate in “tomorrow” calculations increased by 4.2 rubles and amounted to 58.2 rubles.

Press Secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov said that Vladimir Putin, at the request of the All-Russian Popular Front (ONF), can instruct relevant departments to work on the issue of supporting independent cable channels, RIA Novosti reported on Monday, December 29 .

Russian President Vladimir Putin and the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Christine Lagarde had a telephone conversation during which they discussed the financial and economic situation in Ukraine, the reported on Monday, December 29.

The Internet holding Rambler&Co, whose managing shareholder and director is Alexander Mamut , is closing the printed versions of the Afisha-Mir and Afisha-Eda magazines and promises to return money to users who subscribed for 2015, reported Vedomosti on Monday, December 29 "with a link to one of the subscribers. According to Vedomosti's interlocutor, the letter notes that the publications are being closed due to the situation on the foreign exchange market.

The Verkhovna Rada early in the morning of Monday, December 29, adopted a bill on the state budget of Ukraine for 2015, which provides for austerity in order to obtain loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), reports Reuters . The bill received 233 votes in favor, with 226 required. The leader of the opposition faction, Yuriy Boyko, and the leader of the Batkivshchyna faction, Yulia Tymoshenko, opposed the adoption of the budget in the existing version, RBC-Ukraine reports .

Governor of St. Petersburg Georgy Poltavchenko denied rumors that the General Motors car assembly plant in Shushary could be closed for political reasons, RIA Novosti reported on Monday . “The company does not plan to close production in St. Petersburg,” said the St. Petersburg governor. He said that the plant is currently optimizing production taking into account the economic situation and changes in exchange rates. Poltavchenko admitted that in 2014 production volumes at St.

The AirAsia Airbus A320 that went missing on Sunday is likely lying at the bottom of the sea, the head of Indonesia's search and rescue service, Henry Bambang Soelsto, said at a press conference on Monday, December 29. “Based on the coordinates known to us <...> any suspected crash site is at sea, and the hypothesis is that the plane is at the bottom of the sea,” he is quoted as saying by the Associated Press . So far, authorities have not been able to find traces of the missing plane.

The Bank of Russia increased the official euro exchange rate on Tuesday, December 30, by 5.5459 rubles to 69.059 rubles, according to data published on the regulator’s website on Monday. The official dollar exchange rate increased by 4.6458 rubles to 56.6801 rubles. The cost of the bi-currency basket ($0.55 and €0.45), calculated at the official Central Bank rates, increased by 5.0508 rubles to 62.2506 rubles. See also Forbes special project: What ruble exchange rate do you deserve?

In China, user access to the Gmail email service, owned by the American Internet giant Google, has been blocked, Reuters reports citing the Chinese human rights organization GreatFire.org. According to GreatFire.org, a significant number of Gmail addresses were blocked in China as early as Friday, December 26th. By Monday, service users still did not have access to their mailboxes. GreatFire.org said that the Chinese government is believed to be behind the blocking of Gmail.

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law increasing the limit of insurance payments on bank deposits of individuals from the funds of the Deposit Insurance Agency (DIA) from 700,000 to 1.4 million rubles, according to a document posted on the official legal information portal on Monday, December 29. The document amends the laws “On insurance of individuals’ deposits in banks” and “On the Central Bank”. The State Duma adopted the corresponding bill in all three readings on December 19.

photo by Max Scher for Forbes Parus Capital Opportunity Fund partners use extensive personal connections when investing. Why are they counting on the collapse of the Russian market? “I have a friend who may be looking for promising coal enterprises in Kuzbass,” Alexei Morozov, a senior metals analyst at UBS Bank, told head of trading Boris Sinegubko on the sidelines of the bank’s Moscow conference in 2004.

The Russian operator Megafon, controlled by businessman Alisher Usmanov , and China Development Bank (CDB) signed a loan agreement in the amount of $500 million for a period of seven years, TASS reports on Monday, December 29, citing the company’s press service. Megafon plans to use the funds raised to finance the purchase of equipment and services from the Chinese company Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd for the purpose of developing mobile networks.

The defense team of the son of the ex-president of Bashkortostan and the former head of Bashneft, Ural Rakhimov, intends to challenge the claim of AFK Sistema for 70.7 billion rubles, insisting on its groundlessness, TASS reported on Monday , citing Rakhimov’s lawyer Sergei Makarenko.

General Director of Tatneft Nail Maganov said that the company, at the request of the government, sold $400 million reserved for repayment of loans, investing the rubles received in the development of production, TASS reported on Monday, December 29 . “We have about $13 billion in foreign currency earnings for 11 months and in December there will be plus 360-400 million.

The head of the Cinema Fund, Anton Malyshev, called on film companies to stop spending in foreign currency, including paying fees to actors, TASS reports on Monday, December 29.