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☆ Rich Russians can't easily travel overseas after Putin's invasion, so they're going on cruises at home instead
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-08 | by ( Stephanie Stacey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Russia's cruise industry enjoyed "serious growth" in 2022, a lawmaker told the news agency TASS. Many Russians went on cruises for the first time because they couldn't travel overseas. Konstantin Puchkov of the online travel marketplace Cruise House told Insider that river cruises had been particularly popular. The added burdens of international travel mean that Russia's domestic cruises are now attracting wealthier customers — including those who've previously vacationed overseas. Russian tourists can still technically enter Europe through third countries, such as Turkey, but that makes journeys more expensive and time-consuming.

☆ Blockdaemon CEO discusses blockchain adoption following the fall of FTX and what 2023 holds for crypto
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-02 | by ( Mai Tejapaibul | Talia Kaplan | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailBlockdaemon CEO discusses blockchain adoption following the fall of FTX and what 2023 holds for cryptoCNBC Crypto World features the latest news and daily trading updates from the digital currency markets and provides viewers with a look at what's ahead with high-profile interviews, explainers, and unique stories from the ever-changing crypto industry. On today's show, Konstantin Richter, the founder and CEO of Blockdaemon, breaks down whether crypto's adoption rate will slow down following the collapse of FTX.

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailSolana soars, and Bahamian regulator says it seized $3.5 billion of FTX assets: CNBC Crypto WorldCNBC Crypto World features the latest news and daily trading updates from the digital currency markets and provides viewers with a look at what's ahead with high-profile interviews, explainers, and unique stories from the ever-changing crypto industry. On today's show, Konstantin Richter, the founder and CEO of Blockdaemon, breaks down whether crypto's adoption rate will slow down following the collapse of FTX.

☆ Ukraine announces arrest of oligarch in upscale French ski resort after accusing him of financial crimes
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-28 | by ( Sinéad Baker | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

A Ukrainian oligarch was arrested in a French ski resort, Ukrainian law enforcement said Wednesday. French law enforcement detained Konstantin Zhevago in a hotel in the famed alpine ski resort of Courchevel on Tuesday, the agency said in a statement. An DBR spokesperson said French police made the arrest after Ukraine asked for it, Interfax reported. Zhevago is a former Ukrainian MP and used to have a major stake in the liquidated Finance & Credit Bank in Ukraine. The agency said that a vast swathe of Zhevago's assets had been seized, including shares worth of millions of dollars and dozens of properties.

Crude oil exports will be banned from Feb. 1, but the date for the oil products ban will be determined by the Russian government and could be after Feb. 1. The G7 price cap allows non-EU countries to continue importing seaborne Russian crude oil, but it will prohibit shipping, insurance and re-insurance companies from handling cargoes of Russian crude around the globe, unless it is being sold for less than the price cap. EU countries have separately implemented an embargo that prohibits them from purchasing seaborne Russian oil. Russian Urals oil traded above $56 per barrel on Tuesday, below the price cap level. Brent crude oil moved a little higher on the news and was up 1.4% at $85.1 by 1743 GMT.

☆ Russian ambassador to Washington says U.S.-Russia relations in 'ice age'
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-23 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Summary This content was produced in Russia where the law restricts coverage of Russian military operations in Ukraine. MOSCOW, Dec 23 (Reuters) - Russia's ambassador to the United States on Friday compared the state of U.S.-Russia relations to an "ice age", and said that the risk of a clash between the two countries was "high", Russian state-owned news agency TASS reported. TASS cited Anatoly Antonov as saying that it was hard to say when talks on strategic dialogue between the two sides could resume, but that talks on prisoner swaps had been "effective" and would continue. U.S.-Russia ties have fallen to their lowest point in decades amid the fallout from Russia's military campaign in Ukraine, and the consequent imposition of Western sanctions. Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Jon BoyleOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Russian oligarchs believe Putin tricked them into appearing to support the war in Ukraine, and got them all sanctioned, report says
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-18 | by ( Katie Balevic | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Russian oligarchs say Putin tricked them into supporting his war in Ukraine, per The New York Times. When Putin announced the invasion, they were gathered before cameras "to tar everyone there," The Times reported. "Russian businesspeople, Russian officials, the Russian people — they saw a czar in him. He joined rows of other business moguls who were equally surprised by Putin's invasion. In the weeks and months that followed, Russian oligarchs had their assets frozen and were banned from traveling to some countries as the Ruble fell into freefall.

