The EU and the USA take Alexander Lukashenko in sanctions ticks. One of the victims was the Russian billionaire Mikhail Gutseriev The European Union and the United States introduced the first large package of sanctions against Belarus for the forced landing of the Ryanair aircraft and the arrest of oppositionist Roman Protasevich.

Russian banks could earn record profits in 2021, the Central Bank predicted in its latest report. Their financial result can be about 2 trillion rubles. If earlier the regulator predicted the final profit of Russian banks in 2021 in the range of 1.5-1.7 trillion rubles, now the regulator expects it to be at least 2 trillion rubles. The Central Bank noted that in just five months of this year, credit institutions earned almost 1 trillion.

Russian businessman Mikhail Gutseriev was included in the EU sanctions list against Belarus. The new EU sanctions list includes 78 individuals and 8 companies. Their assets in the EU will be frozen. Among others, Lukashenka's son Dmitry, daughter-in-law of the Belarusian president and Russian businessman Mikhail Gutseriev were included in the list.

Operating losses of one of the largest startups in Europe Revolut in 2020 doubled to $280 million, Bloomberg writes , citing the company's annual report. The fintech service, which turns six next month, generated $361 million in revenue. The reason for the increase in losses was increased staff costs due to the fintech service entering new markets, the publication clarifies. Revolut's administrative expenses doubled from $174 million in 2019 to $370 million.

Official unwillingness to impose unpopular coronavirus restrictions ahead of September parliamentary elections, distrust of Russia’s vaccines and a new coronavirus variant combined last week to put Moscow at the epicenter of a new wave of the pandemic. What’s happening? The coronavirus situation in Moscow has lurched from worrying to verging on catastrophic in just a week. On June 10, City Hall recorded 5,245 daily infections.

Nobody expected much from the Geneva summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his counterpart Joe Biden, and not much was delivered. None of the major disputes between Russia and the U.S. moved closer to a resolution, even though the talks apparently went well. But the summit was a very big event for Russian state media. What did they talk about?

The Russian agency responsible for regulating online content is proposing to limit access to pornography by making it available exclusively via state-run services. The authorities have long tried to combat pornography, but their efforts have met little success. Newspaper Kommersant published an article Wednesday about watchdog Roskomnadzor’s plans to limit access to pornography. The idea is to make adult content available exclusively through state websites — blocking access for minors.

Bitcoin fell by 11% to $31.9 thousand (two-week low), after the news of increased restrictions on cryptocurrency trading in China. On this news, the quotes of many companies associated with crypto assets are falling. Cryptocurrency quotes are falling amid the fact that China has ordered the Alipay payment platform and local banks not to provide any services related to the trading of virtual currencies.

The share of Russians who consider Vladimir Putin the most outstanding personality of all times and peoples has halved over the past four years - from 34% to 15%, according to the results of a May poll by the Levada Center (according to the decision of the Russian Ministry of Justice, it was included in the register of NGOs performing the agent). During an open survey on May 20-26, 2021, Russians were asked to name the 10 most prominent people of all times and peoples.

The EU countries are preparing to impose sanctions against several sectors of the Belarusian economy, as well as more than 80 individuals and legal entities. Josep Borrell, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, said that measures against Belarus would be approved at a meeting of foreign ministers in Luxembourg on Monday. Economic sanctions "will affect the sectors of the Belarusian economy that are directly related to exports," Borrell told reporters.

The publishing house “Mann, Ivanov and Ferber” publishes the translation of the new book by Bill Gates about the global climate change and measures that humanity must accept in order to prevent an ecological catastrophe. We publish the chapter in which the author generalized his proposals. At the climatic conference in Paris in 2015, I have repeatedly asked myself: will we handle climatic changes or are we waiting for a disaster?

Gas prices in major markets are double what they were a year ago, reflecting the onset of summer heat in the Northern Hemisphere, writes The Wall Street Journal. The overhang of supply that took shape in the pandemic year of 2020 is no more. U.S. natural gas futures are at $3.125 per million BTU, up 96% from a year ago or early summer 2017 levels.

The service for delivering goods from Sbermarket stores can launch delivery from dark stores, small warehouse stores for online orders, writes Kommersant . The publication names the Metro network as the first potential partner of the project. Sbermarket is looking for premises of 120–200 sq. m in Moscow, as well as several thousand square meters in other cities with a population of more than 500 thousand people, Kommersant sources say.

Over the past day, 17,378 new cases of coronavirus infection have been detected in Russia, the operational headquarters reports . For Russia, this figure is not a record, but in the regions the number of new patients with COVID-19 is steadily growing, and in some it has reached maximums. For the fourth day in a row, the number of coronavirus infections detected in Russia has exceeded 17,000. The peak was 17,906 cases on 19 June.

The experiment with beskovidnye zones in a cafe, which the mayor of Moscow Sergei Sobyanin announced on June 18, scored more than 100 participants, writes RBC with reference to the register. Among the participants are "Tanuki", "Most Lounge", "Tequila bar and boom", "Sadko", "Rock and roll", "Island cuisine", "Summer is coming" and others. Among the “others” is Sidorenko from Vnukovo, who doubled on the list.