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☆ Russia has lost so much money due to the Ukraine war that it's now trying to raise $4 billion by slapping a windfall tax on its oligarchs
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-14 | by ( Huileng Tan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Russia will slap windfall taxes on large companies making over 1 billion rubles in profits since 2021. Russia approved a draft bill to slap up to a 10% one-off windfall tax on large Russian companies, according to a Tuesday announcement by the country's finance ministry. "They understand that they had huge windfall profits for 2021 and 2022, simply massive, bigger than the budget," Belousov said, per Interfax. This instance isn't the first time Russia's imposing windfall taxes to fund the war in Ukraine. Russia's energy revenues have also been majorly hit by sweeping restrictions against its exports, particularly after the European Union — a major customer of Russian energy — banned Russian crude oil starting December 5.

Persons: —, It's, Andrei Belousov, Belousov, Timur Nigmatullin Organizations: RBC TV, Service, RBC, Financial Times, Gazprom, European Union Locations: Russia, Ukraine

Asked if he thought the world was in a new Cold War, Kostin said that it was now a "hot war" that was more dangerous than the Cold War. VTB, Kostin said, was discussing using yuan in settlements with third countries. "We have already entered into a hot war," Kostin said of the crisis with Ukraine. The situation is worse than in the Cold War, it is very difficult and alarming." Asked if Russia's economy would remain a free economy, Kostin said: "I very much hope so."

Persons: Dado Ruvic, Andrei Kostin, Kostin, Vladimir Putin, Putin, VTB, Guy Faulconbridge, Mark Potter Organizations: REUTERS, U.S ., European Union, Reuters, U.S, JPMorgan, VEB, EU, West ., Monetary Fund, Thomson Locations: Russian, China, MOSCOW, Russia, Ukraine, United States, Moscow, Australia, Britain, Soviet Union

☆ Exclusive: Russia's VTB may pull out of running for Yandex stake - CEO Kostin
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

REUTERS/Maxim ShemetovMOSCOW, June 9 (Reuters) - Russian state-owned lender VTB (VTBR.MM) may pull out of the running to acquire a stake in internet giant Yandex (YNDX.O), the bank's CEO, Andrei Kostin, told Reuters, as discussions are now centered around higher prices than the bank's initial offer. Kostin said he was not sure VTB would continue with its bid. "I am not sure that we will go into Yandex," Kostin told Reuters when asked about plans. "It was announced at $7 billion recently, we submitted our application at a different price level, lower," Kostin said. VTB was hit hard with Western sanctions over Russia's actions in Ukraine, something that limits its ability to front a consortium bid, Kostin said.

Persons: Maxim Shemetov, Andrei Kostin, Kostin, –, Arkady Volozh, VTB, Vladimir Potanin, Vagit Alekperov, Guy Faulconbridge, Elena Fabrichnaya, Alexander Marrow Organizations: Moscow International Business Center, REUTERS, VTB, Reuters, Kostin, Yandex NV, Thomson Locations: Moscow, City, Russia, Maxim Shemetov MOSCOW, Yandex, Ukraine, Yandex's

☆ Exclusive: VTB to sell one of Russia's biggest grain traders, Demetra-Holding, CEO Kostin says
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

MOSCOW, June 9 (Reuters) - VTB, Russia's second largest bank, will sell its stake in one of Russia's biggest grain traders, Demetra-Holding, and is in negotiations with both Russian and foreign buyers, CEO Andrei Kostin told Reuters in an interview. Demetra has a network of grain elevators, major deep sea grain terminals and its own logistics. It owns a non controlling stake in major grain trader United Grain Company (OZK). It's decided," Kostin told Reuters. Kostin said VTB saw few prospects for itself in the grain business, adding that a sanctioned bank in the shareholding hindered the holding.

Persons: Andrei Kostin, Demetra, VTB, It's, Kostin, Vadim Moshkovich, Guy Faulconbridge, Elena Fabrichnaya Organizations: Reuters, United Grain Company, Thomson Locations: MOSCOW, Russia, China

☆ Nova Kakhovka: Ukraine dam collapse serves neither side well as war enters next crucial phase
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-08 | by ( Sam Kiley | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

They were to blow up the Zaporizhzhia hydroelectric dam that bisected the eponymous industrial city, which stands 200 kilometers (125 miles) upriver from today’s Nova Kakhovka barricade). Local residents stand on the Dnipro embankment after the Nova Kakhovka dam breach on June 6. Rescue workers evacuate an elderly woman and her husband from a flooded neighborhood in Kherson, Ukraine, on Wednesday, June 7. Vladyslav Musiienko/Reuters Flooded streets are seen in Kherson on June 7 following the collapse of the Nova Kakhovka dam. Alina Smutko/Reuters In pictures: The collapse of Ukraine's Nova Kakhovka dam Prev NextUkraine’s armed forces have insisted that their counter-offensive included contingency planning for a disaster at the dam.