Since the early days of the invasion, Mr. Putin has conceded, privately, that the war has not gone as planned. “I think he is sincerely willing” to compromise with Russia, Mr. Putin said of Mr. Zelensky in 2019. To join in Mr. Putin’s war, he has recruited prisoners, trashed the Russian military and competed with it for weapons. To join in Mr. Putin’s war, he has recruited prisoners, trashed the Russian military and competed with it for weapons. “I think this war is Putin’s grave.” Yevgeny Nuzhin, 55, a Russian prisoner of war held by Ukraine, in October.

☆ Germany ups reliance on Huawei for 5G despite security fears -survey
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-16 | by ( Sarah Marsh | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Many European countries have banned Chinese companies from all or part of their 5G networks on security grounds, amid intense diplomatic pressure from the United States. Germany, home to operators like Deutsche Telekom (DTEGn.DE) and O2 (O2Dn.DE), passed an IT security law two years ago setting high hurdles for makers of telecommunications equipment for the "critical components" of 5G networks. The German network agency referred Reuters to regulation that shows differentiated treatment for core and RAN components. The information security office did not reply to a request for comment on whether the high share of Chinese components could pose a security threat. A strategy paper by Germany's Greens-run economy ministry has recommended increased scrutiny of components from authoritarian states in critical infrastructure.

☆ Despite GOP criticism of the prisoner swap that freed Brittney Griner, Fiona Hill said Trump was 'not particularly interested' in freeing Paul Whelan
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-11 | by ( Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Critics, including Trump, asked why Brittney Griner was freed while Paul Whelan remains jailed. Hill said Trump wasn't "particularly interested in Paul [Whelan]'s case" while in office. "If I made that deal the Dems would chant, RUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA!" "I also have to say here that President Trump wasn't especially interested in engaging in that swap for Paul Whelan," Hill said. However, she added, Whelan, Griner, and Reed were all caught up in what she called "political games" while doing things that "seemed completely ordinary."

This week she was arrested in a raid as part of a group suspected of plotting to violently overthrow the German government. Prosecutors have said the 58-year-old, a member of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, was to become justice minister in a new state headed by aristocrat Heinrich XIII Prinz Reuss after the coup. The AfD said in a statement on Wednesday that it condemned the efforts of the suspected plotters. The inscription 'To the German people' is written above the entrance to the Reichstag building, the seat of Germany's lower house of parliament Bundestag, in Berlin, Germany December 9, 2022. Nationwide it is polling at 14%, making it the most successful far-right party in Germany since World War Two.

☆ Griner lands in U.S. as Russia's Bout greets family in Moscow
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

WASHINGTON, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Basketball star Brittney Griner landed in the United States on Friday after 10 months in Russian detention that ended with a prisoner swap with arms dealer Viktor Bout who flew home hours earlier to embrace his family on the airport tarmac in Moscow. The two countries had swapped prisoners in April when Russia released former U.S. Marine Trevor Reed and the United States released Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko. Griner, 32, a two-time Olympic gold medalist and star of the Women's National Basketball Association's Phoenix Mercury, flew in to San Antonio, Texas. She had been arrested on Feb. 17 at a Moscow airport after vape cartridges containing cannabis oil, which is banned in Russia, were found in her luggage. As Griner flew back home, Bout arrived in Moscow and hugged his mother and wife after stepping onto the tarmac, television images showed.

☆ Brittney Griner arrives in the U.S. after prisoner exchange with Russia
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Dec 9 (Reuters) - A plane carrying basketball star Brittney Griner landed in the United States early on Friday, nearly 10 months after she was detained in Russia. Griner was released in a prisoner swap with Russia in exchange for arms dealer Viktor Bout and was heading home on Thursday, ending what President Joe Biden called months of "hell" for her and her wife. [1/3] The plane carrying U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner arrives, following her release from prison in Russia, in San Antonio, Texas, U.S., December 9, 2022. The swap was a rare instance of cooperation between the United States and Russia since the invasion of Ukraine. The two countries also swapped prisoners in April when Russia released former U.S. Marine Trevor Reed and the United States released Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko.

