The government is preparing a social package by 500 billion to reduce the number of dissatisfied before the elections. Where will the money go? The Russian government needed only a few days to confirm the predictions of experts that the authorities would protest with new budget social expenses.

In December 2020, 16,546 people died in Moscow, which is 5988 deaths or 56.7% more than in December 2019. Coronavirus was the main or concomitant cause of death in 5891 cases, according to the capital's health department. “Everything, even controversial cases, are classified as covid,” the ministry’s statement emphasizes. Thus, coronavirus mortality covers almost all excess mortality.

Germany, Sweden and Poland have declared one Russian diplomat persona non grata. This is a response to the expulsion of European diplomats from Russia following the recent protests in support of Alexei Navalny. The German Foreign Ministry in its message noted that the German representative, who worked on the territory of Russia, was fulfilling his duties in accordance with the Vienna Convention. Poland called the expulsion of its diplomat groundless.

Journalists from the Russian publication Important Stories, the French newspaper Le Monde and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) have gained access to documents on the real owners of all companies registered in Luxembourg and have released a joint investigation, OpenLux, based on financial and corporate data.

The Russian authorities are preparing a new package of social support for the population before the elections in the amount of up to 0.5% of GDP, or 500-580 billion rubles, Reuters reported , citing sources. Two government sources told Reuters about a large package of social spending being prepared before the State Duma elections. One of them called the figure 500 billion rubles, the second - 0.5% of GDP, that is, according to Reuters, 580 billion rubles.

State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin supported the idea of ​​banning foreign agents from participating in any elections. Volodin commented on the initiative of the Association of Entrepreneurs for the Development of Business Patriotism "Avanti", which suggests that natural persons who are foreign agents and their close relatives should not have the right to be elected to any public office in Russia.

The head of Tesla and SpaceX Elon Musk will pay $ 100 million to those who can find a way to remove carbon dioxide from the atmospheric air on a large scale, reports Bloomberg . The prize will be shared by three winners to be announced in 2025. The competition aimed at finding the best solution for air purification is organized by Xprize. The $100 million prize pool will be provided by the Musk Foundation.

In the work of the Yandex services, a large failure occurred: most of the malfunctions are fixed by residents of Moscow, St. Petersburg, Krasnodar and Krasnoyarsk, the Downdetector service testifies . A sharp surge of complaints about the work of services occurred after 15.30 Moscow time. Most users who have reported the Downdetector problem do not work, the Yandex website (63%), mail (27%) and the service related to money do not work.

The Russian authorities have already armed themselves against protesters with new technologies - for example, by recognizing persons , and now they replenish their arsenal right in the process. In the past Wednesday, it became known that the mincifers are preparing amendments to the Law “On Communications”, which will oblige cellular operators to give the security forces data on the geolocation of smartphones without a court decision. What is this threatened?

On the afternoon of February 8, Bitcoin began to rise rapidly, for the first time in history breaking the mark first at $42,000, then at $43,000, and then rising above $44,000. The growth began after Tesla announced that it had invested $1.5 billion in bitcoins. At 16:08 Moscow time, on CoinMarketCap Bitcoin was worth $43,411 , having risen in price by 12.2% per day. The capitalization of the cryptocurrency was estimated at $808 billion.

Do you also leave the feeling that another week is two and life will return to the usual direction? Meanwhile, a new reality - with a remote, home office and video conferences - will soon turn a year. With all obvious advantages, this reality has deprived us of an important component of life - informal communication with colleagues.

More than half (55%) of Russians who have watched Alexei Navalny's film about "Putin's palace" believe in its veracity, but only 17% of those who watched said that they had changed their attitude towards Putin, the Levada Center poll . showed Levada Center conducted a survey from January 29 to February 2, 2021 among more than 1,600 respondents. 69% of Russians have heard at least something about the film, 26% of respondents have watched the investigation in person.

The educational service of Changellenge conducted a study of the career preferences of Russian students. We publish the most interesting. The Changellenge survey was attended by 5.5 thousand students and graduates who received a diploma no more than two years ago. The survey was conducted from October to December 2020. 30 leading universities are covered, including Moscow State University. M.V. Lomonosova, NIU HSE, MGTU named after N.E. Bauman, MFTI, ITMO, Rash.

In three to five years, the Selectel data center network expects to go public, its founder and co-founder of the VKontakte social network Lev Leviev told Meduza in an interview . “I think within three years [we will have an IPO]. But for now these are just plans,” he said. According to Leviev, the IPO will most likely not take place in Russia. “Probably still abroad. Perhaps in three to five years something will change on the Moscow Exchange...

From February 1 to February 5, 2021, the Federal Penitentiary Service placed public procurements for 163 million rubles for special equipment that are used to disperse protesters. Among the placed state orders are shockers, smoke and stun grenades and anti-shock shields. The fact that the service placed seven tenders for the purchase of special equipment at once was noticed by Open Media.