Persons: Ukraine CNN — Fish, ecocide ”, unawares, Ivan Antypenko, Volodymyr Zelensky, Zelensky, General’s, ”, Ukraine’s, It’s, who’ve, Vladimir Putin, Andrei Pidlisnyi, –, Evgeniy, Angelina Kopayeva, Alex Babenko, Vladyslav Musiienko, Muhammed Enes Yildirim, Tetiana, Alexey Konovalov, Felipe Dana, Musiienko, Nina Lyashonok, Oleksandra, Alina Smutko Organizations: Ukraine CNN —, Nazi, NKVD, Reuters, International, Criminal, Kherson City, Ukrainian, CNN, AP, Anadolu Agency, Planet Labs PBC, Reuters Red Cross, AP Local, Culture, Reuters Local Locations: Kyiv, Ukraine, Nova, Dnipro, Russia, Moscow, Russian, today’s, Reuters Ukrainian, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk City, Kharkiv, Kherson . Roman, Vladyslav, Nova Kakhovka, Libkos, Crimean, Crimea, Russia’s

CNN —The collapse of the Nova Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine is one of the biggest industrial and ecological disasters in Europe for decades. Satellite images of the Nova Kakhovka dam before its collapse (left, on June 5) and after the disaster (right, on June 7). The Ukrainians point out that the facility has been under Russian control for the past year, making it easy for Russian forces to plant explosives. But much of the east bank of the river south of the Nova Kakhovka dam remains under Russian control. Maxar Technologies/APThere are also suggestions that the dam collapse took at least some Russian forces by surprise.

Persons: António Guterres, it’s, Volodymyr Zelensky, ” Mykhailo Podolyak, Zelensky, ”, Dmitry Peskov, “, Andrei Pidlisnyi, Chris Binnie, Craig Goff, ” Goff, They’ve, ” Binnie, Goff Organizations: CNN, United Nations, UN, NATO, Maxar Technologies, Ukrainian Armed Forces, Ukrainian Agricultural Ministry, Maxar, University of Exeter, Engineering, Environmental Services, UK Science Media, HR, Royal Air Force, “ Locations: Nova, Ukraine, Europe, Russia, Moscow, Russian, Kyiv, Dnipro, Kherson, Ukrainian, Zaporizhzhia, “, Crimea, Korsunka

☆ Transfer of holy icon shows Russian Orthodoxy's new sway under Putin
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Emphasising its importance to the faithful, Putin last month ordered Andrei Rublev's "Trinity" be transferred to the Russian Orthodox Church from Moscow's Tretyakov Gallery for a year. For some, though, there is unease at the sway of the Church - and concern about possible damage to the fragile icon. She quipped that Russian leaders over the centuries have turned to icons in tough situations with the hope of victory. "Masterpieces of Russian icon painting and national shrines should not be exposed to unjustified risk," members of a cultural council within the Russian Academy of Sciences wrote in an open letter to Russian Minister of Culture Olga Lyubimova. "The only space suitable for placing the icon 'Trinity' by Andrei Rublev is in the halls of the Tretyakov Gallery, which is confirmed by almost a century of practice."

Persons: Vladimir Putin's, Putin, Andrei Rublev's, Moscow's Tretyakov, the, Josef Stalin, Abraham, Regina Elsner, Sergius –, Bolsheviks, Kirill of Moscow, Kirill, Putin's, Ksenia, Leonardo da Vinci's, Mona Lisa, Tretyakov, Korobeynikova, Olga Lyubimova, Andrei Rublev, Lucy Papachristou, Guy Faulconbridge, Mark Potter Organizations: Trinity Sunday, Soviet Union, Church, Eastern European, International Studies, Kremlin, Putin, Reuters, Russian Academy of Sciences, Thomson Locations: MOSCOW, Moscow, Ukraine, Moscow's, Soviet, Mamre, Russian, Berlin, Russia, Trinity, St, Moscow –, Gdansk

