Three days after the elections in Ukraine, Vladimir Putin signed a decree on a simplified procedure for granting Russian citizenship to residents of the DPR and LPR, calling this a measure of a “purely humanitarian nature.” Distributing passports could entail quite significant costs, The Bell has calculated. The payment of pensions alone could cost at least 100 billion rubles a year.

The educational platform Coursera has become a unicorn — after the next round of investments, its valuation exceeded $1 billion, writes TechCrunch. The money received will allow the company to expand its range of services - to work even more with companies on the creation of corporate courses and start helping its users with job searches. What's happened.

The price of the issue with the issuance of Russian passports is a difficult issue, especially if you take into account that Russia already covers social expenses in the east of Ukraine The distribution of passports to residents of the DPR and LPR can lead to quite tangible expenses, counted The Bell. Only the payment of pensions can cost at least 100 billion rubles a year.

The Russian government will not prohibit citizens from importing meat and dairy products from abroad for personal purposes, a government source told Interfax. The ban was requested by the National Meat Association (NMA), uniting large Russian agricultural holdings. She explained her proposal by the fight against African swine fever. “No one is going to introduce any new restrictions for citizens. This issue is not being considered,” a source in the government told Interfax.

Capitalization of Microsoft for the first time exceeded $1 trillion. This is the fruit of her successful transformation from a Windows developer to a cloud service provider. What happened. Microsoft officially joined the $1 trillion club after trading opened on Thursday. Apple and Amazon crossed that threshold last year, but they are now cheaper at $975 billion and $942 billion, respectively. On the eve of Microsoft published a very strong report for the third fiscal quarter.

Former US Vice President Joe Biden announced his intention to run in the 2020 presidential election. The weighty political experience and reputation of a former ally of Barack Obama makes Biden the most serious competitor to Donald Trump. But he treats Russia in much the same way as other Democrats who advocate opposition to the Kremlin. Statement.

A whole market of “online punching” has developed in Russia - a system of forums where you can inexpensively buy passport data, information about a person’s movements around the city, details of telephone conversations and even the code word of a bank card, the BBC Russian Service found out . The main providers of information are ordinary employees of mobile phone shops, bank branches or police departments, often from the provinces.

Vladimir Putin commented for the first time on the results of the presidential elections in Ukraine. The president did not congratulate Vladimir Zelensky on his victory, but he called it a complete failure of Petro Poroshenko's policy. More. “What is there to evaluate? This is a complete failure of Poroshenko's policy. Complete and absolute. I am sure that the new authorities cannot fail to understand this.

Spring general cleaning in Moscow is taking place according to new rules: among other things, the old curbs will no longer be painted, but they will continue to be changed, wrote in a blog. Mayor of the capital Sergey Sobyanin Quote. Borders will no longer be painted in the usual yellow-green and black-and-white checkered pattern. “The new curbs look good anyway. And the old ones - let them live out their lives. Gradually, we will also replace them, ”Sobyanin wrote. Money.

Tour operators warned of disruptions in the work of Moscow visa centers in Spain, the Czech Republic and France, the Association of Tour Operators reports with reference to the companies. In order to avoid disruption of trips, tourists are advised to purchase travel cancellation insurance. What's happened.

Brent oil quotes on the ICE London Exchange have exceeded $ 75 per barrel for the first time since October 31, 2018. By 11.10 Moscow time, North Sea oil cost $ 75.2 per barrel, June futures on WTI traded $ 66. Despite this, the ruble continued to weaken. The main factors in the course of oil quotations were: The US decision to cancel all exceptions for some countries to buy oil in Iran. This solution can create a deficiency of 1.7 million barrels of oil per day in the global market.

The British Virgin Islands (BVI), one of the most popular offshore jurisdictions in Russia, finally explained in detail the requirements for offshore companies that have been tightened since this year. They turned out to be unpleasant, but not as tough as the business feared: the requirements of the Russian FAS are a much bigger headache, writes .

Russian meat manufacturers lobbled the ban on the import of ham and cheese in the baggage of travelers. Reason - epidemic of African swine plague The last opportunity to bring the forbidden cheese and Hamon to their homeland, they found out the “Vedomosti”-at the request of Russian meat producers, the government may prohibit the import of meat and dairy products from abroad even for personal purposes. The reason is the spread of epidemics among animals, including African swine plague.

Investors were expecting bad news from yesterday's Tesla financial report, but still not this: a $494 million quarterly loss excluding one-off losses on revenue of $4.5 billion (against $7.2 billion in the fourth quarter of 2018). "This is one of the most challenging quarters in the company's history," said Zachary Kirkhorn, its new chief financial officer. What is the problem.

Russians are being deprived of the last opportunity to bring banned cheese and jamon home, found out Vedomosti — at the request of Russian meat producers, the government can ban the import of meat and dairy products from abroad, even for personal purposes. The reason is the spread of epidemics among animals, including African swine fever. What will be banned The National Meat Association proposed to ban individuals from importing all meat and dairy products for personal use from abroad.