Film adaptation of Atomic Heart and Yandex’s plans to buy Take Charge: the main things to look forward to on September 20

Russia

• At the end of August, Russia imported passenger cars from China worth a record $1.6 billion. The Russian market share in Chinese supplies increased to 19.1%.

• Rospotrebnadzor has been given the right to conduct inspections without notifying the inspected persons when identifying risk indicators of violation of mandatory requirements for products subject to labeling.

• The head of the Central Bank of Russia, Elvira Nabiullina, has signed an order appointing Alexey Gangan as the new head of the monetary policy department of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation.

• VTB Bank has increased the down payment for a number of clients under the Family Mortgage program to 50.1%. Those who submitted their applications before September 20 will be “approved” under the old conditions until September 27 inclusive.

• There are much fewer regions where there are increased risks of fraud in compulsory motor liability insurance. If there were 10 last year, now there are only four left: the republics of Ingushetia and Dagestan, the Chechen Republic and the Novosibirsk region.

• RIA Novosti and TASS wrote about the search for the co-founder of the Wildberries marketplace Vladislav Bakalchuk. A TASS interlocutor reported that law enforcement agencies seized items of interest to the investigation.
• Two Russian cosmonauts have set a record for the longest stay on the ISS (International Space Station) in a single flight.

World

• Austrian company Raiffeisen Bank International has sold shares in the Belarusian bank Priorbank to an investor from the United Arab Emirates, the company SOVEN 1 Holding Limited.
• Nike will be led by former CEO Elliot Hill. Current chairman and CEO John Dohanue will step down in October.

• At the end of July, trade turnover between Russia and European countries exceeded €6 billion for the first time since November 2023. The peak value was recorded in January, when it amounted to €6.09 billion.

• Starting from December 15, Russian Railways will resume passenger transportation from Primorye to the People’s Republic of China and the DPRK after a four-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The train schedule for 2024-2025 is already being worked out.
• The share price of British footwear manufacturer Dr. Las Martens on the London Stock Exchange fell to £0.53, a record low.

Finance

• Nearly 40% of companies have decided to abandon salary indexation for IT specialists by 2024. Employers complain of “inadequate salary expectations” in some professions.

• Starting from November 1, banks in Russia will not be allowed to charge citizens commission for transfers to the state (C2G payments) via the Fast Payment System (FPS).

Business

• Markets have been asked not to set a limit of 15 thousand rubles for free installments. The threshold may reduce the desire to buy equipment, furniture and clothes.
• Three years later, Trust Bank has found a buyer for the Molodezhny department store. The owner of Zaimer MFO, Sergei Sedov, may become the new owner.
• Yandex is in talks to buy the Take Charge power bank rental service. The company’s business valuation varies, depending on the calculation method, from 1.7 to 3.3 billion rubles.

• The founder of the startup Beorg (Russian legal entity Biorg LLC), Georgy Zuev, increased his stake in the project from 20% to 90%. The deal was closed on September 10, RB.RU learned. The company explained that the consolidation is associated with a new strategy, which includes clauses on a strategic investor.

• Communications company Mikhailov and Partners, founded by Sergei Mikhailov, who headed the state news agency TASS for 10 years, has submitted an application to Rospatent to register the Russian-Chinese Agency for Strategic Communications.

• X5 Group, together with its partners, has launched a digital platform with information on available shifts in stores and distribution centres. Company employees can work part-time, choosing the conditions and hours that suit them.

• Russian organizations are increasingly facing cases of internal corporate fraud. 70% of the business representatives surveyed spoke of violations within the company.

• The FAS has approved RVB LLC’s application to acquire several companies of the Russ Group operating in the advertising market from Stinn LLC. According to the regulator, the deal will not entail a restriction of competition.
• The government is considering increasing the contribution to the federal budget from transactions related to the sale of assets in Russia by foreign companies. Currently, the contribution is 15% of the market price of the assets.
• The bill, which will introduce fines on turnover for companies for leaking personal data, is expected to be adopted by the end of the year. At the same time, the entry into force of the document may be delayed depending on the readiness of organizations for the regulation.
• Starting October 1, the Bank of Russia will open general access to the Know Your Client platform for verifying the integrity of a company.

Services and technologies

• Rosteleset has complained to the FAS about discrimination due to YouTube’s slowdown. Providers are losing subscribers because of this.
• The international logistics operator SDEK has transformed fulfilment into a pick-up point. These are now dark stores of between 3 and 30 square metres. counters at the order pick-up points.
• Yandex Browser has added a text editor running on the YandexGPT neural network, a neural translator, and a tool for briefly retelling texts. The innovations make it possible to solve content-related problems without using other services and applications, Yandex reported.
• Over the past two years, companies’ interest in artificial intelligence has increased sevenfold. This is the conclusion of a study conducted by SEO analysts at Tochka Bank, which RB.RU has access to.
• Prosthetics manufacturer Motorika has unveiled its first prosthetic legs, an updated line of prosthetic arms, neural interfaces and an AI control system.
• Since late July, when access problems began in Russia, YouTube traffic in the country has halved. Users have turned to Russian content platforms.

Media

• Yandex’s production center, Plus Studio, has started working on a film adaptation of the video game Atomic Heart. Filming is scheduled for 2025.