☆ Spain's Catholic Church finds hundreds of alleged child abusers over eight decades
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-02 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

MADRID, June 2 (Reuters) - An investigation by the Spanish Catholic Church into child sexual abuse by members of the clergy and non-clerical staff has so far identified 728 alleged abusers and 927 victims since the 1940s, according to its first report. "We acknowledge the harm caused," said Jose Gabriel Vera, the spokesman for the Spanish Bishops' Conference. "We want to know what went wrong in the selection of candidates for the priesthood, what went wrong during their training...what has led a person who decided to give himself to God, to give himself to sexual abuse," Vera said. According to the victims - most of them male - more than 63% of the alleged abusers have died. Reporting by Emma Pinedo and Miguel Gutierrez Editing by Andrei Khalip and Sriraj KalluvilaOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Jose Gabriel Vera, Vera, Emma Pinedo, Miguel Gutierrez, Andrei Khalip Organizations: Spanish Catholic Church, Bishops ' Conference, El, Thomson Locations: MADRID, Spain, El Pais, U.S, Ireland, France

[1/2] An ambulance and firefighting vehicles are parked outside a multi-storey apartment block following a reported drone attack in Moscow, Russia, May 30, 2023. Drone attacks deep inside Russia have intensified in recent weeks, with strikes on oil pipeline installations and even the Kremlin earlier this month that Moscow has blamed on Ukraine. Some filmed a drone being shot down and a plume of smoke rising over the Moscow skyline. MOSCOW UNDER ATTACKIt was unclear how President Vladimir Putin will react to the attack on Moscow, which brings the war in Ukraine to the capital of the world's biggest nuclear power. Andrei Vorobyov, governor of the Moscow region, said on the Telegram channel that several drones were shot down on their approach to Moscow.

☆ Russia's reaction to the drone attacks on Moscow
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-30 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

He received direct information both via the Defence Ministry and via the relevant departments." He also received "information from the Mayor of Moscow, the governor of the Moscow region, the Ministry of Emergency Situations". RUSSIA'S DEFENCE MINISTRY:"This morning, the Kyiv regime launched a terrorist attack with unmanned aerial vehicles on premises in the city of Moscow. Five more unmanned aerial vehicles were shot down by the Pantsir-S anti-aircraft missile and cannon complex in the Moscow region." RUSSIAN LAWMAKER ANDREI GURULYOV (UNITED RUSSIA)"I would not give in to panic about the drone attack on Moscow and the Moscow region.

☆ EU's Borrell: Russia won't enter negotiations while trying to win war
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-29 | by ( Joan Faus | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

"I see a concentration of troops on both sides, the clear will of Russia to try to win the war," Borrell told an event in Barcelona. "(Russia) will not go to a negotiation until it has tried to win the war." He added that Russia has repeatedly signaled it would not cease the campaign until its military goals have been achieved. (Russian President Vladimir) Putin has amassed over 300,000 men there, twice as many as he had when he launched the invasion," Borrell told reporters after the event. We have to be prepared, which means continuing to help Ukraine, because if we don't help it, Ukraine cannot defend (itself)," Borrell said.

☆ Western supplies of weapons to Ukraine could escalate the war to a 'new dimension', Russia's ambassador to the UK says
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-29 | by ( George Glover | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Russia will scale up its war if the west keeps supplying Ukraine with weapons, its ambassador to the UK Andrei Kelin said Saturday. "This escalation will get a new dimension which we do not need and do not want," Kelin told the BBC. His warning came as a top Ukrainian official said the country was ready to launch a counter-offensive. Andrei Kelin told the BBC that Western military aide would prolong the 15-month conflict – and warned that the longer that dragged on, the more likely Russia was to scale up its attacks. Russia is 16 times bigger than Ukraine," Kelin added.

☆ A Russian Deserter’s Flight to Norway Presents a Fraught Dilemma for His Host
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-28 | by ( Anatoly Kurmanaev | Henrik Pryser Libell | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Now in Norway, Mr. Medvedev, 26, is seeking asylum, while providing information on Wagner to Norwegian authorities. Since arriving in the country in January, Mr. Medvedev has voluntarily attended about a dozen interviews with Norwegian police officers investigating war crimes in Ukraine, including his potential role in them. Mr. Medvedev has described killing Ukrainians in combat and witnessing summary executions of comrades accused of cowardice. He claims that he did not participate or witness war crimes such as killings of prisoners of war and civilians. It was war,” he said in an interview at an Oslo bar.