☆ Brittney Griner prisoner swap a rare diplomatic success between U.S. and Russia
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( Chantal Da Silva | Chantal Da Silva Is A Breaking News Editor For Nbc News Digital Based In London. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

The exchange of WNBA star Brittney Griner and arms dealer Viktor Bout was a rare moment of successful diplomacy between Moscow and Washington as relations between the two countries deteriorate over the war in Ukraine. For many, the trade will evoke memories of Soviet-era spy swaps — a more positive reminder of that era than the nuclear standoff that President Joe Biden recently said left the world facing its most dangerous moment since the Cuban Missile Crisis. President Biden speaks with with Brittney Griner on the phone, accompanied by Cherelle Griner at the Oval Office on Thursday. One of the most well known Cold War swaps involved American pilot Francis Gary Powers, whose U-2 spy plane was shot down in 1960 over the Soviet Union. Powers was traded two years later for Soviet spy Rudolf Abel, in an exchange on a fog-shrouded bridge between West Berlin and East Germany.

☆ WNBA star Brittney Griner released from Russian custody in a high-profile prisoner swap between the U.S. and Moscow
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms | Andrea Mitchell | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +6 min

WASHINGTON — WNBA star Brittney Griner is free Thursday after the Biden administration negotiated her release from a Russian penal colony in exchange for an arms dealer, according to a senior administration official. People familiar with the negotiations for his release say the Russians refused to release Whelan without getting a Russian spy in return. The entrance to the Russian penal colony IK-2 on Nov. 19, 2022, where Griner began serving her sentence. The Biden administration has faced tremendous pressure to help bring home the 6-foot-9 Houston native. Alexander Zemlianichenko / AP fileGriner’s release is the second publicly known U.S. prisoner swap with Russia since the war in Ukraine started.

☆ Biden administration brings WNBA star Brittany Griner home for the holidays after 10 months in Russian custody
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( Emma Kinery | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

The Biden administration is bringing WNBA star Brittney Griner, who has been detained in Russia for 10 months, home for the holidays after months of negotiation. "She is safe, she is on a plane, she is on her way home," U.S. President Joe Biden announced Thursday. Cherelle Griner was present and able to speak with Brittney when Biden made the call from the Oval Office. Notably absent from the swap was another American detained in Russia, Paul Whelan, who has been in Russian custody since 2018. "We've not forgotten about Paul Whelan," Biden said.

☆ As Ukrainian forces recaptured a key town, another elite Russian unit appears to have gone through 'the meat grinder'
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( Stavros Atlamazoglou | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Russian troops in Lyman and those who retreated took heavy losses, including an elite GRU unit. In just a few days, Ukrainian forces liberated hundreds of square miles of territory and scores of villages. Its cadre of Spetsnaz commandos is among the best in the Russian military. Competent special operators require years of basic and advanced military training, as well as training tailored to their mission sets. The Russian military as a whole is taking a battering in Ukraine, though casualty estimates vary widely.

☆ Who is Viktor Bout, the arms dealer who could be swapped for Griner?
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-18 | by ( Felix Light | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +8 min

Russia wants the jailed arms dealer back in Moscow and is discussing a prisoner swap with the United States that could see him exchanged for Americans imprisoned in Russia including basketball star Brittney Griner. Reed was ultimately freed in return for Konstantin Yaroshenko, a Russian pilot jailed in the United States on drug trafficking charges. For some experts, the Russian state's continued interest in Bout, plus his skills and connections in the international arms trade, hint strongly at Russian intelligence ties. In interviews, Bout has said he attended Moscow's Military Institute of Foreign Languages, which serves as a training ground for military intelligence officers. “His case has become totemic for the Russian intelligence services, who are keen to show that they don’t abandon their own people,” Galeotti added.

