The Russian market exhaled after the withdrawal of troops from Ukrainian borders, Putin's Epistles and the cessation of Navalny’s hunger strike.

The authorities of Cyprus, which recently opened the borders for the Russians, decided to tighten the quarantine due to the worsening epidemiological situation. Tough measures will be in effect from April 26 to May 9. A curfew is introduced on the island from 21:00 to 5:00, meetings are prohibited, residents are allowed to leave their homes once a day, church services will be held without believers (with the exception of Easter), catering and non-food stores are suspended.

Russian brokers are forced to close accounts opened with the American broker Interactive Brokers (IB), this requirement was put forward by the company itself, RBC reports citing sources. Last summer, IB was fined $38 million in the US for failing to maintain anti-money laundering policies, reported The Wall Street Journal . Problems with Russian clients began shortly after the fine: in August 2020, Kommersant reported that Interactive Brokers began to restrict work with companies from Russia.

The attending physicians of Alexei Navalny issued a general statement in Novaya Gazeta. They ask to transport the politician to a Moscow hospital because of "the presence of a direct threat to his life." Doctors who observed Alexei Navalny when he was at large studied the politician's tests.

The Sibur and Taif companies announced today that they will merge the petrochemical business. The merger will take place on the basis of Sibur Holding. Taif shareholders will receive a 15% stake in the combined company, and in return they will transfer a controlling stake in a group consisting of petrochemical and energy enterprises. The deal can be closed before the end of 2021, after passing all the necessary procedures and approval of the regulators.

Moscow announced a ban on flights to Istanbul last week due to the deteriorating coronavirus situation in Turkey, ruining the holiday plans of hundreds of thousands of ordinary Russians. Turkey has always been one of the most popular destinations for Russian tourists and, during the pandemic, it has been one of the only foreign destinations not made inaccessible by travel restrictions.

The Federal Antimonopoly Service recognized Alfa-Bank's advertisement with the participation of Morgenstern as violating the law on advertising - now both the bank and the artist face administrative liability, writes RBC. In the clip “Clip for 10 lyam”, the FAS found violations related to alcohol consumption, advertising of financial services, appeal to minors, use of obscene and offensive images. Alfa-Bank and Morgenstern were ordered to eliminate the violations.

In the week after a phone call between U.S. President Joe Biden and Putin, Russia-U.S. relations continue to oscillate wildly. New U.S. sanctions on Russia imposed Thursday were mostly symbolic, but Washington has kept the door open to new restrictions. Meanwhile, preparations for a face-to-face meeting between Biden and Putin continue — but it’s unclear when this might happen.

The arrested ex-Minister of the Open Government Mikhail Abyzov was hospitalized with pneumonia, the coronavirus has not yet been confirmed. He was transferred from the Lefortovo pre-trial detention center to the hospital at Matrosskaya Tishina. Abyzov's condition is assessed as stable, the disease is mild, Olga Druzhinina, a member of the capital's PMC, told RIA Novosti.

A police crackdown against opposition activists and independent media dramatically gathered pace last week. Not only has the health of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny reportedly deteriorated to a point at which his life is now in danger, but law enforcement took unprecedented steps to shut-down his political organization and put his allies in prison. Prominent student magazine DOXA was also targeted by the security forces, which raided the apartments of its journalists.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday, April 23, declared non -working days a period between May holidays - from May 4 to 7. Now the country will go on a long holidays that will last a third of the month. At the same time, the authorities did not announce any mechanisms of compensation for downtime for the entrepreneurial community - the load on paying for additional weekends will fall on employers, many of which are already in a crisis position against the background of pandemia.

After President Vladimir Putin announced that the days from May 1 to May 10 inclusive would be days off, the Russian Railways website and mobile application stopped working. The company explained the failure by a sharp increase in the number of requests. The Russian Railways website and app stopped working around 14:00 Moscow time; at the time of publication, the failure had been going on for more than two and a half hours. The site did not load or gave an error.

The Ministry of Justice of Russia today included the Latvian legal entity of the Medusa publication in the register of foreign media that perform the functions of a foreign agent. What is this threatened? The responsibilities of the foreign agent The recognition of foreign agents of foreign publications regulates Article 6 of the Law “On Media”.

The Ministry of Justice included Medusa in the register of foreign media, "performing the functions of foreign agents." We talked with the general director of the publication Galina Timchenko. - Do you appeal the decision? - Yes. We will try to compete in court with the help of our lawyers. - What arguments do you use? - We are not engaged in political activities in the territory of the Russian Federation. *-Did you somehow prepare for this?

The imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny has announced his withdrawal from the hunger strike. He explained this as a real threat to his life. “Doctors, whom I have complete confidence in, released a statement yesterday that we have achieved enough for me to end my hunger strike. Well, to be frank, their words that the tests show: “in a minimum time there will be no one to treat” ... mmm ... seem to me worthy of attention, ”Navalny wrote.