Microsoft conference, Russian piracy decline and Valve standstill: the main things for companies on August 24

in the world

• The US Treasury has threatened all countries around the world with sanctions for opening branches of Russian banks. This is another step to combat circumvention of restrictions.

• Turkish authorities have warned of possible restrictions on TikTok and other foreign social media in the country if the country’s laws are violated. As stated by the local Ministry of Justice, the issue of blocking social media “is now on the agenda worldwide.”

• China increased copper imports from Russia by 4.2 times in July to $334 million. This is the highest monthly volume of supplies since November 2023.

• Georgian banks experienced problems with transfers via Golden Crown after a new package of sanctions, which included the Center for Financial Technologies. The technical problems were officially reported by the Bank of Georgia and unofficially by TBC.

In Russia

• Russia plans to increase trade turnover with Afghanistan to $10 billion by 2030 through imports of agricultural products. The countries are exploring new logistics routes to reduce supply costs.

• Ahead of the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF), the average cost of a night in a hotel in Vladivostok has increased by 10-29%. The forum will be held from 3 to 6 September.
• Sugar production in Russia may fall to 6.1 million tonnes after the sugar beet harvest. This is almost 10% less than in the previous season.
• The share of “pirates” among gamers in April-June 2024 decreased to 38% compared to 74% in January-March. The volume of downloads and the real cost of pirated copies have also decreased.

• 43% of companies build a talent pool based on employee recommendations. Another 35% are from those who have previously interviewed at the company.

• The Russian Interior Ministry has included the director general of Transparency Russia (recognized as a foreign agent in Russia) Ilya Shumanov (recognized as a foreign agent in Russia) on the wanted list. This follows from the database on the ministry’s website.

in business

• Nike and Lego have signed a long-term agreement and plan to launch joint products. The companies are also planning an updated promotion strategy based on new content.

• Microsoft is holding a security summit on September 10 in response to the global outage of CrowdStrike and an attempt to find cybersecurity solutions for the future.

• MStroy received a grant of 117 million rubles from Skolkovo within the framework of the national project “Digital Economy of the Russian Federation”. In total, the project is estimated at 237 million rubles.

• The court has extended the arrest of WorldSkills Russia CEO Robert Urazov (the company organised “professional skills competitions”) and the chief of staff of the organisation’s CEO Danir Mukhametzyanov, without specifying the term. The businessmen are accused of fraud by falsifying fixed-term contracts in order to enrich themselves.
• Valve has officially announced Deadlock, but as quietly as possible. The game now has a page on Steam, which states that it is “in the early stages of development.”