Some of Russia’s top banking executives have concluded that the quality of their loan books is much worse than what official data show and have privately discussed the prospect of seeking a state-funded bailout should the situation worsen, Bloomberg News reported. At least three lenders the central bank has identified as systemically important have considered the possibility that they may need to be recapitalized in the next 12 months. Executives have discussed internally how they would raise the prospect with the Bank of Russia if needed.
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President Donald Trump on Monday threatened to impose “secondary tariffs” on Russia’s trade partners “at about 100%” if President Vladimir Putin does not agree to a deal to end his invasion of Ukraine in 50 days, CNBC.com reported. “We’re very, very unhappy with them, and we’re going to be doing very severe tariffs, if you don’t have a deal in 50 days, tariffs at about 100%, they call them secondary tariffs,” Trump said from the White House while meeting with NATO’s secretary general, Mark Rutte.
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Accusations against Mouzenidis Travel are becoming known, according to the bankruptcy trustee of the travel agency, who filed a complaint with law enforcement, Russian authorities for fraud and document forgery against the former heads of the once powerful travel operator, the trustee claims, MONEY & TOURISM reported. The communication includes details (VAT number, managers, etc.).
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A private Russian space company is facing bankruptcy amid a broader pattern of industry failures, underscoring the mounting challenges facing Russia’s once-ambitious commercial space sector, The Moscow Times reported. SR Space, founded in 2020 by aerospace entrepreneur Oleg Mansurov, is the latest in a string of private ventures on the verge of collapse. Russia’s Federal Tax Service has initiated bankruptcy proceedings against the firm after freezing its accounts at four banks earlier this year over unpaid tax obligations, the Kommersant business daily reported.
Russia’s government is weighing the possibility of some tax relief for the giant gas firm Gazprom, which would be paid for by potentially higher taxes on other Russian natural gas producers, a source in the Russian government told Reuters on Monday. Gazprom has been bleeding cash since it cut off most of its pipeline gas deliveries to Europe in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
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A supplier of military microelectronic components in Stavropol, Russia, has not been providing Moscow with important parts for its aircraft as the Kremlin cannot pay enough, its leadership said, the Kyiv Post reported. The company, Optron-Stavropol, reportedly was being paid so little by the Ministry of Defense for its orders that it suffered losses and mounting debts so great as to suspend production earlier this year.
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Russia’s economy is “on the brink of going into a recession,” the country’s economy minister said Thursday, according to Russian media reports, the Associated Press reported. Economy Minister Maxim Reshetnikov delivered the warning at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, the annual event in Russia’s second largest city designed to highlight the country’s economic prowess and court foreign investors. Russian business news outlet RBC quoted the official as saying “the numbers indicate cooling, but all our numbers are (like) a rearview mirror.
On 10 June, the Moscow Exchange began calculating and publishing a new index — Bitcoin — and the calculation will take place daily at 12.30, Realnoe Vremya reported. The index is calculated as a weighted average of prices taking into account the weighting factors of the selected trading platforms. The weighting factors of the crypto exchanges are calculated based on the trading volumes of the instruments being monitored and will be revised quarterly. In the future, the indicator may become the underlying asset for financial instruments, experts note.
The European Commission has proposed an 18th package of sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, aimed at Moscow's energy revenues, its banks and its military industry, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. The new package proposes banning transactions with Russia's Nord Stream gas pipelines, as well as banks that engage in sanctions circumvention.
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Russia’s central bank on Friday lowered its key interest rate for the first time since late 2022 despite an inflation rate that remains well above target, the Wall Street Journal reported. The Bank of Russia cut its key rate to 20% from 21%, and said it expects the economy to return to a more “balanced” growth path after a surge in activity and prices as workers and resources were employed for the war in Ukraine.
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