☆ In Russia, some hope U.S. midterms will mean less Ukraine aid and more chaos
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-08 | by ( Andrew Osborn | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

But for now, few in Moscow expect the bipartisan U.S. political consensus on Ukraine to crack, whatever the result of Tuesday's midterm elections. Nor do they expect Washington's support for Kyiv to dip significantly anytime soon. "However, the Biden administration will find it more difficult to push financial aid programmes to Kyiv through Congress, and the position of U.S. critics of unlimited aid to Ukraine will markedly strengthen." "Even if it survives as a single state, the United States will change dramatically and its global position will weaken under any circumstances," Akopov opined. "Without a strong and united (United) States the West will not be able to maintain control over western Russian lands for long."

Russian officials on Monday denied allegations that an elite marine unit had suffered catastrophic losses during an “incomprehensible” assault in eastern Ukraine. Officials responded to what pro-Russian military bloggers and Telegram channels said was an unsigned open letter from members of the 155th marine brigade of Russia’s Pacific Fleet. The letter alleged that the unit was ordered to take Pavlovka, but instead, half the unit’s equipment was destroyed over four days. Chief of the General Staff Gen. Valery Gerasimov and Lt. Gen. Rustam Muradov, commander of Russia’s eastern military district, were guilty of “hiding” the true number of losses, it added. Who is now destroying our people on the routes of evacuation of the wounded and the supply of ammunition,” the letter said.

To see how much jobs in the creator economy pay, Insider analyzed salary data from 142 work-visa applications filed with the US government and decided on between October 2020 and June 2022. The pay data includes salaries ranging from a data scientist position that offers $170,000 per year at Discord to a staff engineer role that earns $250,000 or more at Patreon. At Cameo, a principal software engineer would make $230,000Steven Galanis, CEO of Cameo. Senior Manager, DevOps : $140,000: $140,000 Statistician: $116,979 to $170,000 (Spotter said it internally calls this position "Data Analyst.") At Teachable, a senior software engineer would make $150,000Teachable is a platform where creators can build and sell online courses and coaching programs.

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☆ KFC is about to disappear in Russia as its new owners rebrand all 1,000 stores as 'Rostic's', report says
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-30 | by ( Jyoti Mann | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Brands said it had reached a deal to sell its 1,000 KFC stores in Russia. All KFC stores in Russia will be rebranded as fast-food chain "Rostic's", The Moscow Times reported. According to Russian business newspaper Kommerstant, Smart Service will be responsible for rebranding all 1,000 stores as Rostic's. Last month Yum Restaurants Russia LLC registered rights to the Rostic's brand, Kommerstant reported, and the KFC stores will begin rebranding in early 2023. It rivaled American fast-food stores until 2006, per the report.

☆ Russia's anti-satellite threat tests laws of war in space
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-28 | by ( Joey Roulette | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Such an act during the war in Ukraine could sharply escalate tensions between Russia and the United States. And tens of thousands of communications devices in Ukraine rely on U.S. satellite communications giant Iridium's (IRDM.O) satellite network. "If somebody starts shooting satellites in space, I'd imagine it would quickly make space unusable," Desch said. COMPLICATED CALCULUSWhether a Russian anti-satellite strike would violate the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, such as its prohibition on placing weapons of mass destruction in space, is debatable, lawyers say. SpaceX's Starlink network consists of roughly 3,000 satellites, and there are several dozen commercial U.S. imagery satellites eyeing Russia and Ukraine.

☆ ECB hike: I don't see a 'radical, dovish shift,' says portfolio manager
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-28 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailECB hike: I don't see a 'radical, dovish shift,' says portfolio managerKonstantin Veit, executive vice president and portfolio manager at Pimco, discusses inflation in Europe and the future of interest rate hikes.

☆ Russia Warns of Possible Attacks on Satellites Used to Help Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-27 | by ( Ian Lovett | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Russia said it could target commercial satellites if they are used to help Ukraine, the latest in a string of threats aimed at curtailing the military aid sent by the U.S. and other countries, while both NATO and the Kremlin conducted nuclear drills. Konstantin Vorontsov, an official in Moscow’s foreign ministry, told Russian state news agency TASS that if Western satellites are used to aid Kyiv, then they “may be a legitimate target for a retaliation strike.”

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