The auction for the sale of a state-owned 67.2% stake in the gold mining company Yuzhuralzoloto (UGK) was won by the structure of businessman Ruslan Baysarov, BTS-Most Holding, Vedomosti reports . In addition to the controlling share of YuGK, the new owner receives enterprises affiliated with the company. According to the tender protocol, the final purchase price was 93.2 billion rubles.

Negotiations between the United States and Iran, which were supposed to take place on June 19, will not take place. This was reported by Reuters with reference to the Swiss Foreign Ministry. Negotiations between Iranian and American officials on an agreement to resolve the Middle East conflict were canceled after US Vice President J.D. Vance refused to travel to Geneva, the agency clarifies. The cancellation of his plans was also confirmed by the White House.

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky said that on the border with Belarus there is equipment that Russia uses to correct attacks on Ukrainian territory, and demanded that Alexander Lukashenko remove it within a week - otherwise Ukraine “will do it itself.” The Ukrainian president made this statement at a joint press conference with the President of Honduras Nasri Asfura in Kiev on June 19, Suspilne reports .

The leaders of the European Union member countries on Thursday, June 18, agreed to extend anti-Russian sanctions. For the first time, they are extended for a year at once, writes Reuters. According to the press secretary of the President of the European Council, Antonio Costa, this is the first time that sanctions have been extended for 12 months at once. Previously, they were extended for six months each time.

Former Belarusian diplomat and employee of Alexander Lukashenko’s administrative office, Anatoly Kotov, who resigned in 2020, publicly supported the opposition and emigrated, became a victim of a special services operation. In 2025, he set off from the Turkish city of Trabzon on a yacht trip. The yacht went to Sukhumi of the unrecognized Republic of Abkhazia. There Kotov was detained by FSB officers, and nothing is known about his further fate.

The gathering was attended by 17 military commissars from the Astrakhan and Rostov regions, Kalmykia, annexed Crimea, as well as the occupied Ukrainian territories - “DPR” and “LPR”. Participants visited mobilization sites in schools, industrial enterprises and convoys, and a warning training center was set up on the territory of the Volzhsky Orgsintez plant. The event was held under the auspices of the Main Directorate of Special Programs of the President of the Russian Federation.

China has demanded that the United Kingdom lift sanctions against four Chinese companies accused of supplying Russia with critical military equipment. The Chinese embassy’s statement followed London’s publication of a new sanctions package on June 16. “China firmly opposes the UK’s imposition of unilateral sanctions, which lack any basis in international law and harm the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies,” the embassy spokesperson stated.

The Central Bank did not directly name the reasons for the decrease in fuel production. However, in recent months, Russian oil refineries have been regularly attacked by Ukrainian drones. After the strikes, individual installations were stopped for repairs, which led to a temporary reduction in the output of petroleum products.

The rector of Moscow State University, Viktor Sadovnichy, was elected as a new member of the board of directors of the Rosneft corporation. TASS reports this. The election of Sadovnichy was announced at the annual meeting of Rosneft shareholders. As the agency's correspondent clarifies, the rector of Moscow State University took the place of Viktor Martynov, rector of the Russian State University of Oil and Gas named after I.M. Gubkin.

In Israel, in just under two years - from July 2024 to May 2026 - 72 agents were identified who agreed to cooperate with Iranian intelligence. 24 of them are natives of the countries of the former USSR who immigrated to Israel, or their children, as well as one Russian citizen who received a work permit in Israel. Thus, Russian-speaking immigrants made up 33% of those detained, which significantly exceeds the share of such people in the country’s population - about 15%.

Two earthquakes of magnitude 5.5 and 6.3 occurred off the coast of Kamchatka. The head of the Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk seismic station, Elena Semenova, told RIA Novosti (news from the RIA terminal) that the second earthquake was even more serious - with a magnitude of up to 6.7. After the second shock, the Tsunami Center warned about the possible approach of waves to the coast of the peninsula and urged residents not to go to coastal areas.

In Penza, after reports of mass raids by military registration and enlistment offices and police, women tried to prevent men from being sent away from the military registration and enlistment office building in the Oktyabrsky and Zheleznodorozhny districts. A video of people surrounding a minibus with men and trying to prevent it from leaving was published by a local resident.

An electronic petition has collected more than 14 thousand signatures demanding that Natalia Moskvitina, head of the Women for Life Foundation, be not allowed to be nominated to the State Duma. The campaign was launched by the Alliance of Women's Initiatives of Russia.

75-year-old Ilya Traber was detained on June 17 in St. Petersburg, after which he was transported to Moscow and taken to the Basmanny Court. The murder of Petrov, for which the defendants are accused, occurred in 2020. A sniper shot him near his own house in a village near Vyborg. Earlier, the media also reported that a search came to one of the leaders of the Tambov-Malyshevskaya organized crime group, Gennady Petrov, who is closely connected with Traber.

A missile from the Russian air defense system hit a tank at the Moscow Oil Refinery in Kapotnya, which caused an explosion and a fire at the enterprise. Astra writes about this with reference to its own OSINT analysis. The published videos show how, after a powerful explosion, the tank lid is literally torn off and thrown to the side. The video from one of the angles shows that the explosion at the refinery followed immediately after an air defense missile hit the oil storage facility.