The slowdown in Russian household income growth is becoming a persistent trend, raising the prospect that real incomes may begin falling for the overwhelming majority of citizens.
Finance Minister Anton Siluanov has said the combined deficit of Russia’s regional budgets has already reached 1.5 trillion rubles and could widen to 1.9 trillion rubles by the end of the year.
Bloomberg notes that Russian air defenses usually intercept drones on the approaches to the capital or in the suburbs, making the hit on a building in an upscale district not only a military episode but also a symbolically sensitive event.
The UAE’s decision to leave OPEC is more than a technical dispute over production quotas. It is another sign that the old petrodollar order is fading — though not yet proof that a petroyuan era has arrived.
One might have thought that Zhirinovsky’s death would also erase the very logic of the LDPR’s existence — a party built around a single person. But in a system where symbols often matter more than institutions, death is not the end of a political career. It is its next phase.
According to Bloomberg, all nine economists surveyed expect the Bank of Russia to lower its key rate to 14.5% at Friday’s meeting.
Despite recent volatility, the bank believes the long-term outlook for the precious metal remains strong.
Thus, the Supreme Court’s ruling is most likely not the end of the story, but the beginning of a long battle over the limits of presidential power in the economy.
Researchers from HSE University, together with EISI, a think tank close to the Kremlin’s domestic policy bloc, have published a report arguing that issues of national security and identity are moving to the forefront of the electoral agenda, alongside a demand for “normality” and concerns over the cost-of-living crisis.
