Russia's competition authority said on Tuesday it would fine U.S. tech giant Apple for violating Russian antitrust laws and abusing its dominant position in the app store market, Reuters reported. The federal anti-monopoly service (FAS) said it would levy a turnover-based fine against Apple, the size of which would be determined during the course of an administrative investigation. Moscow has long objected to foreign tech platforms' influence in the Russian market, but the simmering dispute has escalated since Russia invaded Ukraine in February.
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Alphabet's Google was fined 21.1 billion roubles ($373 million) on Monday by a Moscow court for a repeated failure to remove content Russia deems illegal, such as "fake news" about the conflict in Ukraine, Russia's communications regulator said, Reuters reported. Moscow has long objected to foreign tech platforms' distribution of content that falls afoul of its restrictions. But the simmering dispute has erupted into a full-on battle since Moscow assembled its armed forces before sending them into Ukraine in February.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Japanese Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki agreed on Tuesday to work together to tackle rising prices of food and energy, as well as volatility in currency markets, exacerbated by Russia's war in Ukraine, Reuters reported. They said that the war had raised exchange rate volatility, which could pose adverse implications for economic and financial stability, and pledged to cooperate "as appropriate" on currency issues.
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Moscow's plan to implement a new law enabling authorities to seize the assets of Western firms leaving the country failed to get through parliament before the summer recess, giving companies more time to negotiate exits, Reuters reported. Russia's parliamentary session ended last week without the bill being passed. That makes any progress unlikely until at least mid-September, when the lower house of parliament, or Duma, begins reviewing proposed laws in its autumn session. Some experts now doubt whether the proposed law will be implemented at all.
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Russia's financial monitoring agency, Rosfinmonitoring, said on Friday it was using software to track cryptocurrency transactions and hopes to improve its capabilities, as Moscow ushers in regulation on what one lawmaker dubbed "cryptomania," Reuters reported. The Bank of Russia has long voiced scepticism over cryptocurrencies, citing financial stability concerns, and has advocated for a complete ban on trading and mining, at odds with a government keen to regulate the industry.
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Sanctioned Russian lender Sberbank PJSC caused the bankruptcy of the Antipinsky Oil Refinery in Western Siberia, according to Swiss trader New Stream Trading AG, Bloomberg reported. Sberbank “had full control of the management of Antipinsky” from mid-November 2018 and took steps leading to it “procuring the breaches” of the refinery’s existing contracts, NST said, quoting from a ruling by a tribunal constituted under the London Court of International Arbitration.
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The Kremlin pushed back on claims that Russia defaulted on its foreign-currency debts on Monday, placing the country at odds with creditors. "Claims that Russia is in debt default are wrong. A foreign-currency payment was made back in May, and the fact that funds were not transmitted to recipients is not our problem,” presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. Russia missed payments on two foreign-currency bonds as of late Sunday, the day that marked the expiration of a 30-day grace period, according to bondholders.
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Russia defaulted on its foreign-currency sovereign debt for the first time in a century, the culmination of ever-tougher Western sanctions that shut down payment routes to overseas creditors, Bloomberg News reported. For months, the country found paths around the penalties imposed after the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine. But at the end of the day on Sunday, the grace period on about $100 million of snared interest payments due May 27 expired, a deadline considered an event of default if missed.
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