On June 26, at the age of 73, Sergei Ivanov, the former defense minister, head of the presidential administration and deputy prime minister who competed with Dmitry Medvedev to succeed Vladimir Putin in 2008, died. Writer Dmitry Bykov takes a principled and compassionate look at Sergei Ivanov’s path from the KGB Higher School to the VTB United League, the organization that announced his death.

The head of the Central Bank, Elvira Nabiullina, stubbornly keeps the rate high. Photo by ALEXANDER ZEMLIANICHENKO / POOL / AFP The budget crisis, superimposed on the fuel crisis, the ultimatum of the head of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs Alexander Shokhin, the fall in oil prices and the deterioration of relations with Trump - all this happened last week and did not pass without a trace.