[1/2] A security guard stands next to the Trinity icon at the Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius in the town of Sergiyev Posad, Russia, July 18, 2022. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov/File PhotoMay 27 (Reuters) - Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, on Saturday dismissed his expert on art and restoration for obstructing the transfer of a historic 15th-century Trinity icon to the Church from a Moscow museum. On Saturday, Patriarch Kirill decreed that Kalinin be dismissed from his post "in connection with the obstruction of bringing the icon" to Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. Kalinin was also banned from the priesthood, according to the note published on the Russian Orthodox Church's website. Patriarch Kirill said last year that those who died fighting in Ukraine would be purged of their sins.

☆ Portugal moves closer to banning Chinese suppliers from 5G
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-26 | by ( Sergio Goncalves | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LISBON, May 26 (Reuters) - Portugal's cybersecurity council CSSC has issued a resolution that could formally bar telecom operators from using Chinese equipment in their high-speed 5G mobile networks as well 4G platforms on which the new technology is based. The CSSC is the prime minister's consultative body and its document, dated May 23, is another blow to efforts by Chinese technology giant Huawei (HWT.UL) to enter the 5G market in Portugal and possibly extend existing contracts. Portugal's existing 5G networks are not standalone and still largely based on 4G technology and equipment. Its opinion is based on an undisclosed report that evaluated the safety of equipment in public electronic communications networks involving 5G technology. Reporting by Sergio Goncalves Editing by Andrei Khalip and Mark PotterOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Russia's finances are 'in the shit,' says a former Russian economy minister
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-23 | by ( Huileng Tan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A former Russian economy minister warned of a looming financial crisis in Russia, per local outlet The Insider. "It's not that we're in the shit, it's that we've decided to settle down in it," Andrei Nechayev, a former economy minister said. "It's not that we're in the shit, it's that we've decided to settle down in it," Andrei Nechayev, Russia's former economy minister, said at a financial forum last week, according to a translation by The Insider, a Russian independent outlet. Nechayev, who was Russia's first economic minister from 1992 to 1993 after the fall of the Soviet Union, also warned of a looming economic crisis for the country. The former minister isn't the first high-profile voice to warn of Russia's technological decline following the sanctions.

LISBON, May 22 (Reuters) - Portuguese police will on Tuesday search a reservoir inland from where British three-year-old Madeleine McCann disappeared in 2007, authorities said, in the first formal development in the case in Portugal in several years. A fire brigade spokesperson said police were preparing to start searches on Tuesday at a dam in the southern region of Algarve about 50 km (31.07 miles) inland from a beach resort where Madeleine went missing from a rented apartment while on a family holiday. Police erected two tents beside the dam on Monday, Reuters TV footage showed. Brueckner, a convicted child abuser and drug dealer, is behind bars in Germany for raping a 72-year-old woman in the same area of the Algarve from where Madeleine went missing. German police said in June 2020 that Madeleine was assumed dead and that Brueckner was likely responsible for it.

☆ Ex-Wagner commander who sought asylum in Norway wants to return to Russia
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( Nerijus Adomaitis | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] Former Wagner commander Andrei Medvedev is pictured in court with his lawyer Brynjulf Risnes (not pictured), in Oslo, Norway April 25, 2023. REUTERS/Gwladys FoucheOSLO, May 17 (Reuters) - A former commander of Russia's Wagner group who sought asylum in Norway after crossing the Russian-Norwegian border in January said on Wednesday he wanted to return to Russia even though he believed this could pose a risk to his life. I've contacted the Russian embassy in Oslo for help, to facilitate my return," Medvedev said in one of five short videos, adding that he made this decision on his own. He escaped Russia via its Arctic border with Norway in January. He told Reuters at the time he was looking to the future, studying Norwegian and hoping to get asylum.

