Russian car manufacturers are subject to American sanctions, the new Megafon service: the main thing on September 15

World

• Finland, following the Baltic countries, is going to ban the entry of Russian cars. The media report that the Finnish authorities will announce such a decision in the near future. However, it is clarified that exceptions may be made to the new rules.

• Google will pay $93 million in the case of surveillance of user movements, the company reached an agreement with the obligation to pay. US prosecutors insist that the company continues to collect information about users’ movements without their knowledge, even after turning off such functionality in the settings. Google did not admit guilt.

Finance

• The Central Bank of the Russian Federation raised the interest rate to 13%. The regulator points out that inflationary pressure in the Russian economy remains high and that “important pro-inflationary risks” have also materialized: growth in domestic demand, which exceeds the possibility of expanding production, and the weakening of the ruble in the months of summer.

Business

• The turnover of wild berries from sales of goods and services (GMV) in the first half of 2023 increased by 94% year-on-year and reached 1,221 billion rubles. The most dynamic sales were those of auto parts and game consoles.
• The director of the VTB bank, Andrei Kostin, believes that at the moment there are no signs of an imminent global economic crisis, but urged “always wait.”
• Google has announced large-scale layoffs in its hiring departments. Several hundred human resources specialists will lose their jobs: they will be laid off as part of the company’s cost reduction program.
• Over the past month, the average visit to Moscow fashion retail stores increased by 10% and attendance by 3% year-on-year. The dynamic is mainly due to the increase in prices.

• Those responsible for the Wildberries collection point began to evaluate the quality of the transporters’ work. Employees at delivery points may write comments if, upon receiving the goods, they discover damage to the box and packaging or other violations. In the future, the market will reward partners with the highest ratings.

• Timati and Pinsky will invest 400 million rubles in the development of Domino Pizza; Part of these funds have already been spent on the purchase of 68 establishments from former franchisees. The remaining money will be used to develop “bolder and more creative marketing solutions” and launch a mobile app.

Services and technologies

• Yandex.Browser was taught how to create subtitles for Russian videos and broadcasts using a built-in neural network. Typically, you can enable subtitles in a website’s video player only if the owner of the web resource or the author of the video has provided this option. Yandex.Browser removes this restriction. Subtitle generation works in Yandex.Browser for Windows and Linux. They promise to introduce the new feature to macOS at the end of September.

• Megafon has launched a new service: its users will be able to link a smartphone and a smartwatch with an eSIM using a single number.
• The state is introducing new cybersecurity rules for hosting providers. They will have to connect to the FSB’s GosSOPKA system to counter cyber attacks, independently block the resources through which cyber attacks are carried out and transmit data about malicious traffic to the system, Kommersant writes.
• The capacity of Russian data centers grew by more than 20% in 2023, reaching 70.3 thousand rack spaces, Vedomosti learned.

Transport

• Russian automakers AvtoVAZ, Sollers and Moskvich were added to the US sanctions list on September 14.