Discord malfunctions in the Russian Federation, Rostec returned almost a third of AvtoVAZ shares: the main thing on September 19

Russia

• Wildberries co-founder Vladislav Bakalchuk has been detained for 48 hours and charged with murder following a shooting near the market’s office in Moscow.

• Russians may soon be offered a procedure for a “comprehensive settlement” of credit debts. The draft law was prepared by the Bank of Russia.

• The court has postponed the bankruptcy hearing of the husband of the “marathon queen” Alexei Blinovsky until October 17. His whereabouts have not yet been established.

• The total volume of overdue debts of individuals has exceeded 3 trillion rubles. Every year, 4 million problematic debts are added in Russia, and the amount of this debt is also growing.

• Gazprom-Media Holding announced the closure of Comedy Club as of September 20. The project may be restarted.

• The income of bloggers registered as individual entrepreneurs in Russia has fallen by 57% since last August. The independent service Solar Staff conducted a study on this topic.

• The Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) has issued a warning to a major tobacco supplier, TK Megapolis. It is associated with imposing unfavourable conditions on counterparties; they have complained to the supervisory authority.

• According to the results of an inspection of the Teremok restaurant chain carried out in July and August, Rospotrebnadzor revealed large-scale violations. 66 complaints of administrative violations were issued.

• Roskachestvo has issued the first state certificates for vegetarian products in Russia. They were received by two manufacturers of plant products, the press service of the department reported.

• Prices in Russian brand stores will rise by 22% by the end of 2024.

  The experts came to these conclusions after interviewing representatives of 150 Russian brands and “analysing the state of the market.”

World

• France treats Pavel Durov as its own citizen and says that the billionaire has no interest in maintaining contacts with the Russian side, according to the Russian ambassador in Paris, Alexey Meshkov.

• Boeing plans to temporarily lay off tens of thousands of employees. The reason for this is that on September 13, approximately 30,000 people declared an indefinite strike. They did not accept the new employment contract.

• Starting in December, a procedure for photo and fingerprint identification of foreigners entering Russia will be launched at the Moscow air hub airports.

• The United States has imposed blocking sanctions against the South Ossetian Bank for International Settlements, Timer Bank, Stroytrade LLC and TsMRBank Vice President Dmitry Nikulin.
• European antitrust regulators have demanded that Apple open up access to its iOS operating system to competitors.

Business

• Aqua Holding plans to produce water with added juices and vitamins. Details on the scale of production and investment will appear closer to the summer of 2025.
• The state corporation Rostec has bought back 32.3% of AvtoVAZ shares through a buyback option. The decision to buy back a block of shares is due to a change in political and economic circumstances.
• AvtoVAZ President Maxim Sokolov spoke to RBC about competition with the Chinese auto industry, the cost of the new Lada Aura car, rising prices for branded cars, and more.
• Natura Siberica has launched a premium line of Shaman Secrets perfumes. The line will be sold exclusively at Letual, the company announced on its Telegram channel.
• Wildberries co-founder and CEO Tatyana Bakalchuk’s fortune fell from $7.9 billion to $4.1 billion after the marketplace merged with outdoor advertising operator Russ.
• Between January and September, the number of vacancies in the catering sector increased by 28%. Those most in short supply in the industry are cleaners, messengers, waiters, bartenders, managers and accountants.
• Banks have exhausted the limit for issuing mortgages to IT specialists by 96%: out of the total limit of 750 billion rubles, 30.3 billion remain.
• The FAS has approved the agreement with Sminex to buy 100% of the voting shares of the Ingrad Group. A source from RBC said that the value of the transaction could amount to about 40 billion rubles.
• The Moscow Stock Exchange has announced the start date of trading in shares of MCPJSC HeadHunter, which is completing the process of re-registration from Cyprus to Russia.
• Yandex has started the process of registering the Ultima trademark for its Yandex Market marketplace.

Transport

• The National Taxi Council (NTT) has appealed to the Ministry of Transport with a request to mitigate the penalty for the lack of a mandatory carrier liability insurance contract (OSGOP).

Services and technologies

• Discord messenger in Russia has been experiencing outages since September 18, 2024. The company has not yet commented on the service’s failure in the Russian Federation.
• Starting from October 7, PayPal will introduce a fee for servicing inactive accounts with a positive balance in Russia. Its size is 3.5 thousand rubles or the amount of the account balance if it is less than the established commission amount.
• Since the beginning of September, the number of fake sites selling iPhone 16 has increased almost 30-fold. The number of such resources reached 197 on September 19.
• OK’s web version is now available for blind users. It supports work with special screen access programs or screen readers, the social network’s press service reported.
• Experts do not rule out the possibility of unstable operation of the Android operating system (OS) in Russia due to the Roskomnadzor blockade. This is what RB.RU comments on the statements of State Duma deputy Anton Gorelkin, who expressed the idea that the stability of Android in the country could be at risk due to the degradation of Google servers. It is expected that the Russian ROSA Mobile and Aurora will replace the Western operating system.
  

• Rostec’s technology partner NtechLab plans to equip the standard on-board computers of Russian Atom electric vehicles with an AI-based facial recognition system.
  

• App in the Air, a service for airline travelers, has shut down. On Thursday, September 19, the app began disappearing from stores.

The experts came to these conclusions after interviewing representatives of 150 Russian brands and “analysing the state of the market.”