U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller has filed formal charges against 13 Russians he believes were involved in interfering in the 2016 presidential campaign. The list includes the alleged owner of the “troll factory” Yevgeny Prigozhin, 12 of his employees, as well as the Internet Research Agency (the “troll factory” worked under this name) and Prigozhin’s companies Concord Managament and Concord Catering.

Exemplary Russian Self-Made billionaire sold his company to the state Photo: Vitaly Timkiv/TASS Perhaps the main deal of 2018 occurred at its very beginning. Sergei Galitsky, founder of the Magnit retail network, which last year was the largest in Russia, sold its 29% of the network - in the case of Magnit, this is actually a control package - VTB.

Rates on ruble deposits fell less than 7% and will continue to decline. We can't expect any growth this year. The maximum interest rate on deposits has reached a historical minimum: in the first ten days of February it dropped from 7.07% to 6.96%, the Central Bank reported . The Central Bank calculates the maximum rate on ruble deposits of the top 10 banks that attract the largest volume of individual deposits. The list of banks is here .

The Central Bank has prepared a bill prohibiting banks from displaying exchange rate boards outside the bank premises. It is also prohibited to post information about exchange rates on the external walls of the building where the bank is located, on the roof or on stands and banners. Whether shop windows and windows can be used is unclear from the Central Bank order.

Today at the Sochi Forum the first Russian investors in Pavel Durov’s ICO Telegram became known. $17 million was invested by the founder and co-owner of Qiwi Sergei Solonin, another $10 million was invested by the former co-owner of Wimm-Bill-Dann David Yakobashvili. Both were ready to invest more, but did not receive permission from Pavel Durov. “In the next round of ICO, I plan to make investments worth up to $10 million,” Solonin added.

A new, third war begins between the shareholders of Norilsk Nickel. The main owners of the company - Vladimir Potanin and Oleg Deripaska - will compete for a minority stake, which belongs to the structures of Roman Abramovich and Alexander Abramov. All this is against the backdrop of Deripaska’s troubles with Nastya Rybka’s revelations and the preparation of his En+ holding for a possible SPO. Roman Abramovich, who reconciled Potanin and Deripaska in 2012, may leave the company’s shareholders.

The founder of Magnit, the largest Russian retail chain just a year ago, Sergei Galitsky sold his 29.1% stake in VTB for 138 billion rubles. Now he will become a minority shareholder of Magnit with a 3% stake. The businessman did not comment on the deal in detail, he only called the decision difficult and said that he and other shareholders of the company have different views on its development.

Journalists continue to investigate the losses of Wagner PMC in Syria. Officially, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs recognized the death of only five people. Photo: Wikimedia Commons Last week, 300 Russian mercenaries were injured in Syria, at least 80 of them were killed, Reuters said last night. According to the Russian military doctor, quoted by Reuters, there were about a hundred killed.