Reverse Relocation Program, Peace in Thailand: Essential for Business November 2

Russia

• The Ministry of Digital Development plans to develop a “reverse relocation” program for IT workers who left Russia and “in practice to show that they can safely continue to work here,” said Maksud Shadayev, head of the department.

Business

• German liquor maker Jägermeister has suspended deliveries to Russia. The Federation of Restaurateurs and Hoteliers of the Russian Federation believes that the import of products will resume, they will be served by the old suppliers who will no longer work as official distributors.

• The American company Gap will close all stores in the Russian Federation and will leave the Russian market without selling the business. Experts say the retailer ran into trouble even before February 2022 and the brand itself was not popular with Russian shoppers.

• Veon announced a competitive sale process for its Russian asset Vimpelcom (Beeline brand). The company is now exploring options to achieve the best possible outcome for all stakeholders.

• Wildberries will spend 13.7 billion rubles to support small and medium-sized businesses during the Single’s Day sale. This is a record amount of investment in the company’s history. The site will also reduce its own commission by 15%, its minimum amount will be 3%.

• In Russia, the production and sales of fortified wines increased sharply in 2022, with domestic ports becoming the engine of growth. Since January, winemakers have produced around 2 million liters of Port wine, for comparison: for the whole of last year they produced 1.9 million liters of fortified wines.
• In Russia, the production of umbrellas and infant formula increased 200-fold in the context of sanctions and import substitution.
• Russians have become much more likely to buy auto parts on the markets in 2022. In Wildberries, the sale of such products increased almost three times, in Ozon – twice, in Avito – by 30%.
• In the first half of 2022, footwear production in Russia increased by 7.3% compared to the same period last year. The country today produces nearly 2,000 own brands of clothing, footwear and accessories, hosiery

Finance

• Transfers from Russia to the CIS states and Georgia increased sharply against the background of a partial mobilization. In September, Kazakhstan became the absolute leader in growth: transfers from the Russian Federation to this country multiplied by more than ten in the year.
• In Thailand, the Russian payment system “Mir” may start operating in the near future. This was announced by the Thai ambassador to Russia, Sasivat Wongsinsawat. According to him, the parties are conducting a dialogue on the implementation of this project.
• The Russian authorities proposed to couple the Russian analogue of SWIFT, the Central Bank’s Financial Message Transfer System, with national platforms for payments in “friendly” countries. In a first stage, it will be launched with contractors in one of the countries.

Technology

• The Ministry of Economic Development will simplify the mechanism to establish an experimental legal regime (EPR), which allows companies to circumvent general regulation rules to test innovative technologies. The agency intends to reduce the deadlines for submitting documents, soften the requirements, and also provide protection for ongoing experiments.

• For Roskomnadzor, NRU ITMO is developing a technology to detect lies and search for deep fakes from video recordings. The service is called Expert, it works on the basis of artificial intelligence. With his help, the agency plans to review the video recordings of the speeches for lies and manipulation.

Services and media

• OneTwoTrip has warned customers about increased processing times for refund requests for tickets purchased through its website. According to representatives of the service, the wait can take several months, the reason is “difficult geopolitical situation.”

• Roskomnadzor demanded that the Scratch programming service change the registration system for Russian users, leaving only two gender options: male and female. The agency notes that the current set of options “does not correspond to traditional Russian values.”

• Elon Musk said that verification on the social network Twitter will cost 8 dollars, despite objections from users. According to him, the option he proposed will “destroy bots”, halve the number of ads on the platform, and also allow verified users to post long videos and audio recordings and ensure account priority in search results. or when displaying replies to posts.