Inflation and consumer prices are rising in Russia, Western companies that have officially left the domestic market continue to supply through subsidiaries, the head of VTB gives an interview about unfair sanctions and attitudes towards the idea of buying Yandex, and RB continues following key events in the business world.
- In May, annual inflation in Russia accelerated to 2.51% (from 2.31% in April), in monthly terms consumer prices increased by 0.31%.
- VTB is not actively negotiating the purchase of a stake in Yandex. Andrey Kostin, director of the bank: “I’m not sure that we will go to Yandex. We have 1.1% of everything there is now. It was a portfolio investment. We never had a desire to run Yandex.
- Also in an interview with Reuters, Kostin called the sanctions against VTB unfair, as the bank never broke the rules and did not keep the “money from the drug cartel.”
- Avito Services: Demand for furniture production grew by an average of 78% over the year, especially in Moscow (+139%), Volgograd (+126%), Yaroslavl (+115%) and St. Petersburg (+86%) . ).
- The average bill for water heaters in the Russian Federation in May 2023 decreased by 9% to 8970 rubles compared to May last year (“Verification Index”).
- Despite announcements to leave the Russian Federation, Acer, through its Swiss subsidiary, shipped “at least” 744 batches of products worth $70 million to Russia (Reuters).
- Turkish Denizbank began returning money to Russian clients’ accounts after cancellations due to a technical error (RIA Novosti).
- The ChatGPT neural network could not write the plot of the new chapter of the series “Black Mirror” following the instructions of the director Charlie Brooker, because it only issued a compilation and did not give “not a single original idea” (Empire).
- 64% of Russians are willing to work six days a week for a salary increase (“Avito Rabota” survey).
- The court closed for 90 days the delivery of “Yobidoyobi” in Yekaterinburg due to “numerous violations of sanitary and epidemiological legislation”, which led to the poisoning of 32 people.
- The CEO of Spotify has introduced a new feature called Your Offline Mix.
- Chevron will invest $500 million to develop the Vaca Muerta shale field in Argentina.
- Toyota has presented a prototype car powered by hydrogen and AvtoVAZ intends to launch the new Lada Granta in the summer of 2024.
Author:
Ekaterina Alipova
Source: RB
I am a professional journalist and content creator with extensive experience writing for news websites. I currently work as an author at Gadget Onus, where I specialize in covering hot news topics. My written pieces have been published on some of the biggest media outlets around the world, including The Guardian and BBC News.