☆ Two killed in Spain blast in suspected gender-based violence incident
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Vincent West | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

[1/3] Police cordon off the area where a man and a woman died in a suspected bomb blast related to gender violence, according to the Basque regional security department, in Orio, northern Spain, May 16,... Read moreMADRID, May 16 (Reuters) - Two people - a man and woman - died in an explosion in the town of Orio in northern Spain, the Basque regional security department said on Tuesday, and media cited authorities as saying the incident was being investigated as likely gender-based violence. A Reuters witness said police had cordoned off an area around a sidewalk bench where the blast occurred, next to a children's playground. There were few signs of an explosion, with the bench, shrubs behind it and a bin nearby apparently undamaged. News agency EFE, quoting police sources, reported the preliminary investigation pointed toward a package held by one of the victims being the source of the explosion. Reporting by David Latona; Editing by Andrei KhalipOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

CNN —Russia’s air force may have just suffered one of its worst days since the Ukraine war began. Some analysts believe Ukrainian air defenses may have been pushed forward as the Russian air force uses more “glide munitions” that can fire at targets from distance. They are using these bombs “from a distance that is unreachable for Ukrainian air defense,” he said. Mykola Oleshchuk, the commander of the Ukrainian Air Force, has also suggested that the nature of the threat has changed. That may be as of much concern in Russia as the loss of four aircraft over Russian territory

☆ Severe drought spreads in Portugal, officials seek EU help
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Around 90% of mainland Portugal is suffering from drought, with severe drought alone affecting one-fifth of its territory, twice as much as in March and nearly five times the area reported a year earlier. Some parts are in an extreme drought situation, which did not exist at the same time in 2022. The northeast and southern regions were particularly badly hit, and the dry weather conditions were expected to continue. With temperatures above normal for this time of the year, the agency said April 2023 was the third-driest and fourth-warmest in the last 92 years in mainland Portugal. Neighbouring Spain has registered the driest start to a year since records started, its weather agency AEMET said on Wednesday, with less than half the average rainfall during the first four months of 2023.

☆ Spanish scientists seek to crack mystery of Canaries skeleton cave
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Borja Suarez | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Evidence at the Caleta de Arriba site points to a violent death centuries ago which could pre-date the 15th century Spanish conquest of the archipelago off northwest Africa. This is a funerary practice that denotes very strong symbolic violence," explained Veronica Alberto, head of the excavation. [1/6] Archaeologist Veronica Alberto from Tibicena, an archaeology company, works on the extraction of human remains, in Galdar, on the island of Gran Canaria, Spain March 9, 2023. Without objects to help establish the period, scientists are waiting for radiocarbon dating tests on the bones. All six had strong arms, suggesting they were involved in the same type of physical activity.

☆ Security worries overshadow Russia's Victory Day preparations
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-07 | by ( Gareth Jones | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

But several Russian regions have already scaled back events, citing concerns that they could be targeted by pro-Ukrainian saboteurs. The Soviet Union lost 27 million people in World War Two, more than any other country. Putin's office linked what it called the "terrorist" drone attack on the Kremlin in the early hours of May 3 to the Victory Day parade, which takes place below the walls of the ancient citadel. Kyiv has said it expects increased efforts by Russian forces to take the devastated eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut ahead of Moscow's Victory Day celebrations. In Soviet times, Victory Day commemorations were more low-key, with the emphasis on honouring veterans and their huge sacrifices, which are seared into older Russians' folk memory.

[1/4] A logo is on display in the office of Sberbank, Russia's state-owned dominant lender and one of the country's leading technology players, in Moscow, Russia, March 28, 2023. But it also highlights challenges as Russia's tech development becomes increasingly reliant on one state-owned player. Since 2020 it has cast itself as a technology company as well, and is now seeking a bigger slice of Russia's shrinking technology pie. "There are restrictions on some of them, it is a very complex technology," Belevtsev said. "There is already a lot of cooperation on engineers and technology," Belevtsev said.

☆ LaLiga loss shrinks as ticket revenues recover after pandemic
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LaLiga expects the current season to produce a net profit of just below 30 million euros, "still far from levels reached in the pre-COVID years", with revenues adding a little over 1%. COVID restrictions hit ticket sales and player transactions in 2020-21, leading to the Spanish league's first loss since 2012. Revenues reached almost 4.84 billion euros in 2021-22, landing just short of the record of nearly 5.07 billion in 2019-20. However, the amount of money spent on infrastructure jumped to 430 million euros, exceeding pre-pandemic levels. Last month, the club secured a financing deal worth 1.45 billion euros with 20 investors, including Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan, after having renegotiated the initial terms.

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