Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov announced that an agreement had been reached with the Central Bank on the use of cryptocurrencies in foreign trade. He stated this following the results of the strategic session “Increasing the efficiency of the economy and ensuring equal conditions for doing business,” RIA Novosti reports .

In the first half of 2025, Russian courts suspended over 25 thousand criminal cases for reasons not related to the search or illness of the accused. This was reported by the analytical publication “To Be Precise” with reference to statistics from the Judicial Department of the Supreme Court. For comparison: in 2019 there were only 648 such cases. The increase is explained by amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code, which allow cases to be suspended if the defendant goes to the front.

Three blood-sucking mosquitoes were found in Kjos, Iceland in early October, the first time the insects have been found in the country. The discovery was reported by entomologist of the Icelandic Institute of Natural History Mattias Alvredsson, RÚV TV channel reports . Before this, Björn Hjaltason spoke about the discovered mosquitoes in the Facebook group “Insects of Iceland”. On the evening of October 16, he noticed an unusual “fly” on the bait that he uses to attract insects.

The court fined Krasnodar lawyer and blogger Evgenia Tutushkina 30 thousand rubles for publishing a video on Instagram that the authorities considered advertising. RBC reported this, noting that this is the first known case of application of the law banning advertising on the websites of “undesirable” and “extremist” organizations. The owner of Instagram, Meta Corporation, is recognized as extremist in Russia and is banned.

Russian tax authorities have launched large-scale audits of citizens with financial assets in the United Arab Emirates. Lawyers familiar with the situation told RBC about this. The Federal Tax Service checks owners of bank and brokerage accounts, as well as companies. More than a hundred similar cases are known that affected both tax residents of the Russian Federation and non-residents.

Hamas has always maintained that it does not intend to disarm completely, but has now become more fragmented, which increases the risk of possible provocations. Against this background, the American side’s fears that hostilities in Israel could resume seem entirely justified. The New York Times wrote about this the day before, and on Tuesday, October 21, US Vice President J.D. Vance is scheduled to arrive in Israel.

The Council of the European Union has “agreed on its negotiating position on the draft regulation to phase out imports of Russian natural gas.” According to the resulting press release , the governing body foresees a legally binding, gradual ban on supplies of both pipeline and liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Russia, with a complete prohibition starting Jan. 1, 2028. According to the draft, Russian gas supplies delivered under new contracts must be banned starting Jan.

State Duma deputies on Tuesday, October 21, in the second reading adopted a bill that provides for the conscription of citizens for military service throughout the entire calendar year. Several amendments were added to it for the second reading, one of which obliges conscripts to appear on an electronic summons no later than 30 days after it appears in the relevant register. Information about this appeared in the document database of the lower house of parliament.

Доступно на русском Very long-lasting sanctions The U.S. imposed its first sanctions on Iran shortly after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, in response to the seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and the prolonged hostage-taking of its staff. Other Western countries, however, were slow to join the effort. It was only in the 2000s, when Iran was suspected of developing nuclear weapons, that Europe decided to take part in the pressure campaign.

The Dutch Data Protection Authority (AP) said AI chatbots are "unreliable and clearly biased" when providing voting advice, warning of such a threat to democracy eight days before national elections, The Guardian reports . The four chatbots the agency tested "often suggest the same two parties, regardless of the user's question or request," according to the report, released ahead of the Oct. 29 election.

The Specialized Criminal Court of Slovakia found 72-year-old Juraj Cintula, who shot Prime Minister Robert Fico, guilty of an act of terrorism and sentenced him to 21 years in maximum security prison. The judges did not believe the defendant's claim that he only wanted to wound the prime minister and not kill him: Tsintula had two full magazines at the time of the attack, and he continued to pull the trigger even after the guards knocked him down.

On Oct. 21, the hacker group Black Mirror released the third batch of leaked documents from Russian state defense conglomerate Rostec. The new release, consisting of more than 250 documents, includes materials related to cooperation with Algeria, Iran, and India, the group said. One document describes meetings held in late July 2024 between Russian companies and representatives of Iran’s Center for Progress and Development (CPDI). Other meetings connected Russian and Iranian aviation firms.

Senator Lindsey Graham said that US President Donald Trump will create conditions for the overthrow of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. The South Carolina Republican said this on Fox News: “Donald Trump is going to overthrow Maduro. Everyone was talking about how bad Maduro was. He will fall.

The meeting between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, planned for the week of October 20–26, was postponed, CNN reported on Tuesday night, citing sources. The Russian Foreign Ministry responded by saying that “it is impossible to postpone something that has not been agreed upon.” It is unclear what caused the meeting to be postponed, the TV channel notes.

Republican Party leader John Thune said that the US Senate will suspend consideration of a draft new law on sanctions against Russia at least until the planned meeting of Donald Trump with Vladimir Putin. Bloomberg reports this. “We’re kind of hitting the pause button at the moment,” The agency quotes Thune as saying to reporters in the Senate. The bill was introduced in the Senate on April 1 and remained without movement for a long time, despite the support of at least 85 senators.